(10 Feb 2023, 1:21 pm)BusLoverMum wrote A lot of those contracts are taxis that already do a convoluted route, often with kids who need to travel a fair distance for a suitable education and are already pushed to their limits in terms of being in a full taxi for longer than they're comfortable with.

The special school around the corner from us had no available places in its specialist provision at both the time of Youngest starting secondary school and 6th form, so he travels at least 25 minutes each way (not that we're sore about it as the provision there is simply better for him all round, both in terms of personnel and physical environment). He is severely autistic rather than quirky autistic and sharing a taxi went disastrously wrong for him and his reaction was distressing for the other passengers so he travels solo.

I'm sure a lot of other individual contracts involve high needs or children in unique circumstances such as needing to travel between establishments, a shortened school day, needing to carry a huge amount of medical equipment and so on.

It's actually a bit worrying how the Council report is laid out when referring to special educational needs. They're committing to reviewing individual needs, but for me it reads that they're being reviewed to see that H2S transport is actually required. Page 17: https://democracy.durham.gov.uk/document...tation.pdf