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DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
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Thursday 1 May 2014

TREATING VULNERABLE CHILDREN WORSE THAN CATTLE




Dear Mr. Christie

I note your undertaking to provide councillors with a report on the SEND Passenger Transport Contract fiasco early next week.

However, I agree with my colleague Cllr. Atkinson that two weeks after the start of this contract, given the litany of concerns already submitted, is a rather languid timescale in which to provide scrutiny councillors with a report on all the problems, let alone to begin to resolve them.

We are not dealing here just with a group of vulnerable people but with themost vulnerable group of people in the whole Tri-borough area. Children with learning disabilities and learning difficulties cannot advocate for themselves, they need parents, carers and other supporters to protect their interests and act on their behalf to ensure that they are treated humanely.

Some of the incidents I have been hearing make my blood run cold. Some of the treatment these children have received is cruel beyond belief, bordering on torture. For example, at the extreme, children having to spend up to four hours on one bus journey.

I am setting out below the updates I have received about what has happened this week, the first full week of the operation of the new contract. These updates are anonymous because, whereas some parents feel able to be forthright with their complaints, others are worried that their children will be victimised if they name them and go public with their concerns. This is a very sad situation indeed.

Here are the incidents that have been reported to me this week:

  • Children told to be ready at 8.30 am eventually being collected at 12.30 pm
  • An ill-tempered driver who was upsetting all the children on his bus
  • The use of very old and unsuitable buses
  • One escort for six or more children
  • Parental calls to HATS to enquire who will be collecting their child and when being told that HATS did not know the arrangements
  • A HATS manager who refused to speak to parents because “he did not need to”
  • Escorts asked whether they can cope with children who may have a seizure revealing that they have not been trained to deal with such an eventuality
  • Parents not being informed of the name of the driver or the escorts, despite telephoning to request this information
  • Telephone calls to bus companies where promises to return calls are made but not honoured
  • Children not being brought home until after 4 pm when their school finished at 2 pm
  • Children being delivered very late to school and becoming very agitated as a consequence
  • A significant number of children kept on the buses for over two hours and in some cases for over four hours
  • Buses that are too large with too many children and too few escorts on board
  • Children ready and waiting over 3 hours before being picked up, with no explanation for the late arrival of the transport
  • Parents giving up on the transport and taking their children to school themselves
  • HATS confirming to officers at the Town Hall that they will call parents back and then not doing so
  • A number of children not being taken to their after school club at St. Quintin
  • Parents attempting to call HATS on the telephone number provided by the Town Hall but no one replying
  • Parents going in person to the Town Hall reception and being told by staff that no one there knew about special needs transport, who was in charge, nor how anyone could be contacted
  • St. Quintin effectively empty because so few children arrived there for the after school club
  • Parents being rung by St. Quintin to ask where their children were, when the parents thought they were at St. Quintin - a particularly distressing matter as no one then knows where their child is, nor whether they are safe or not
  • A conversation with escort who appeared to be in a  supervisory role to find out the pickup time for the following day, being told the parent would be contacted by telephone, but no telephone call forthcoming
  • Children left in the street in tears when the bus did not arrive at the expected time
  • Some children being taken home to the wrong addresses
  • The bus drivers are apparently paid for four hour sessions, but if they are delayed, there is no overtime - as a result they hurry the children and cause further distress
  • Children being taken on different routes and causing them additional distress as they do not understand what is going on
  • Are the drivers and escorts being paid the London Living Wage, the National Minimum, Wage … or less?
  • One of the companies, Star Buses, offered training by one of the schools but refused it
  • Westminster has cancelled all taxis with all children now being forced to use buses whether this is appropriate or not - is this the case in the other two boroughs as well?
  • All the experienced drivers and most of the experienced escorts have now left – leaving drivers and escorts who have clearly not been properly trained
  • New drivers not knowing the routes they are supposed to use.

Clearly not all of these are the “teething problems” of a new contract, but matters that demonstrate a disastrous transfer of responsibilities, with all three boroughs clearly culpable for failing to provide proper information, training, supervision and assistance to the new passenger transport providers.

Please do not duck your responsibility and that of the Tri-borough Cabinet Members when addressing these problems. And please provide scrutiny councillors with a clear action plan for dealing with all of them as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely

Cllr. Judith Blakeman

17 comments:

  1. All sounds a little out of balance to me. Nanny state. Why are parents and families not taking more responsibility for their children? Why this mass dumping on the state?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are the unbalanced one.

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    2. No, he/she is not....just plain callously stupid

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    3. Running a good service is one thing. Taking family responsibilities into the State is quite another. This is a nightmare of socialism. The State should keep out of these things in a 21st Century economy. Parents need to shoulder their responsibilities

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    4. It is clear from these comments there is still blatant ignorance and prejudice regarding disabled children adults and their parents. When these people need a wheelchair or someone to care for them I sincerely hope they remember what they said here.

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    5. I think 19:30 needs to make allowances for the fact that the poor old Dame has to put up with idiots like 18:23 & 19:18. These two could never put themselves in the position of being parents of vulnerable children.
      The lives of such parents are an unrelenting daily challenge of coping.
      Often parents have demanding jobs so this little bit of help is absolutely essential. 18:23 and 19:18....reflect, before writing nonsense

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    6. Dame you are as ever right. But the day will come when these people will be as vulnerable as the children being piled onto buses and treated so appallingly. You have endless patience with these time wasters.

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  2. If the Council undertakes a service then it has to do it properly and with due care.

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  3. This has been hell for children and parents. It has caused huge amounts of stress and worry and is unacceptable. Whoever thought this merging of school transport was a good idea should be sacked.

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  4. This is a truly appalling story. The council should bow its collective head in shame. Doubtless the new contract has years to run. Certain selected businesses will make money while the quality of life of some of the most vulnerable children and adults in society is ruined.

    It's another example of the so-called bi- or tri-borough agreement reducing all local services to the lowest common denominator, over two or three London boroughs.

    Having said that, one congratulates the Leader of the K & C Labour party for at last remembering that she is meant to "oppose" the council on behalf of residents. We must be due a local election.

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  5. Cllr Blakeman has been campaigning for learning disabled children ever since her ground-breaking report in 2008 when she actually listened to parents and carers. Some of her findings were even debated later in the House of Lords.

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  6. She doubtless has written important reports, but that's not the same as focusing her attention towards individual residents and their problems on a day to day basis.

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  7. If a report was about the welfare of children in 2008, my recollection is that it was written by the Cllr Mariana(?). She shortly afterwards retired due to some confusion over payments for hiring out rooms in the Town Hall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Silly billy! Blakeman’s report is at www.rbkc.gov.uk, Search for ‘Review of Health Inequalities 2008’. Her report forced Chelsea and Westminster to get its act together. It now provides the best hospital services for children and adults with learning disabilities in the whole country.

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  8. Cllr Mariana appeared on TV to be interviewed on this subject. She was very knowledgable. Shame about the rest of the story. All hushed up of course.

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  9. Alapini was speaking about the death of Kojo Yenga, not the health care of disabled children.

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  10. I am appalled at the ignorance of many of your commenters of the lives of families of people with severe disabilities and astonished at their willingness to air their ignorance. It is a very, very tough job, physically, mentally and emotionally demanding and each family has unique knowledge of their Person and how s/he reacts to things in life that people without disabilities do not notice. It is not simply a matter of sticking a wheelchair on a bus. The previous transport service consisted of small buses with drivers who knew their way around small streets, and carried specialist staff who knew their passengers, knew how to manage complex harnesses, knew how to cope with epileptic fits and much else. Replacing this service by the current chaos and mass mental cruelty is the result of desk-bound, bureaucratic ignorance and stupidity, in the name of cost-cutting.

    ReplyDelete

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