Children 'missing out' over school taxi issues

The mother of a girl with special educational needs has said the Education Authority (EA) needs to be held to account after her daughter was left without transport ahead of the new school year.

Laura McDonnell's eight-year-old daughter Evie had previously been provided with a taxi for the 40-mile round trip from her home in Londonderry to Rossmar Special School in Limavady.

But last week the family were told a taxi is no longer available as the EA had put the taxi contract out to tender. The BBC has asked the EA for comment.

"I just felt so let down and frustrated and unsupported by the system," McDonnell said.

"We will try our best to get her to and from but I'm going to have to not work in order to do that."

Evie, who has Down's syndrome, severe learning difficulties and a speech and language disorder, transferred to Rossmar last year after her needs became too significant to be met in mainstream education.

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme, her mum said the family were initially concerned about the distance involved in Evie's journey to school.

But they were reassured by the "lovely taxi driver and supervisor" provided under the EA's transport arrangements.

"We just assumed that the contract would roll on and we would have the same taxi driver and supervisor," she said.

"I was only made aware last Monday when the supervisor rang me and asked me, did we hear anything? And I said, 'no, we hadn't heard anything back'. And that alarmed me," McDonnell said.

"I rang the EA and they said, 'no, actually we are having issues. They (taxis) were all put out to tender'.

"That's the first I heard of it."

In February, an agreement for more than £900,000 in savings was reached between the EA and taxi operators.

That came after the EA wrote to taxi drivers asking them to reduce their rates by 10%, or their contract could be terminated.

Evie's mum said a taxi firm which had agreed to transport Evie this year has now said it can no longer provide her with transport.

That means the family and Evie are unsure how she will travel to school this year, as things stand.

"The Education Authority has put these all out to tender at the last minute," she said.

"There's other people that are in this situation and I just think that children are going to be missing out on school."

On Monday, Columba Mailey, whose seven-year-old daughter Maisie has special educational needs, told BBC News NI the EA still had not clarified what taxi firm will take her to and from school.

He said "familiarity with the driver is crucial for Maisie" and "24 hours before Maisie starts the new term we have no clarity".

In response, the EA said it understood that changes to transport arrangements could be unsettling but it sometimes needed to refresh contracts to ensure value for money.

Northern Ireland's independent autism reviewer Ema Cubitt said she had been made aware of a number of families facing similar issues around school transport.

"While the system tries to reform itself, children are missing out and it's really disappointing," she said.

"This is an operational issue, this is a system issue that needs to be dealt with by the EA.

"A taxi to special educational setting is not a perk, it is an entitlement."