Central Bedfordshire Council reported to Ofsted after school transport chaos

These issues followed changes to Central Bedfordshire Council’s home to school transport services for the autumn term, a meeting heard.

Speaking as a parent, Mark Tripp, who chairs the governing body of Ivel School and College in Biggleswade, described how some students were “at home on Monday morning, not knowing when and how, or even if they were being collected”, adding: “Despite this lack of communication, students were picked up.

“Their anxieties were high, but they managed it. Imagine their horror when they found out because of a CBC policy change there was only one pick-up at 4.30pm. When your course finishes at 12.30pm, there’s a four-hour wait to go home to their safe place.

“Messages were sent by CBC, but through a system we’d been told was no longer being used for contact.”

And he claimed North Hertfordshire College was unaware of some of the students attending, as nobody had informed it.

“Office staff had to be used to look after these vulnerable students on the first day because it was an emergency,” he said. “The college had to ring parents to see if they could pick up (students).

“It’s ten days since I put in writing my safeguarding concerns. I asked to see risk assessments and for pick-up time confirmation. Amazingly, there hasn’t been a response.

“I arranged for the collection of these individuals because I couldn’t live with the knowledge of the harm the situation was likely to cause them.”

The council’s former deputy leader Hayley Whitaker contacted chief executive Marcel Coiffait and director of children’s services Amana Gordon a week ago, warning them of her intention to report the council to Ofsted.

She made the report when safeguarding issues around transport arrangements appeared unresolved 24 hours later.

“In special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), one size doesn’t fit all,” councillor Whitaker told CBC’s children’s services overview and scrutiny committee yesterday (Tuesday, September 9).

“Every single child has to be treated differently,” she explained. “That’s what failed here.

“Parents weren’t sure if they needed to put in requests (modifying transport requirements), or for some reason they weren’t pulled through the system and officers weren’t aware of them, or it was just too complicated because we’ve changed our policy and we haven’t let our parents know.

“At least 14 were going to North Hertfordshire College and others were attending Milton Keynes College. That’s not a small number of young people. Emails were sent to senior officers on August 29th highlighting this was a concern.

“We’ve had ten days to start to consider this. I know you might not have done the deep dive, but to not be able to say ‘sorry, we know there are problems … this is what we’re going to do about it’ isn’t good enough.

“The governance of home to school transport is flawed. The aspects to do with safeguarding need to come to this committee. We knew we were going to have young people left unattended with no support for four hours.

“I wrote to the chief executive and Amana last week because I was so concerned. I said if this can’t be resolved today then I have to report this council to Ofsted. I got no response and so I did.”

Asked why councillor Whitaker received no response, Ms Gordon replied: “I don’t know … I need to check. My understanding is the parents were responded to directly.

“We were resolving this with the individuals and that was our priority. I’m sorry you didn’t get a response. We’ll ensure you get a clear timeline of how we resolved that with the individuals.

“There’s an allegation we haven’t apologised. I definitely said ‘we’re sorry for the experience of those children who had disruption to their transport’. I’ve said that clearly.”

She added: “The reality is the start of term is always a juggling act for services.

“We’ve many complex needs (students) and for the majority we’ve done really well getting them into school for the start of term. This doesn’t help the small number of families which didn’t experienced that.

“By reacting today, we haven’t had time to consider what those issues might have been and give an informed response. We still need time to resolve these matters directly with those families.”

Meanwhile, Central Bedfordshire Council leader and Independent Potton councillor Adam Zerny said: “It feels inappropriate to castigate officers before we understand what’s happened here. Of course the council could do better.

“By the criticism officers are receiving, you’re going to cause demoralisation. We must understand what happened. I fear what’s being created today is a publicity stunt.”

Conservative Heath and Reach councillor Mark Versallion suggested the council should learn from the issues and prevent them repeating, while asking for a response to the “operational problems”, which particularly affected special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) transport.

Executive member for children’s services and Independent Leighton Linslade West councillor Steve Owen replied: “I’m advised by the monitoring officer that this committee and meeting aren’t the appropriate place for this matter to be raised.

“I understand you’ve received monitoring officer advice to that effect. I’ve asked officers not to make any further comment.”

Councillor Versallion, who chairs the committee, explained: “It’s advice. The monitoring officer doesn’t run local government. I declined that advice because I think this is reasonable.

“I think you’re making a massive political misjudgment, for which the electorate will not forgive you. This is a democracy, with parents allowed to ask questions and they deserve an answer from taxpayer-funded officers.”

The Central Bedfordshire Community Network Sandy councillor Sue Bell noted: “The director and the executive member need to remember they’re the primary holders of the importance of safeguarding within this council, from the legal not to mention moral perspective. Safeguarding is our paramount concern.”