{"id":56019,"date":"2025-05-09T12:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=56019"},"modified":"2025-05-15T13:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:30:02","slug":"send-pupils-to-benefit-from-flexible-home-school-transport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/send-pupils-to-benefit-from-flexible-home-school-transport\/","title":{"rendered":"SEND pupils to benefit from flexible home-school transport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A proposal for revised home-to-school transport links for young people with Special Educational Needs has been approved by Sheffield City Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public consultation launched in January 2025 sought to receive feedback on the proposal to introduce a Personal Travel Budget (PTB) for parents and carers of young people to arrange their own transport links rather than rely on council provided vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 975 respondents to the survey and the plans were subsequently approved by the Education, Children\u2019s and Families Committee in a meeting on Wednesday, 7 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The meeting was held in the Town Hall on Wednesday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coun Dawn Dale, Chair of the Education, Children\u2019s and Families Committee at Sheffield City Council, said: \u201cWe set out to improve the service we have been providing for Sheffield\u2019s children, and where we have already been making strides in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This consultation has helped us revise that further to be more tailored to people\u2019s needs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the revised proposal, existing Year 11 and Post-16 students currently accessing SEN travel support will be given the option to move to a PTB, whereas first time applicants to this cohort will be offered a PTB as a first choice with alternative transport available if necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expansion to Independent Travel Training program will also go ahead with this proposal, in order to empower students to grow confidence and independence with travel and life skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaynor Stephenson, a parent present at the meeting, has a 20-year-old son hoping to go to University this year. She believes the Independent Travel Training program has enabled it to happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: “It has improved his confidence and given him a sense of self-worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This scheme has made a huge difference to his life. It’s a win for us, a win for him and a win for the council.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, concerns raised during the consultation included safety issues with using public transport, traffic congestion, and how proposed rises in fees for taxi and minibus provision is discriminatory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand for services has placed increased pressure on the Council’s transport budget, with a 25 per cent increase in applicants expected by September 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full report of the consultation brought to yesterday’s committee is available on Sheffield City Council’s website.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal for revised home-to-school transport links for young people with Special Educational Needs has been approved by Sheffield City Council. A public consultation launched in January 2025 sought to receive feedback on the proposal to introduce a Personal Travel Budget (PTB) for parents and carers of young people to arrange their own transport links […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":56672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[152,5,1],"tags":[116,228,1034,12,55,151],"class_list":["post-56019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-council-2","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-council","tag-school","tag-sen","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-city-council","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56019"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57058,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56019\/revisions\/57058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}