There are many decent and honourable Conservative councillors.
They are appalled by the mismanagement of the SEN contract.
But instead of hiding away they need to start to do their job and hold colleagues to account.
Andrew Christie and Cllr E.Campbell, the officer and councillor respectively responsible for this monumental 'cock up' should go...and go now.
The story below, in today's Guardian, will doubtless be written off as 'it's only the Guardian'.
That would be a mistake.
The parents of the children affected are notable for their fighting spirit....they will not give up easily.
If Cllr E. Campbell had the slightest sense of honour and decency she would resign now.
A particularly inane comment by this idiot was that because one of the incidents took place in H&F it was that council's fault!
She is a silly and pointless appendage.....
"Fiona Mylchreest with her son, Finn, who suffered a seizure after a particularly traumatic journey home.
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| FIONA AND FINN |
When Fiona Mylchreest stood up at a council meeting and described how she believed a disastrous,and avoidable, mix-up on a new, cut-price specialist school bus service had left her severely autistic teenage son Finn traumatised, bleeding and seriously ill, it crystallised the huge risks taken by local authorities as they juggle with extreme spending cuts.
Mylchreest was one of several people at the meeting, last month, to raise serious concerns about the new home-transport service for children with special educational needs. The service was introduced earlier this year across three London boroughs, Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea, after the contract was re-let at half the original, £1m cost. Mylchreest told how on one occasion Finn's new driver and escort were instructed to take him home from his after-school club. When they reached his street, they realised they had no idea which house Finn lived in: they were new to the route and tried phoning the head office of their private transport company for guidance, but couldn't get through. So they set off on foot down the street, Mylchreest recalls "He [Finn] has no language, he had no way of communicating and they just took him from house to house saying: 'Do you know this kid?'. Finally the driver came to my door holding a piece of paper with Finn's name on it and said: 'Do you know this guy?' I could have been anyone."
Finn was bleeding from one ear where he'd bashed his head (something he does when he is upset), and was sweaty and "a bit dazed", she told the meeting. A minute after he entered the house Finn – who had never previously experienced a fit – had a seizure, and started to turn blue. A paramedic was called, and it took 45 minutes to stabilise him.
What would it take for the council to manage the new contract properly, Mylchreest asked officials. "Is this shocking enough? … Will it take another blue child?"
The 731 children transported by this service have a range of conditions: some are on the autistic spectrum, or have profound and multiple learning disabilities. A number have complex medical needs and require tube-feeding and oxygen-supply equipment. The majority are non-verbal, and some display challenging behaviour.
Since April, hundreds of complaints have been made by parents about the new cut-price service. They say it is often late; children spend long periods on the bus, arriving at school unfit to learn; the drivers don't have emergency phones; some speak such poor English that there are concerns about their ability to deal with emergency situations; buses lack vital equipment such as harnesses; some drivers don't have specialist care training, and there is a high staff turnover.
According to Jude Ragan, the headteacher of Queensmill school, there have been three incidents where autistic, non-verbal children have got off buses unsupervised. "It is going to end up in a tragedy," she warns."I feel that we're just waiting for a disaster to happen."
Cathy Welsh, headteacher at nearby Jack Tizard school, says at least two children have arrived at school "in potentially critical medical conditions because of the time they have been on the bus." She warns of children who have been inappropriately managed in a way that could be perceived as "potentially abusive". It was, she told the meeting, the "kind of culture that ends up with scandals around children with learning disabilities".
"I think … some of my parents must gulp every time they put their child on that bus," she said.
The home-school contract is now operated by seven private contractors. Although some existing staff transferred over to the new arrangements under Tupe (transfer of undertakings) law, parents and unions say some experienced staff have since left because of changes to their shifts and overtime. The councils, which are part of a much-vaunted tri-borough experiment in west London to make huge savings by sharing services, have admitted "a number of things have gone wrong".
Conservative-run Westminster council, which was responsible for negotiating the new transport contracts, issued a statement from Andrew Christie, the executive director of children's services across the three councils, in which he admitted there had been "teething problems". He added: "We will continue to work intensively with providers throughout the summer to ensure that all providers are ready for the start of the new school term in September."
Last month, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea formally apologised to parents at a council meeting called by Labour opposition councillors. The council told parents that it was "driving very hard to bring things up to the expected standard and nothing short of that will be acceptable".
However, there is concern that the contract, which chopped £500,000 (54%) off the cost of the old contract without any decrease in service demand was a cut too far. Official council papers show that the contract bids were "evaluated on the most economically advantageous" basis, with evaluation criteria weighted 70% for price and 30% for quality.
The political stakes were raised with the arrival of a new Labour administration in Hammersmith and Fulham, following May's council elections. Privately, some senior political figures in the council are appalled at the design and management of the home-school transport contract and would like to scrap it and start again. But to do so could open the council to legal action from contractors and even its partners, putting the entire tri-borough deal under pressure.
Hammersmith and Fulham leader Stephen Cowan told the Guardian: "We are horrified and disgusted to have inherited this problem. There is no higher priority than protecting vulnerable children and we will leave no stone unturned in making sure there is a service that parents can have faith in."
But parents contacted by the Guardian said they were not confident that the councils had done enough to stem what they see as a rapid deterioration in the quality of the service. Many await the new school term with trepidation. "The councils have got a huge amount of work to do to rebuild trust," says parent Sue Redmond: "They have been in denial and people have been outraged. You have to hope it is going to work, but I'm absolutely dreading it." "
