Frustrated families are bearing the brunt of long delays to post-16 travel assistance arrangements for their children with special educational needs.

Some parents claim their teens have been unable to attend college courses due to huge hold-ups to transport applications submitted to Kent County Council (KCC) several months ago.

Bids for post-16 transport assistance should take six weeks to process, but some families are yet to hear back, despite applying before the deadline of May 31 and agreeing to fork out £500 a year.

In response, KCC has apologised for the delays which it says affects a very “small number” of applications and insist they are actively trying to “accelerate” the processing of these requests.

David Perfett has been juggling full-time work alongside taking his daughter with special educational needs (SEN) to Mid Kent College from his home in Medway for the past two months.

Despite living in Medway, he applied for funding with KCC because he lives in an area where his council tax is paid to a county council authority.

Over the past eight weeks he says it has cost him £190 in fuel to make the six-mile trip three times a week.

The dad-of-two said: “It’s frustrating because it’s extra income that myself and other parents can ill-afford at the moment in the current climate.

“When she was at Grange Park school the council was brilliant and she went via taxi every day.

“I’m trying to provide structure myself by being a taxi for her, but I can’t pick her up from college when she finishes, her boyfriend’s dad has to pick her up for me and take her home.

“We’ve had this awkward arrangement for eight weeks now and it should be something the council should have sorted out.”

Back in March, KCC confirmed cuts to free school travel for teens with special educational starting post-16 courses this school-term.

Under the new transport policy, parents who have children with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), who are continuing their education, have been told to apply for a KCC 16+ travel card which costs £500 for the year, or £510 if paid in instalments. There is no contribution for post-19 students.

After KentOnline contacted KCC on behalf of David, he says funding has been offered but he has been given limited time to pay the initial £400 contribution.

Likewise, Sarah Hanford and her son Jack had been waiting to hear back on his transport application since she submitted it on April 8.

She chased KCC five times from July to August and twice in September, but was told that the council is waiting for funding.

But later, when she rang on October 14, the council told her she had not applied for transport.

The mum-of-four said: “I was really cross because I proved that I sent it April 8 as I gave the reference number and the council said, ‘oh yes you did apply’.

Despite this, there was still no movement on the application and every Monday and Tuesday she has to drive Jack from Tonbridge to Heath Farm College, while the rest of the week the school self-funds transport for him.

She said the situation was making Jack, who has ADHD and autism, very “angry” because of the unknown.

Sarah continued: “It’s very stressful because I’m a full-time carer for my other son so money wise it’s making it very tight when I’m having to pay for fuel to take Jack to school.”

But this is not the first time the mum has been left in the dark waiting for transport provision.

From September 2022 until May 2023, Jack was unable to attend his further education placement at Heath Farm school in Ashford because of delays from KCC in responding to his transport application.

Sarah added: “I think KCC need to overhaul their system and work out where it’s going wrong.”

After KentOnline contacted KCC about Sarah and Jack’s situation, Sarah says she finally got a call last Friday (November 8) to say Jack’s transport starts this week, on Monday (November 11).

Anne Musker, Chair of Tunbridge Wells Access group, has supported one family who have been impacted the delays.

She explained how an 18-year-old with special educational needs had been unable to attend college for the whole term because of the transport form delays, with his parent unable to drive following a series of operations.

To help the family, Anne, who is a solicitor, wrote a ‘letter before’ action to the Local Government Ombudsman, as well as a letter to general council and the head of children’s services.

Although he had not had transport for the whole term, after writing the letters on Thursday, October 31, the following Monday, November 4, a taxi arrived at his home in Tunbridge Wells.

Anne said: “It was a massive relief all round because he’d lost a whole term of education completely unnecessarily.

“It’s ludicrous, what we want from these kids is that they are in college learning so that they are more independent in later life.”

The mother of the 19-year-old, who wished to stay anonymous, said: “It’s had a real impact on me financially, I have had to buy more food for him because he is eating during the day, it’s been a really big struggle.”

It’s ludicrous, what we want from these kids is that they are in college learning so that they are more independent in later life

Because the 18-year-old not was not in full-time education for the whole term due to the transport issues, the mother encountered additional problems with her Universal Credit payments and council tax relief, increasing the burden on her as a single parent.

Anne, from Tunbridge Wells, said: “So a whole lot of things got triggered solely by the failure of KCC to produce the transport that it had always been producing.”

Although she has now been able to restore travel for the boy, Anne says she is “frightened” for those that don’t have an advocate.

She added: “None of us want to go through these complaints process, we just want you to provide a taxi on a Monday morning.

“There’s a raft of things that KCC could end up paying for if they don’t get these kids education right – it’s just massive.”

More special education advice can be sought by the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA).

A spokesperson for KCC said: “KCC has received nearly 2,300 post-16 transport applications for the 2024/2025 academic year.

“Currently, 10 of these applications (0.4% of the total) are outside the published processing times and are awaiting assessment.

“Additionally, there are approximately 100 applications pending a final placement decision, which has delayed their progression through the transport assessment process.

"We acknowledge and apologise for the delays affecting this small number of applications.

“KCC is actively addressing this and aim to accelerate and complete the processing of these applications as soon as the final placement decisions are made.”