Fresh questions were asked today about how permission was given for escorts to take vulnerable children to school without undergoing enhanced criminal record checks.
Concerned mother Pippa Hodge spoke out after learning that approval was given by a senior Brighton and Hove City Council officer at the start of the current contracts.
Her remarks were made at a town hall meeting looking into problems with the council’s home to school transport service for more than 400 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
They were made as a report to the council’s Home to School Transport Policy Panel said: “All vehicle passenger assistants (VPAs) are required to have an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check.
“A small number of VPAs were allowed to begin work prior to their DBS coming through to ensure children could be transported to school.
“The executive director of families, children and learning is authorised to make a decision to allow staff to commence work pending a DBS where circumstances demand and/or these checks take longer than anticipated.
“This is authorised only in exceptional circumstances and only where a careful assessment of risk versus disruption has been assessed and where other controls are in place.
“Factors mitigating a short-term risk included the fact that all drivers had an enhanced DBS and all vehicles were required to have CCTV.”
Ms Hodge said: “Our children and young people were not asked for their consent and the parents and carers were not asked to give their consent to increased risk, given the vulnerable population we are talking about.
“I find it quite astonishing that the director could make that decision also knowing that the personnel were changing around because of the chaos.”
She said that key details contained on “pupil information sheets” were not in place and spot checks found one vehicle without a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, pupil information or CCTV.
Ms Hodge added: “I am horrified personally and on behalf of families.
“I would like to know whether each and every one of those parent carers was consulted on behalf of those children.”
Interim home to school transport manager Regan Delf said that she was looking into the system for DBS checks.
She said that no driver or operator was operating without an enhanced DBS check and all escorts were up-to-date.
Ms Delf said that the system of pupil information sheets needed a complete overhaul and asked for input from the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC) support group.
She said: “It’s something that has been with us for a long time. I don’t think it is fit for purpose at the moment.
“We’ve got so much information on children and we’re making parents give us that information every year when we’ve already got it. It’s not a system that is family friendly.”
Mrs Delf apologised for any “pestering” over pupil information, adding that the intentions were “honourable but the system is not right”.
She told the panel, which met at Hove Town Hall, that there was a “disconnect” between the home to school transport service and the council’s special educational needs department. This would be resolved by allowing a case worker to share the information between the two departments.
In the coming weeks, she said, the home to school transport team would review the details of every child to make sure that they have the right transport.
The team would look at each vehicle and make sure that the mix of youngsters in the cars and minibuses was appropriate.
Ms Delf spoke about many improvements and urged parents still facing problems to contact her directly although she acknowledged the financial challenges ahead.
The service has gone almost £1 million over its budget of £3 million a year after cost-cutting consultants Edge Public Solutions were employed. The firm has since handed back its contract.
It was not clear how the finances would be straightened out yet but, Ms Delf said, this would be done in consultation with parents, taxi firms and schools – and the wellbeing of children would be “paramount”.
The council looks likely to drop the “dynamic purchasing system” brought in by Edge as part of its contract which was worth up to £500,000.
The panel was told that while this sort of system worked in other areas, it was brought in too quickly by the council when it lacked the experience to make it work.
Questions remain about exactly how it became the set up used by the council when councillors had rejected it a key committee meeting in 2018.
Ms Delf said: “We were inexperienced and other people paid for that. I don’t think we will do it again.”
Conservative councillor Lee Wares said that the council had dug itself into a deep hole but he was glad the concerns that he and his colleague Councillor Mary Mears had raised were now recognised as valid.
He asked for a full breakdown of all the relevant invoices to ensure that the panel could understand the true costs as well as the extent of the overspend.
Councillor Mears criticised the council for effectively requiring her and Councillor Wares to submit “freedom of information” requests to obtain information that properly belonged in the public domain.
The two councillors then had to write to the council’s chief executive Geoff Raw to ensure that it was passed on to the independent external review.
PaCC vice-chair Diana Boyd shared parents’ concerns that they could face charges for post-16 transport or taking children to respite care or another family member’s home.
Jo Lyons, the council’s assistant director of education and skills, said that there were no current plans to change anything although the situation could change after an external review is complete.
Taxi boss Andrew Cheesman said that the service had improved enormously in the past six weeks after the “nightmare” of the previous months.
He said: “In the last six weeks so much empathy has come back to the children, rather than thinking of them as numbers and boxes.
“You’ve started thinking about the kids again. You forgot about that for seven or eight months.”
Green councillor Tom Druitt, who spoke in his capacity as Brighton and Hove Community Transport general manager, said that the parking assistant at Downs View School, in Woodingdean, was the “best guy in Brighton and Hove at the moment”.
His work was made more challenging by building work at the school which is due to finish in the summer.
Councillor Druitt said that he drove the route a few weeks ago, adding: “It would have been total chaos in that car park. He’s amazing.”
The panel is due to meet again within weeks once the findings of an external review have been published.
As Pippa said it’s simply not good enough that the Executive Director waved the need for some DBS checks initially – he needs to answer for this. Can we also presume that if Edge handed back the contract they handed back their payment as well – this needs to be explained.