Council urged to come clean as secret meeting reviews school transport failings

Failings in the home to school transport service for vulnerable children are to be discussed at a secret meeting today (Friday 26 March) by members of Brighton and Hove City Council.

Councillors are due to discuss a report that the council promised would be “publicly published” after those named in the report had been offered a chance to comment.

Since then, six months have passed. But the council’s Audit and Standards Committee is today preparing to hold its entire discussion behind closed doors about the as-yet unpublished report, thwarting the public’s legitimate and reasonable expectations.

Given the serious nature of earlier criticisms about what some councillors described as an “epic failure”, the secrecy over the latest report is prompting questions about the need for a cover up now.

The report was described last year as “an independent review of the home to school transport procurement process” and it was commissioned “to ensure transparency and accountability”.

But suspicion is growing that some of the council’s most senior executives must be culpable if they are not prepared to share the report in the way that was promised.

The report centres on the way that contracts were procured after unelected officials pushed through changes contrary to a decision by elected councillors.

The changes led to chaotic scenes outside two Brighton and Hove schools. And dozens of vulnerable children – many with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – missed their lessons for several weeks.

Some were transported unsafely, with reports of children being hit by others with behavioural problems.

Too few escorts also led to one child with learning difficulties decamping from a vehicle into traffic while in a jam outside the school gates. The episode was witnessed by a BBC reporter.

And the council went hundreds of thousands of pounds over budget despite having signed a contract with cost-cutting consultancy Edge Public Solutions aimed at saving a six-figure sum.

Schools also took a financial hit as they redeployed staff, children missed teaching time and marshals were employed to manage the traffic problems created by the changes.

Questions later arose about insurance cover, while council officials allowed sensitive work to be carried out without vetting people first and licensing rules were breached.

The former leader of the council Mary Mears said: “We’ve come all this way to get to the bottom of what went wrong in the home to school transport service.

“It should be open and transparent – as was promised – so parents and carers and others can have complete confidence going forward. That’s the right way to do it.”

Evidence gathered by Councillor Mears and her Conservative colleague Lee Wares proved instrumental in persuading the council to commission the latest report.

The episode has parallels with the way that contracts relating to domestic abuse and domestic violence services were handled, with an outcry over the impact on Brighton charity RISE.

Councillors appear to have voted for a course of action, only for officials to pursue a different course of action. The process was criticised at a council meeting again last night.

Another councillor said yesterday that officials may have concerns about defamation were they to publish the latest report.

But a London libel lawyer told Brighton and Hove News this week that official reports were protected from defamation proceedings, in addition to the legal protection given to information that is true and the author’s honest opinion.

The reality appears more likely to be official embarrassment about what went wrong at a senior level in the town hall.

The same councillor said that keeping the report under wraps brought its own risks. They included a greater loss of trust, casting suspicion on those who were not involved and engendering a belief that the scale of wrongdoing was worse than it really was.