Birmingham families fear for future of vulnerable teenagers amid ‘unfair’ city transport cuts

Shockwaves rippled through Birmingham as the city council approved a brutal wave of budget cuts this year – and the grim consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. Just this week, anxious families of vulnerable teenagers said they have been left in limbo as the council takes the ax to its special needs transport service.

Sabiha and Carol* are two of many parents and carers deeply concerned for the future after the crisis-hit council revealed details of major cuts affecting some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. The changes mean that taxi and minibus services, normally used to transport pupils to special needs schools, will now only be offered to sixth-year-olds in “exceptional circumstances” – despite still being used for young children.

Support for these older teenagers will be provided through a personal transport budget or a pass for use on public transport. At the same time, families of those affected will be told to pay more to get them to college or sixth form from September 2024.

READ MORE: What future crisis-hit Birmingham council budgets could look like amid hopes of recovery

For Sabiha Aziz, a mother of three youngsters, two with additional needs, the impact could be disastrous for her son if he could not go to college, which offers vital services such as occupational therapy. “At the risk of sounding dramatic, but his life is connected to college, so if he can’t go, that’s on him,” Acocks Green’s mother Sabiha told the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service this week.

“It’s not just his education, his whole life is at college — he’d be effectively locked in his own house.”

“I can’t provide the services that the college provides,” she continued. “So many families are dealing with that reality right now.”

“A lot of parents are going to give up their jobs – it’s unfair.”

With her son unable to use public transport and Sabiha taking care of her other child with additional needs, the family would have to look for alternative funding streams or compromise to provide transport themselves. Guardian Carol, not her real name, and her young man, who live in south Birmingham, also face a deeply uncertain future as a result of the changes.

Carol said the teenager would suffer a huge impact on his life if he could no longer rely on the taxi service to get to college and instead was forced to stay at home. “The closure was very difficult for both of us – I don’t want them to be in this position again,” she said.

“The lack of routine would be a huge change for him, his quality of life wouldn’t be the same.”

Birmingham City Council said it recognized “difficult decisions need to be made” to protect statutory services for vulnerable children and young people and their families. “We appreciate that the recent revisions to the travel assistance policy are a major change for those families affected,” a council spokesman continued.

“That’s why we gave the families as much notice as possible and offered support from the team.”

‘Exceptional circumstances’

The council said taxi and minibus services will only be provided to six-year-olds in “exceptional circumstances” – but what does that actually mean? For many of the parents and guardians in Birmingham affected by the policy change, it is currently unclear.

Carol condemned the local authority for not giving enough details about the circumstances, saying: “They don’t tell anyone – I need to know what’s going on. They should be supporting these vulnerable people, not taking away the things they need.”

Meanwhile, Sabiha said the council risked creating a “horrible” climate within the SEND community, with potentially only some teenagers meeting the criteria for taxi and minibus services while others are not. The council told the LDR Service that it will issue more guidance on exceptional circumstances in the near future and will continue to hear the concerns of families.

“A Dark Cloud”

The controversial changes mean a parental contribution – deducted from the personal travel budget – will now rise from £780 to £1,028 per academic year. Sabiha described the increase as “a big increase in a cost of living crisis”.

“We are being asked to pay more for less service,” she argued. Against this backdrop of service cuts, Carol described how parents and carers must constantly fight for support for their vulnerable children – a sentiment shared by Sabiha, who was previously chair of the Birmingham Parenting Forum.

Last year she quit after becoming disillusioned and now raises awareness through the SEND Parents Action Group, which she set up. However, she emotionally told the LDR service that years of struggle had left her with a “dark cloud” hanging over her head.

Responding to concerns that families are being told to pay more, a council spokesman said: “In recognition of the current financial climate, the council has not increased the contribution that families on the lowest incomes make towards child support their”. Low-income families will still pay £390 a year for their travel arrangements.

The council’s worrying financial situation is due to issues specific to Birmingham, such as the equal pay fiasco and the disastrous implementation of a new IT and finance system, as well as increasing demand for services and funding cuts. Council leader John Cotton has previously criticized the Conservative government and claimed councils across the country faced a perfect storm of lower budgets and higher costs.

Tory politicians pointed the finger at mistakes made by the Labor council administration, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisting the authority had mismanaged its finances.

*Carol is a pseudonym, her real identity has been kept anonymous.

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