Education: Mum's Calderdale Council appeal victory will help others with children with additional needs

The mum – who does not wish to be named – challenged the council after not being told her child was eligible for financial help with the costs of transporting him to school and back.

When she stumbled across this information and tried to claim a backdated mileage expense, she was initially told by the council that they would not pay up.

Now – after she appealed that decision - the council has agreed to pay those mileage costs and the council’s Transport Services will be asked to review the information provided to parents and ensure mums and dads are aware of all possible options on offer.

In her appeal, the mum had said: “On behalf of ourselves and all of the other parents who have experienced lack of support, lack of access, lack of transparency and misinformation at the hands of Transport Services I would like to ask the tribunal to consider making recommendations to Transport Services on how they can better support parents of disabled children with their entitlement and access to fuel allowance or any other provision Transport Services are commissioned to provide for disabled children, children in need and their families.

"I would like to ask for consideration to be given for parents to be signposted to access the relevant information and supported and treated fairly when contact is initially made with Transport Services.

"Parents of disabled children and children with life-limiting illnesses really do have enough to contend with and should be helped not hindered.

"This appeal is not just about our claim to recover money that we believe should have been paid to us for our child’s benefit. It is also about highlighting a system which is failing vulnerable children and their families and hoping lessons can be learned and positive changes made.

"No family should have to go through this process.”

Calderdale Council’s Assistant Director for Neighbourhoods, Andrew Pitts, said: “In this case, we accept the findings of the appeal and have since made the necessary arrangement for assistance to be implemented.”