The Home to School Transport (HTST) Service provides transport for children and young people with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND). We provide transport to a variety of school, and sometimes college settings.
We carry out a risk assessment for all children and young people using home to school transport. This makes sure travel arrangements are suitable. We do this before the child’s first journey.
We also take Vehicle Risk Assessments (VRAs). These assess the combination of children and young people travelling. They look at the medical needs and SEND profile of each child. Then we can see what support we need to provide to make sure the pupil mix is safe and manageable.
We carry out VRAs in vehicles with six or more pupils travelling. We also assess any routes we feel would benefit from additional attention. For example, pupils who need to travel alone due to their needs, or vehicles with combinations of children that could present at a higher risk.
All children and young people travelling have a Pupil Travel Information Form (PTIF). This is usually completed by parents and carers and sets out information on:
- likes and dislikes
- things that might upset a child or trigger a particular behaviour, how the child communicates
- medical equipment
- mobility aids
- emergency medical plans (if relevant)
- parent, carer or guardian contact information
Before travel, we make sure transport crews have the PTIF as well as other key information about the child or young person. This helps them to deliver a safe and comfortable journey.
In some instances, Vehicle Passenger Assistants (VPAs) will accompany children and young people due to their specific medical or SEND needs