Transport Tales.
....And this time it's scarily nothing to do with our podlings.
As regular readers of this fine blog will know we started off the school year with an exciting adventure in incompetence and general lack of anything remotely resembling common sense when the head teacher of our youngest's old school decided to put in a risk assessment regarding taxi escorts and transport without our knowledge totally bypassing actual education department policy and ignoring the meetings that had been held before hand.
The full story can be found elsewhere but suffice to say that nothing has actually been done to deal with this as yet and any attempt to contact/talk to Maureen McKenna (The Executive Director of Education) is either met with bored indifference or sarcasm (as my email from her in an earlier post shows).
Oh and if you think trying to talk to her in person works forget it as she either runs off or attempts to talk down to you like a 5 year old whilst her lackeys explain that "Now is not the time...."
Maybe it's my Autistic brain but I didn't realise that child safety/parent involvement wasn't a priority unlike, say having meetings to show everyone how good you are with budgets and how your son enjoys playing golf.
Silly me.
Anyway still battling on and hopefully someone at some point before he leaves school will get in touch.
Interestingly transport has become an issue for one of his classmates this week when the taxi driver (Glasgow City Council sub-contract SEN transport provision to a black cab company) dropped him off at home and drove away.
On a day that his Mum was at work and that he was meant to be taken to after school club, which has been the case since starting his ASN secondary in August.
Luckily his older brother happened to be home but understandably his Mum was extremely upset as literally anything could have happened had his brother not been at home.
Anyway she contacted the aforementioned Ms. McKenna only to receive this wonderfully caring and compassionate reply:
I am sorry that you have had problems with the taxi company and I can understand your frustration. I am unclear why we have agreed to provide transport to an after school provider rather than your home. This is not usual practice and I assume has been done as a service to support you. The taxi driver cannot be held responsible for delivering your child to another provider that is nothing to do with the Council. I am not entirely sure that this is a reasonable
I have copied in Caroline who manages our complaints process. She will make inquiries with the school and the transport team to see why this is the case and what arrangements have been put in place. While we always want to be supportive as I am not totally comfortable with the Council being held liable for this.
Maureen McKenna
Executive Director of Education
Anyone who has ever worked with special needs/vulnerable kids will know that it's never been an issue to - when needed - drop a child off at an afterschool club or grandparents house etc. as long as it's arranged beforehand so no idea where that has come from.
On a plus point we've now found something else that she's not entirely comfortable with that we can add to her profile alongside child protection issues, the named person initiative* and treating parents with respect so it's not a total loss.
As regular readers of this fine blog will know we started off the school year with an exciting adventure in incompetence and general lack of anything remotely resembling common sense when the head teacher of our youngest's old school decided to put in a risk assessment regarding taxi escorts and transport without our knowledge totally bypassing actual education department policy and ignoring the meetings that had been held before hand.
The full story can be found elsewhere but suffice to say that nothing has actually been done to deal with this as yet and any attempt to contact/talk to Maureen McKenna (The Executive Director of Education) is either met with bored indifference or sarcasm (as my email from her in an earlier post shows).
Oh and if you think trying to talk to her in person works forget it as she either runs off or attempts to talk down to you like a 5 year old whilst her lackeys explain that "Now is not the time...."
Maybe it's my Autistic brain but I didn't realise that child safety/parent involvement wasn't a priority unlike, say having meetings to show everyone how good you are with budgets and how your son enjoys playing golf.
Silly me.
Anyway still battling on and hopefully someone at some point before he leaves school will get in touch.
 |
| Someone playing golf yesterday - Bizarrely at a meeting recently I found out that The Executive Director of Education's son enjoys this game tho' I didn't find out anything about her views on staff members ignoring Education policy as the subject was deemed inappropriate......NT folk eh? |
Interestingly transport has become an issue for one of his classmates this week when the taxi driver (Glasgow City Council sub-contract SEN transport provision to a black cab company) dropped him off at home and drove away.
On a day that his Mum was at work and that he was meant to be taken to after school club, which has been the case since starting his ASN secondary in August.
Luckily his older brother happened to be home but understandably his Mum was extremely upset as literally anything could have happened had his brother not been at home.
Anyway she contacted the aforementioned Ms. McKenna only to receive this wonderfully caring and compassionate reply:
I am sorry that you have had problems with the taxi company and I can understand your frustration. I am unclear why we have agreed to provide transport to an after school provider rather than your home. This is not usual practice and I assume has been done as a service to support you. The taxi driver cannot be held responsible for delivering your child to another provider that is nothing to do with the Council. I am not entirely sure that this is a reasonable
I have copied in Caroline who manages our complaints process. She will make inquiries with the school and the transport team to see why this is the case and what arrangements have been put in place. While we always want to be supportive as I am not totally comfortable with the Council being held liable for this.
Maureen McKenna
Executive Director of Education
Anyone who has ever worked with special needs/vulnerable kids will know that it's never been an issue to - when needed - drop a child off at an afterschool club or grandparents house etc. as long as it's arranged beforehand so no idea where that has come from.
If it's true tho' we can safely assume that when she flies abroad on one of her many charity trips to Malawi she pays for it herself as she's not getting transported to a council provider.
And before you say anything yes I'm being facetious.
On a plus point we've now found something else that she's not entirely comfortable with that we can add to her profile alongside child protection issues, the named person initiative* and treating parents with respect so it's not a total loss.
More to follow.
*Actually she not uncomfortable with this as she positively hates it, alongside Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney who she accused of 'wittering' at her whilst discussing budgets at an event.
Obviously the whole thing of a city council employee not showing a political bias whilst at a public meeting doesn't apply to her either.
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