00:00 The local authority has a shortfall of around £86.5 million. Kent County Council has set
00:08 its budget. To avoid bankruptcy, millions need to be saved. But how?
00:13 Now the budget will see council tax being raised by just below 5%. There are also a
00:18 range of cuts proposed. The Conservative administration say that's needed to secure Kent's future.
00:25 The Labour group say, well, it's cruel.
00:28 One of those cuts is free post-16 home to school transport with those with special educational
00:34 needs. 16-year-old Charlotte lives in a rural area close to Herne Bay and is reliant on
00:41 a taxi service to take her to her education setting as she doesn't go to a mainstream
00:47 school.
00:48 How am I meant to get to my education? I mean, I'm already so far behind and that is my future
00:55 and I'm a real person and it is my life at the end of the day. I want to go to university.
01:01 I want to do something. I just want to like live my life and it's just like they're preventing
01:08 me.
01:09 Her mum says she fought hard to get her to free taxi service as getting a bus is out
01:14 of the question. Charlotte has anxiety and autism.
01:18 There's a lot of uncertainty. Charlotte's already had so much uncertainty. She was out
01:23 of school or in education for two years. So to get to this stage, to have this package,
01:28 which is brilliant, and then suddenly have another level of uncertainty thrown in about
01:32 how she's going to access it. It's just, you know, terrifying really.
01:37 Privately paying for the taxi could cost a family around £50 a day. Home to school transport
01:44 for those 16 and over is a discretionary service for the council and at a budget meeting they
01:50 said it was a difficult decision to stop subsidising it.
01:53 We are coming in line with what many other local authorities have already done and we
01:59 will continue to be looking at this and a whole number of other related areas. What
02:04 is the case is that we are, as I say, under regrettably unsustainable financial pressure
02:10 and we have to continue to look, not just this year but in the years that follow, at
02:16 all the services we provide, the terms on which we do so, to ensure that we can ensure
02:22 a sustainable future.
02:24 The Labour group says if they were in charge, they wouldn't go as far.
02:29 We'd look to see how we could do this differently but we wouldn't have the same cuts as the
02:34 administration because we don't think there should be a barrier to education. Everybody
02:38 should be able to, between the ages of 16 and 25, so that includes SEN, to be able to
02:44 have an education instead of having transport as a barrier.
02:48 The council has confirmed this new policy will be in place by the next academic year,
02:53 leaving Charlotte and her mum seven months to find a solution.
02:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments