A 12-year-old autistic boy who spent six months out of school is struggling to find transport to take him to his new special school, forcing his mum to quit her job to drive him.
Charlie Bowe was forced to quit his mainstream secondary school, a few weeks after enrolling as a Year 7 student, because staff couldn't meet his needs.
Whilst he technically remained on roll for several months afterwards, his final lesson was in October, and he had no work allocated to him at home.
His mother, Samantha Bowe, aged 32, told Stoke on Trent Live that "it was affecting his mental health" and "he was really upset".
After lodging a special needs tribunal, she was relieved to be offered a place at Abbey Hill School in Meir, where Charlie started last week.
She commented: “It’s the best place for him."
But Samantha has been forced to relinquish her job in order to drive Charlie from their home in Trentham every day, to the school four miles away.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council have refused to provide school transport.
Instead, officials gave the family a personal budget of £15.38 a day to arrange taxis themselves.
Samantha said: “I started ringing round taxi services and they were all saying they couldn’t take him. Either they didn’t do school runs, they were fully booked or they said he was too young to take without a chaperone.
“Even if they could have taken him, I was getting quotes off some of them of £50 a day.”
Samantha found another Abbey Hill pupil, who lives in the Staffordshire County Council area, and qualifies for a minibus to travel to school and through Trentham.
However, this transport is arranged via a separate local authority and there was no spare seat.
Samantha has to drop off seven-year-old son Mason at Ash Green Primary Academy, in Trentham, before taking Charlie to school.
But's he's now regularly arriving late for lessons at Abbey Hill, with his mum adding: “It’s taking me an hour on the school run in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.
Samantha’s boss at a cookware shop even contacted the council on her behalf.
She said: “The local authority just said my boss needed to be a bit flexible. It made us laugh as you can’t be flexible in retail. We are only a small staff.”
Although the job is still available if she can sort out the school transport, Samantha is currently out of work.
Whilst appealing the council's transport decision, she has had to turn down the personal budget, so is funding fuel costs herself.
It is just the latest in a series of battles to ensure Charlie gets the support he needs.
As well as autism, he has learning difficulties and has the reading age of a six-year-old.
“We waited three years for his autism assessment. He finally got it this year,” said Samantha.
She says it also took three attempts to get an education, health and care plan.
