Parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are invited to share their experiences of school transport at an event in the new year.

Dorset Council wants to work with families to improve SEND transport across the county. There are a number of ways the council supports a child to get to and from school, including home-to-school transport; ravel passes for use on public transport and payment of a personal travel budget, where families use money to choose how their child gets to school

n Independent training to support pupils to use public transport or travel independently

The new council is committed to improving, designing and creating services together with children and families - making sure their voices are heard and are reflected in the way services are run.

Cllr Andrew Parry, portfolio holder for education and learning at Dorset Council, said:

“We want to hear from parents who have a child with SEND and is currently using, or has recent experience of, school transport. We’d like to chat to families about what’s working well, what isn’t and what they’d like to see from us in the future. We’d also like to invite families to work with us to find solutions to some of the problems, so we can improve SEND travel for children and young people.”

An event will place on January, 14 from 7pm until 8:30pm in the Committee Suite at South Walks House, Dorchester. Councillors and officers from Dorset Travel and Children’s Services will be there to listen to parents and carers. You can sign-up for the event at https://sendtravel.eventbrite.co.uk If you can’t make that date, but would still like to get involved, email Thomas Fowler at thomas.fowler@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk