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Minus One – Tues 11th Oct 2016

By Jeannette | October 11, 2016

I found empathy in an unexpected source today.

It’s been a feeling of being let down here, the home-school transport issue for the next few weeks for D is not resolved.  The suggestion from the transport department was that we walk to the other side of town to go to a bus stop for D to then receive transport, cleverly ignoring the fact that there are not only stops five minutes walk away, discounting my immobility post-op and the fact that, to get to the chosen stop, she’d go past school.  Honestly you cannot make it up! When this was challenged and reasoning again explained, I was emailed to say that they presumed transport was no longer required.

So, at the moment, we have none.  The EWO (Education Welfare Officer) at school has escalated this, describing D as “extremely vulnerable”, which she is, if she had to walk anywhere unaccompanied and we’ll see what the next few days brings.

Not an ideal situation, being the day before my surgery and one in which I’ve cried buckets, frustrated tears at the attitudes of “officers” who just don’t understand MH disabilities and how they affect our SN children.

And the empathy, this made me cry too.  Shown by a lovely man in the town council offices, who sat behind his desk with very obvious learning disabilities and told me that it was wrong that the “officers” were treating us like this, said he would help if he could and told me we were being discriminated against.

Empathy from someone who could see the situation for what it was, unfair.

So, that’s where we are, keeping the current situation from D because she will have enough change over the next few weeke without this additional worry.