Undignified and demeaning treatment from Haringey SEND Transport
- By Brian Leveson
- •
- 18 May, 2022
- •
Despite sending doorbell cam footage of a male transport escort explaining the terms and conditions of travel to a semi-naked woman, SEND Transport is happy staff behaved professionally
Women's safety and dignity are the issue here.
Now, it's important to say, Mrs DP normally does not encounter anyone on our doorstep at 8 am, not least a man she does not recognise. Her expectation was car, path, door, home. Not a man she had never met before nor to be told the terms and conditions of Haringey SEND Transport.
Mrs DP asks him who he is and he explains he's the cover escort. There was some confusion as to who should be on our sons route that morning and it emerges we had been sent an email at 7:30 am (who check's their email at 7:30 am when they have a paraplegic 17 year old to wash and dress - in a bathroom without hoists thanks to Haringey Council's failings ... ...).
Anyway, we establish an email was sent, so he asks Mr's DP "Am I taking him?".
Mrs DP says "Can I get dressed before I make any decisions?"
The escort then, some what inappropriately, decides to explain Haringey SEND transport terms and conditions, to a woman in a swimming costume on a path in North London trying to get in to get dressed.
Guess what? We complained...
Not enough, the escort continues to further clarify the terms and conditions to a woman, in a swimming costume, on their step, in North London, about 8:06 am in the morning ...
We declined the offer of transport, somewhat distressed by the whole encounter, and complain.
And here's what SEND Transport has to say about it.
Thank you for your patience whilst we investigated these matters.
I have reviewed the evidence and can’t find any evidence to suggest that our staff have acted unprofessionally.
Based on the evidence (our doorbell cam footage), [the escort] has followed procedure in this instance. Our usual procedure is to allow three minutes from arrival at the pick up point for parents to get their children ready for collection. We acknowledge that in the case of children with special educational needs this may need to be extended; as there are numerous reasons which could prevent this from being achievable. We do on occasion allow up to 10-15 minutes on a case by case basis, depending on the needs of the child as well as the other passengers on board the vehicle. If you feel that you may not be able to get [your son] ready by the usual pick up time, which I believe is usually around 8am, please can you let the office know and we can ensure that the escort is briefed beforehand? I will ensure that staff are fully aware of the process surrounding extending pick up times but prior to arranging your own transport, please do check with us and we can clarify the situation.
We are not able to cover the expenses of the taxi for this journey. The vehicle and escort were on site and able to transport [your son] and you made the choice to undertake the journey yourselves. We therefore can’t cover the costs for this journey.
Due to the issues we have experienced on this route with a number of escorts, do you think it would be beneficial for the escort to wait on the vehicle outside your property and you bring [your son] to and from the vehicle? This may reduce the chance of incidents we have previously experienced, and not only relating to this particular incident, from occurring again. (This is because after an incident with one of the escort, we bought a doorbell cam. Haringey being Haringey did not believe what we said and instead make a false counter allegation that is very vague and they refuse to either substantiate or withdraw).
In terms of your request to not have [the escort] on the route again, unfortunately we only have finite resources at our disposal. These are particularly stretched when we have to cover route due to escort absences and I cannot guarantee that we will have to put[the escort]on this route again. If this is not agreeable from your perspective, we are more than happy to assist you with a personal travel budget. You may be aware through our consultation documentation for the new home to school travel assistance policy that we may be able to offer bespoke personal travel budgets in the future. If this is of interest, please do let me know and we’ll be more than happy to discuss the ways in which we can assist you financially to provide [your son's] transport.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.
Customer Charter - modified for fun by me
We will:
- Treat you with courtesy and respect (Unless it's 8 am and you ask to go in to get dressed before continuing a conversation in your swimming costume) ...
- Embrace, promote and value the diversity of our customers
- Be open and honest with you
- Always use plain language
- Respect your right to confidentiality, privacy and safety (This is not applicable to SEND transport encountering semi-naked women in swimming costumes at 8 am trying to get back into their own homes).
- Let you know the name of the person you are dealing with (A male evaluating the behaviour of another male and not considering for a moment the dignity of a woman)
- Make the council easy to do business with (Except when you ask to get dressed first before you do business with us).
- Investigate and resolve your complaints and keep you informed of progress (Yup, they did that!).
- Protect our staff from abuse and harassment (This is not a mutual clause, we protect our staff from harrassment, but we can't say the same will happen to you).
- Apologise for our mistakes and seek to put things right (As long as we see them as mistakes - explaining terms and conditions to a woman in a swimming costume is not a mistake).
- Continually improve our service to you and welcome your feedback
