Grace Thompson, who lives off Caledonian Road, relies on a council-provided service to take her seven-year-old autistic daughter to school

FRUSTRATED parents and their vulnerable children have been left “in limbo” after a specialist council-provided school transport service abruptly shut up shop.

Islington Council was engaged in a contract with school transport provider Fox Transport, who assisted parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with transport to and from school, but were informed last Friday that the company was going into liquidation.

Grace Thompson, who lives off Caledonian Road, has been relying on the service to take her autistic seven-year-old daughter Birdie to Drayton Park School since February.

On Monday, no pick-up arrived for Birdie, and she received no prior communication from the council or Fox Transport on the sudden changes.

Ms Thompson said that Birdie is severely autistic – she is non-verbal, cannot walk without assistance and struggles with changes to her routine. She attends Drayton Park School on a specialist art placement due to her complex needs. Her twin brother, Miles, is also autistic and attends Sacred Heart Primary School in Holloway.

Ms Thompson said she was only informed of the changes by Drayton Park School on Monday after collection time, and has been left completely in the dark by the “disorganised” council.

When making contact with them, she said she was advised to book a cab for the school run, at her own expense.

She told the Tribune: “It shouldn’t be up to the school to let me know this kind of information. I was waiting around at 8.30am on Monday morning thinking ‘where is my daughter’s transport?’ She becomes extremely disregulated when there are big changes to her routine.

“I’m exhausted and stressed because this has completely interrupted Birdie’s routine, and also mine. I started to get panicky yesterday, and I even had a meltdown myself. It’s just such an inconvenience and highlights the incompetence of the council. We’ve had no correspondence, no sympathy, nothing.”

Alisha Johnson relies on the service for her eight-year-old son Roman

Another parent who relies on Fox Transport, Alisha Johnson, was contacted by the council on Saturday informing her of the immediate closure of the service. Her eight-year-old son Roman is autistic and uses the service to commute to Drayton Park School each morning, while she takes her daughter to school in Hackney.

She said that despite an initial email, nobody from the council has made any further contact with her about the sudden change in arrangements, and she has had to pay out of her own pocket for trains, buses and cabs to take Roman to school this week.

She told the Tribune: “There’s a bus full of people with kids with SEND who I know must be in the same situation as us. I understand these things happen but it’s the lack of communication – since my first email on Saturday nobody’s phoned me. Nobody’s emailed me.

“I’ve been trying all different ways to get Roman to school to appease him because he’s not a child who can just take the bus and be fine. I’m having to fork out money for trains, Ubers and different ways we can get him to and from school each day.

“They’ve only just gone back to school after Easter and I’m already feeling drained. Dealing with a SEND child alone is enough stress – this is just adding so much more. “Fox Transport bus was full every day and so I know that there must be a bunch of us in the same boat, stuck in limbo.”

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “When Fox Transport informed us on Friday that it would cease trading the same day, we began urgent work to put alternative transport in place. We made attempts to contact affected residents, their families or carers directly on Friday.

“The lack of notice from Fox Transport made it harder to ensure everyone needing transport to schools and care provision on Monday could get it. However, we secured an alternative provider, enabling support for more than half of those passengers on Monday morning. “By Wednesday afternoon the remaining affected routes were being provided for by alternative suppliers.

“We’re sorry for the initial difficulty we had reaching Ms Thompson and will reimburse her for the taxi costs incurred as a direct result of the disruption. We are aware that some families have paid for transport themselves and they are asked to email SENTransport@ islington.gov.uk so they can be reimbursed.

“We are sorry for the significant disruption, inconvenience and worry that Fox Transport’s closure caused.”

Fox Transport did not respond to a request to comment.