THE Labour group on Monmouthshire council will look to amend the authority’s transport policy for young people with special educational needs at a meeting on Thursday.

In September, council-provided transport for 32 students with SENs to their colleges in Gwent was discontinued just before the start of the school year, leaving many parents scrambling around to find alternative means of transport for their children.

Although a number have had their transport reinstated after an appeals process, Labour group leader Cllr Dimitri Batrouni says the council’s policy is “uncaring and complacent”. He added the authority needed to recognise that young people with a mental disability also have a medical need and should be treated in the same way as young people with a physical disability.

He said it was important parents are informed of the council’s decision on whether transport is available much sooner than they were this year.

Several communication glitches had left parents only a couple of days at the end of August to arrange transport for the new academic year.

A Caldicot mother whose daughter was denied transport, only to see it reinstated last month, said she was not “holding her breath” for a change in policy because of the attitudes demonstrated by the authority.

Kate Kronenbach’s 17-year-old daughter Sophie Fieldhouse, who is autistic, is now receiving transport provided by the authority.

But cabinet member for children and young people, Cllr Liz Hacket Pain, told the Argus she was hopeful the policy would remain unchanged later this week, adding she was confident it is not discriminatory because of the equalities impact assessments the council would have had to carry out when it was first introduced in 2009.

Cllr Hacket Pain added: “I am sure there wouldn’t be anything that discriminates at all because you wouldn’t be able to get that through the equality survey.”