{"id":15386,"date":"2018-06-15T15:03:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T14:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15386"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","slug":"unite-community-leeds-school-transport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15386","title":{"rendered":"Standing together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite Community activists in Leeds have been praised by the parents of disabled children after their campaigning helped suspend plans to scrap school transport for the youngsters.<\/p>\n

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Leeds City Council last year announced plans to cut transport services for children with special educational needs and physical disabilities<\/a> entering post-16 education.<\/p>\n

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In an effort to save \u00c2\u0141830,000, the council proposed replacing escorted mini-bus transport with personal travel allowances \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a move that would leave children who have to travel long distances to school stranded and force some parents to give up work.<\/p>\n

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In response, a group of parents formed the Disability Empowerment Action Links (DEAL) campaign in February to fight the cuts.<\/p>\n

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After hearing about the children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plight, activists from Unite Community<\/a> teamed up with DEAL to stage demonstrations, launch a petition and lobby councillors and MPs.<\/p>\n

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Pause to cuts<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Following a campaign that won the backing of two Leeds MPs, who took part in the Leeds trade union council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s May Day rally and attracted widespread media attention, the council last week announced they were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpausing<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the cuts and would be reconsidering the issue.<\/p>\n

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This means disabled children entering, and already in, post-16 education this September will still be able to access transport<\/a> services for the remainder of their time at school.<\/p>\n

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In a statement<\/a> DEAL described the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision as a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsignificant development\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, saying that a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfair travel policy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for children entering post-16 education in the future needs to be developed with their input.<\/p>\n

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The parents group also sent a letter of thanks to the Unite Community activists who assisted with the campaign.<\/p>\n

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The letter read, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe honestly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t thank you guys enough. You helped us tackle the issues that face the most vulnerable in our society and for that we are truly grateful. Our campaign wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be as successful if it we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have you guys standing by us in all of this.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite Community Leeds and Wakefield branch secretary Gerry Lavery said the campaign came about after one of his neighbours got in touch.<\/p>\n

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Lavery said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the parents lives near me and knew I was involved with Unite Community. Services for disabled children had been cut before in Leeds, but this was too much.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome of the parents attended a branch meeting and a motion was passed in support of the campaign. We had leaflets, placards and a banner made for the campaign and we helped with lobbying and raising public awareness. A few of the parents have since joined up as members.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional coordinator John Coan said the campaign was \u00e2\u20ac\u015banother excellent example of the positive changes Unite Community activists make to people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives everyday\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStanding together to fight against injustice and inequality is at the heart of what trade unionism is all about,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Coan said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe hard work and dedication of Leeds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Unite Community members in assisting some of the most vulnerable young people in their community speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlthough the fight goes on to ensure transport services for disabled children in the area remain permanently, the DEAL campaigners can be sure that Unite Community members will be with them every step of the way.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite Community activists in Leeds have been praised by the parents of disabled children after their campaigning helped suspend plans to scrap school transport for the youngsters.   Leeds City Council last year announced plans to cut transport services for children with special educational needs and physical disabilities entering post-16 education.   In an effort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[533,232],"wps_subtitle":"Unite Community Leeds teams up with parents to save school transport","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26134,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15386\/revisions\/26134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}