Direct payments for travel assistance for children with special educational needs
Contact the team via telephone on 020 8314 6363, and email at tct@lewisham.gov.uk.
Please include your name, your child’s name, and a contact number in any emails.
If you are entitled to travel assistance, you can apply for direct payments. These payments let you choose and buy the services you need from any provider, instead of getting them directly from us.
The benefits of direct payments are:
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greater control over the services or resources you would like to get, in a more convenient and flexible way to support your child’s needs
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greater control over when and how you get the services or resources
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more independence and choice
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you can buy services from a wide variety of providers, which we may not have been able to arrange directly.
The amount of direct payment paid to a parent or carer is calculated by an award of:
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70p per mile between home and the child’s school (in-borough schools only) – for students attending school daily we assume four journeys per day (to and from school in the morning and in the afternoon)
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45p per mile between home and the child’s place of education (out-of-borough schools only) – for students attending school daily we assume four journeys per day (to and from school in the morning and in the afternoon).
If you are interested in getting a direct payment, please indicate this on the application form. We will then consider this as one of the options for travel assistance if we assess that your child is entitled to it.