Disabled little girl returns to school after council axed her transport to school

A disabled little girl who had to stop going to school after a council scrapped her school bus place was finally back in the classroom yesterday after a U-turn.

Jessica McMillan was shattered to be told she was being refused a place on her school busfor the first time in five years. She had been attending Willowbank, a specialist primary school more than four miles away from her home but, without the transport, she was unable to get there.

The decision to deny her transport, branded “heartless” by the local Member of Scottish Parliament, meant mum Kathleen was facing having to give up her job as dad Sammy recovers from a stroke. However, Jessica, nine, is now back at school after missing more than two weeks of the start of term after the council reconsidered their application.

Sammy, a 49-year-old mum from Galston, Ayrshire, said: "Jessica has her space in the taxi again and will settle back into that routine which is so important for her."

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Jessica overcame health battles after being diagnosed with MPS1, also known as Hurler syndrome. She was just a baby when her life was saved by stem cells taken from the umbilical cord of another child, reports Daily Record.

Her parents were delighted when she had her place at the specialist school in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, but the youngster missed two weeks at the start of this year due to the transport row. Kathleen cares for Sammy and holds a full-time job at a nursery, so is unable to take her daughter to and from school.

Sammy said: "We feel very harshly treated as we had to make changes other families, many of whom live closer to school, have not had to make. But the transport as part of Jessica’s routine was much more important. Despite asking more than once, they never gave a clear reason why transport was refused. There was no contact number for the people who made the decision which added to the stress and frustration."

Jessica's case was used in 2017 to support the Schiehallion Appeal, the Daily Record's campaign with Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity to bring more clinical trials to young cancer and blood disorder patients in Scotland.

After her birth, the family were told she would die within a few years without a bone marrow transplant. Following a string of treatments, blood from an umbilical cord donated anonymously four years earlier by a mum from outside the UK was flown to Scotland for a lifesaving procedure.

Her blood counts improved dramatically and finally allowed her to go home with her parents and brother, also Sammy, now 14. Today, Jessica has complex needs, mobility problems and developmental delays, requiring a wheelchair for any distance further than 300ft and constant one-to-one care.

East Ayrshire Council said it had reviewed all previous arrangements having implementing an Alternative School Transport policy following a report to cabinet in March of this year and was ensuring "consistent and reasonable steps are taken, on a case-by-case basis, to ensure the future sustainability of alternative school transport".

Linda McAulay-Griffiths, the council's Director of Education and Skills and Chief Education Officer said: "East Ayrshire Council is not in a position to provide comment on the specifics of any individual case."