Spectrum was founded in 2016, to improve and standardise training for thousands of taxi drivers and escorts who take pupils with Special Educational Needs to and from school.
Children and young people at specialist SEN schools in the UK are some of the most vulnerable children in our society. Before Spectrum there was a serious loophole in safeguarding these children during their journeys.
With more than a decade of invaluable experience gained in the UK’s SEN Sector, Spectrum founder Jane Saggers set to rectify concerning irregularities in the training provision for SEN transport services provided through local authority contracts.
In the UK in 2015, more than £370 million of public money was spent transporting children with Special Educational Needs. Although taxi and minibus drivers and escorts were required by law to provide DBS certificates to check their criminal records, there was no standardised training for them.
It left drivers & escorts with little understanding of the vulnerability of the children in the vehicle, and little or no training in safeguarding.
Spectrum’s first digital learning courses were launched in 2017, having won support from parents, carers, headteachers, SEN specialists and local authority transport teams.
Taxi drivers and pupil escorts welcomed the initiative to make journeys more successful with SEN pupils. In some areas, children are on journeys lasting 90 minutes each day.
Working in conjunction with leading SEN industry professionals, Spectrum produced the UK’s first certified & accredited training course for SEN taxi drivers and escorts.
Spectrum Courses registered as a Limited Company in England (No: 11866193) in April 2020, having been a wholly owned subsidiary of MSM Ltd (No 5401761) since 2016.