Fatou Tall’s children are being affected by their seven mile trek to school, taking an hour on two buses. The price of this side-effect of homelessness is £80 per month, Ethan Davies reports
The 18 is the other service Fatou’s girls take(Image: LDRS)
Fatou Tall’s teenage daughters are growing up on the 409 and 81 buses.
Up at 5am, they spend hours on two services for the school run. Bousso and Nabou face a tough grind: Leaving home in Royton just after 6am, ‘grabbing what they can’ for breakfast, doing a full day of class for their GCSEs, then another arduous journey to get home around 6:30pm, a quick half-hour break, and time for homework.
No wonder the ‘oldest always comes back with a headache’.
The girls, in year 11 and 9, have such a trek because they go to school in Harpurhey, more than seven miles from home. Mum-of-four Fatou, 43, never planned for this.
When her eldest daughter and son started secondary school, Manchester Communication Academy in Harpurhey made sense. The family were renting privately nearby until October 2023, when their landlord handed them a section 21 eviction notice.
With help from ‘friends’ scant, healthcare assistant Fatou presented as homeless to Manchester council, which housed them in temporary accommodation in Royton, more than seven miles from school. They’ve been there ever since.
It means her youngest daughters now face a commute on the 409 and 81 buses, at best. The ordeal ‘always worries’ Fatou.
She said: “I’m not comfortable with this. It’s a long way. When I am at work, I cannot put my head down because there’s insecurity when they spend one hour coming home. I’m always worried.”
Fatou Tall works as a healthcare assistant to support her four children. Three days of taxi travel costs her a quarter of her wages(Image: Fatou Tall)
The girls’ only respite comes the bus home, when they might snatch a nap. It’s always clear how tired they are. Fatou went on: “They sleep all the time when they come back.
“Bousso always comes back with a headache. She’s doing her GCSEs, and she goes in early and comes back at 6pm or 6:30 pm.
“She’s out of the house for more than 12 hours and she has to have a 30 minute rest before doing any of her homework. She and Nabou are exhausted.”
Sometimes, it can be even more stressful. If the 409 is late, they take the 59 to Middleton, and 18 to school. Other times, they get to a tram stop and ride until Queens Road. When this delicate balancing act of multiple buses or trams falls apart, the teens ring mum for a taxi.
Kids who get to Manchester Communication Academy before 8am get a free breakfast. It’s popular(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Forking out for a taxi puts a strain on the family finances, with autumn’s three-day Bee Network bus strike resulting in ‘a quarter’ of the mum’s salary going on cabs. The situation would be worse still if Fatou needed to pay £80 every month for two bus passes, but Manchester Communication Academy has stepped in to cover the cost.
The reason why homeless families usually have to pay for school travel is because government rules on home-to-school transport say children are only eligible for free travel if they live more than two miles from class, and there is no ‘suitable school’ nearer.
But it’s almost-impossible to be further than three miles from a school in the city. In Greater Manchester, there are 8,000 children in temporary accommodation.
The school pays for bus passes for some in a pioneering move(Image: Manchester Evening News)
So parents like Fatou normally face two options: Pay for buses, or move her children’s school.
The Manchester Evening News believes no homeless parent should have to make that decision.
It’s why we have called on Andy Burnham to introduce a free bus pass for children in temporary accommodation more than 30 minutes’ walk from school since August. It’s a campaign backed by eight Greater Manchester MPs, including six from the mayor’ Labour Party, high-profile charities, and hundreds of residents who have signed our petition.
It’s now backed by Fatou, who explained: “If kids have free bus passes, it will help a lot. On top of the burden of moving into temporary accommodation it will take one issue off your mind.
“Having to pay for the bus passes is very stressful on top of paying for your own. It’s a good idea. If it was not for the school, I would not be able to manage this.”
Previously (December 3), the mayor said he was ‘sympathetic’ to homeless families’ plight. But he did not commit to introducing the passes.
He said: “What might open the door is we are moving to a more interventionist space as a combined authority when we signed off using 400 empty properties to reduce the bill in temporary accommodation.
“As part of the support packages there’s an opportunity to link the two. I cannot say more than that because we are in discussions over the budget which come to a head in January… we have a lot of things to consider. We are looking at all of it. I am sympathetic.”
Please sign our petition to support the campaign. It takes a minute.