Councillors are set to be briefed about details surrounding a review of our revised home to school travel policy.
Members of our children and families overview and scrutiny committee will meet on Wednesday (17 September) to be informed about a post-implementation review that will take place in July next year.
The timing is designed to allow a full round of admissions to have taken place and travel to have begun and operated for a year.
Our deputy leader, Cllr Gareth Dadd, whose responsibilities include finance, said: “We adopted this policy last year to ensure that we can provide the fairest system possible for all parents, while facing such significant rises in the cost of providing the service.
“The meeting on Wednesday is an opportunity for elected members to learn more about what the review entails so they will be able to see the progress of the policy after its first year of implementation.
“They represent our communities and will have listened to feedback and so it will be valuable to hear what the committee’s members feel about the scope of the review.”
In July last year, our members voted to replace the previous home to school travel policy which offered the choice of travel to the nearest school or the child’s catchment area school.
The changes, which were implemented from 1 September 2024, were designed to make our home to school transport policy fair to all families, responsible and affordable.
Providing school transport is one of the three largest areas of our expenditure, now costing us £52.5 million a year - alongside adult social care and waste management.
We are one of the highest spending local authorities in the country on home to school transport.
If the policy had not been revised, then the rising cost of home to school travel could have had a crippling effect on the other services that we must deliver by law.
The review aims to evaluate the effectiveness, success and overall impact of the revised policy. It will also focus on assessing challenges encountered during the rollout, monitor if the intended objectives have been achieved and collect ideas to improve future efforts.
Under the revised policy:
- free transport is provided for eligible pupils to the nearest school to their home address
- support is provided with travel to a child who lives within the statutory walking distance to their catchment or nearest suitable school if the route has been assessed as “unsafe” and there is no other alternative route below the statutory walking distance
- all contracted routes used to take pupils to school are risk assessed
- discretionary powers have been extended for the eligibility of travel assistance for secondary age pupils from low-income families to attend one of their three nearest suitable schools within two to 12 miles. This is to reflect the rural context of the county and ensure low-income families in rural areas are supported
Cllr Dadd said: “We listened to people’s views and consulted widely on the proposals before the new policy was introduced. We introduced the new policy to make sure that frontline services can be protected due to the escalating costs of providing home to school transport.
“We continue to listen to feedback and are committed to the review of the policy next summer.”