The
Minutes:
The
Chairman welcomed to the meeting David Morgan, County Solicitor who had been
requested to attend to clarify the legal position in relation to Home to School
Transport and the implications of the decision of the Cabinet to defer the
report on a number of transport related matters. Tony Kirk, Sustainable Travel
Manager from the Environment and Transport Department, was invited to join the
discussion on this issue.
The
With regard
to the specific issue relating to the assessment of walking routes to schools,
he advised that the Ombudsman was considering whether the County Council’s
policy adequately reflected guidance issued by the then Department of Education
and Skills (
With regard
to Home to School Transport the
·
The Local Authority had a responsibility to ensure an
adequate supply of high quality school places;
·
The Local Authority was required to make such arrangements
as it considered necessary for the transport of pupils to schools.
To date,
the County Council had discharged these responsibilities through maintaining
schools and by determining the catchment areas for these schools and aligning
the Home to School Transport policy to those catchment areas.
The
introduction of Academies and their ability to determine their own catchment
areas prompted the review. By way of example, the
·
A potential challenge by an Academy in
·
In the event that all the schools in the Melton and the Vale
of Belvoir decided that their catchment area would cover the whole of the
District, County or parts of neighbouring authorities, Authorities would be
required to provide free transport to any child living more than three miles
from a school of their choice.
The
consequence of the second scenario would mean that the County Council could
face substantial increases in the transport budget and have no means of
managing such demand. The proposals therefore put forward in May were that the
County Council should provide transport to the “nearest available school”, irrespective
of if it was in the County or not. It was acknowledged that this might not have
been clearly understood by respondents to the consultation, despite the fact
that the consultation referred to “nearest available school” and not “nearest
available
In response
to questions, the Commission was advised that:
·
The consequences of the Academies agenda on home to school
transport had been drawn to the attention of the Department for Education (DFE)
by a number of authorities. It was hoped that the DFE would provide guidance on
the matter but to date this had not happened;
·
The implications of the “nearest school” policy would mean,
for example, that some children in the County who lived within three miles of a
City School or a school in a neighbouring county would no longer be entitled to
free home to school transport to a Leicestershire School;
·
The current arrangements in relation to ‘feeder primary
schools’ would no longer apply, as the transport entitlement would be based on
the nearest school;
·
Schools converting to Academies were required to retain
existing policies and arrangements for two years. The proposals that had been
put forward in May, and which were not taken on board, had been intended for
introduction in 2014, thereby allowing time for schools and parents to adapt to
the new arrangements;
·
Pupils would be able to go to the school of their choice,
but parents would need to have regard to the consequences of their decision in
relation to availability of transport. A number of schools currently had in
place their own transport arrangements paid for by parents.
On the specific issue of risks facing the Council, the Commission was
advised that the challenge was to develop a policy for implementation by 2015
which:
·
was consistent and equitable across all of the County
and which was not susceptible to challenge and was then consistently applied;
·
did not leave the
Council open to unbudgeted pressures as a result of the existing policy which
might require transporting pupils great distances to schools of their choice.
The Commission was further advised that
discussions were on going between officers and members of the Cabinet on this
issue.
RESOLVED:
(a)
That the information now provided be noted;
(b)
That the issue of home to school transport be kept
under review;
(c)
That consideration be given at the Scrutiny Workshop (referred
to in Minute 284) on what role, if any, Scrutiny could play in relation to this
issue.