Agenda item

The Cabinet Lead Member for Transportation, Mr. P. C. Osborne CC, has been invited to the meeting for this item.

 

A copy of the report to be considered at the meeting of the Cabinet on 15 July is attached for the Commission’s consideration. The Commission’s comments will be reported to the Cabinet.

 

The Scrutiny Commission considered a joint report of the Director of Environment and Transport, the Director of Children and Family Services and the County Solicitor, the purpose of which was to consider proposals to implement a new Mainstream Home to School Transport Policy, following the conclusion of two public consultations, which would be considered by the Cabinet, for approval, on 15 July 2014. A copy of the report, marked ‘agenda item 8’, is filed with these minutes.

 

In presenting the outcomes of the second consultation, the Director of Environment and Transport confirmed that the total number of responses received had fallen to 398 responses compared to that of 2,027 received in the first consultation. Whilst this suggested that the new proposals had addressed many of the concerns raised in the first consultation the proportion of the 398 opposed to the revised consultation proposals remained high.

 

The Director also confirmed that a petition containing 1385 signatures, presented by Mr L. Yates CC to the Scrutiny Commission on 30th April 2014, requesting the provision of transport to the nearest Leicestershire County Catchment school containing 1385 signatures had also been considered and it was noted that the revised policy proposals addressed its main concerns, as detailed in paragraphs 43 to 49 of the report.

 

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Mr. P. C. Osborne CC, the Lead Member for highways and transportation.

 

Mr Osborne welcomed the opportunity to bring back the outcome of the second consultation to the Scrutiny Commission and was grateful to all those who had replied, including local members, to both consultations. He hoped the revised proposals would be seen as equitable and acceptable to everyone.  and commended the frequently asked questions section of the report (appendix 7 to the report refers) which he hoped would help parents understanding of the issues raised.

 

Arising from issues raised by members regarding the appeals process against refusal of eligibility to transport assistance, the County Solicitor clarified the following points:-

 

     i)        Individual appeals by parents were processed by a two stage system under the jurisdiction of the County Solicitor which covered both mainstream and special educational needs home to school transport. In the first instance parents could appeal to another officer who had not been involved in the original decision. If parents remained dissatisfied they then had a right to request a further appeal considered by a panel of three officers who had been independent of the decision making process up until that point;

 

    ii)        There was no charge to parents who launched appeals to the local authority or via an academy as the provision of a free appeal service to parents was a statutory requirement. Where academy schools, which were independent of the local authority, had bought in its services, effectively as a traded activity the charge levied by the Local Authority was at the flat rate recommended by the Department for Education. It was also to be noted that the Education Funding Agency provided funds to academy schools to manage their appeals process.

 

   iii)        The County Council was required to follow a national scheme which required parents to express school preferences for their child by a date in October, with the final decision made and notified to parents by the end of March for secondary aged school transfers and during May for primary transfers. Only after those decisions were notified of allocation to nearest or second nearest school were parents expected to apply for school transport and places then allocated, which meant parents who appealed were not placed at a disadvantage in seeking transport availability. Should the consultation proposals be approved by the Cabinet, it was confirmed there were no plans for the process to change;

 

Arising from general discussion, the following points were also noted:-

 

   iv)        The County Council’s proposals remained better than the statutory minimum with primary school children receiving mainstream home to school transport when living further than two miles from the nearest school, rather than the statutory three;

 

    v)        The requirement for home to school transport to be provided where there was no safe walking route to school for primary aged children under 2 miles and for secondary aged children under three miles remained and would not be affected should the revised proposals be approved. Following a request, the Director undertook to circulate the Safer walking Routes to School policy to members of the committee, for their information.

 

   vi)        Consideration of the development of an ICT solution to require families to pro-actively apply for statutory home to school transport from the 2016/17 year onwards rather than being provided transport automatically as part of the current admissions process was designed to create efficiencies compared to the current paper based system. Members were assured that in seeking the procurement of an appropriate ICT system, it would be on the basis of being as accessible as possible for parents;

 

 vii)        If schools changed their age range and/or catchment area which meant a different school was now closest to the pupil’s home, transitional arrangements would be made for existing pupils to retain their transport provision whilst they remained at their school until their next appropriate transfer point. However, any new pupils entering the school would only receive transport to the new nearest school;

 

viii)        Overall, the policy proposals were expected to be cost neutral, with one additional post required in the Sustainable Travel Group for one year to support the transition from the old to new policy, to be managed within existing budgets;

 

   ix)        Whilst the Government’s policy had been to increase the number of independent schools free from the control of the local authority, provision of transport had remained the responsibility of the local authority rather than the school. In that light, the revised mainstream home to school transport policy proposals had been designed to be as clear and transparent as possible, allowing for a compromise of Leicestershire parents being able to obtain transport to a Leicestershire school but not putting the Authority’s budget at risk or placing it at risk of being seen to discriminate between parents of children at different schools;

 

    x)        A number of academies already provided their own school transport arrangements and had received advice and technical support from the County Council on how they might procure their own transport arrangements. For those schools which were most affected by the policy proposals, whilst the Authority was unable to provide additional transport on an exception basis which then could then be subject to review, advice and support was available to any academy which sought to run its own transport arrangements as a result of the policy proposals or for any other reason;

 

   xi)        There remained concern that as a result of the Education and Skills Act 2008, requiring anyone up to the age of 18 to participate in full time education or training from 2015 onwards, a significant financial burden would be placed upon families of students requiring transport to attend further education;

 

 xii)        It was welcomed that following the Notice of Motion, agreed on an all-party basis at the 2 July County Council meeting, a letter had now been sent to Central Government urging it to provide full funding to local authorities to enable them to extend the provision of free school transport to students aged 16-18 living further than three miles from their school.

 

In concluding its discussion the Committee expressed its support for the revised policy proposals, believing it represented a much improved approach following the initial consultation. Whilst it considered there remained legitimate concerns for some individual schools, the Committee noted that if the Authority was to amend its policy proposals further it would then leave it open to challenge for treating one school more favourably than an another. Should the policy be approved by the Cabinet, the Committee wished for the Authority to provide as clear and concise advice as possible to help parents in understanding the new arrangements, both in terms of process and their transport entitlement in the future.

 

RESOLVED:

 

a)    That the revised proposals for implementing a new Mainstream Home to School Transport Policy, as detailed in the report to Cabinet, be supported;

 

b)    That the comments of the Scrutiny Commission as outlined above be submitted to the Cabinet for its consideration at its meeting on 15 July 2014.