Changes to school travel arrangements on agenda at Rutland County Council
Changes to Rutland’s school travel arrangements, which will increase costs for some families, are set for approval next week.
Earlier this year, Rutland County Council carried out a consultation with families about proposed changes to the existing school and post 16-travel assistance policy, which included proposals such as removing free travel for post 16s and giving some SEN families personal travel budgets to organise transport for their children themselves.
The cabinet is set to approve the new policy on Tuesday next week (May 20), with many of the new arrangements set to come into place for September next year.
The report, which will be discussed by senior councillors, says the authority’s transport budget is under considerable pressure and demand is outstripping the funding.
In the most recent financial year the Lib-Dem run authority allocated £3.159m on home to school transport but overspent by several hundred thousand, coming in at £3.97m. The majority of the overspend was in the SEN transport budget, as the vast majority of transport is provided by taxis, which are significantly more expensive per mile than buses.
The report says: “Since 2017 there have been changes to the Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance on transport matters and a substantial increase in the number of young people receiving travel assistance. This has placed significant pressure on the transport budget for this area of provision with demand exceeding the funding available.
"The forecasted/outturn costs have increased by 107% over the last six years, especially for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) at 259%. It should be noted that the number of young people with SEND and an EHCP has increased from 272 in 2020/21 to 367 in 2023/24. In addition to this, the costs of transporting inclusion pupils have increased by 257% in the past year alone.”
It continues: “Whilst some of the proposed changes will result in a less favourable offer for some, any families suffering hardship or other difficulties may apply for travel assistance under the exceptional circumstances process contained within the policy. Also, students attending Post 16 learning may apply to their learning centre for support from the discretionary bursary fund.”
There are a number of changes in the policy including children who change schools as part of a managed move (often done to avoid permanent exclusion) will have their transport reassessed after ten weeks and likely to have to pay the travel costs if it is not the nearest school; Post 16s, apart from SEN young adults, will have to pay for their travel and those travelling from out of county on local authority run transport will see their bus pass increase significantly to £1,000.
The authority projects it will save £87,000 this year, £174,000 the next financial year and £265,000 in the one after that due to the changes.
69 people responded to the survey with many showing they were not happy with the suggested changes to post-16 arrangements and only a quarter said they would like to have their own personal transport budget to arrange their own travel.
The authority is following the suit of many local authorities in changing its policy, as many parents now have to pay for their child’s transport to school.
