Who will be affected?
Any change to the policy will only apply to new mainstream home to school transport applications, from September 2026.
All existing home to school transport arrangements will be honoured until the child leaves their current establishment.
Parent/carers will still be able to apply for any school they choose. However, under this proposed change, we would only provide transport to the child’s nearest suitable school. Therefore, if a parent/carer chooses to send their child to a school further away, it will be the parent/carers responsibility to get their child to/from school.
Please note, the postcode search results are indicative of the nearest school(s) which is determined by the centre of a postcode. The distance to a school may vary, either shorter or longer from your specific address, or 2 schools could serve one postcode.
We’ve provided maps in Appendix 1 to help people understand what this change will mean in future. The maps have been produced for illustrative purposes on the nearest school areas across Central Bedfordshire. Please note, this shows the nearest school could sometimes be outside Central Bedfordshire, in a neighbouring Local Authority.
If you are unclear where your nearest school is from the maps, you can contact the School Transport team on htst.consultation@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk during the consultation or at one of the consultation events.
We have developed a summary of the impact assessment findings, grouped by school type and individual schools in Appendix 2.