Have your say on proposed changes to school and college transport support
Friday, 29 January 2021
We're asking parents and carers for their views on proposed changes to our home to school or college travel assistance policies.
The policies outline who is eligible for free or discounted travel to school and college.
In certain circumstances, we provide support with home to school and college transport to school pupils aged 5 to 16, and students attending post-16 education. We're proposing changes after parents, carers and professionals fed back about the existing policies during engagement sessions to review the policies.
Now, we've launched a twelve-week public consultation to secure feedback on the proposed changes from the wider public.
Find out more about our proposals and have your say.
We're proposing to:
- update our policy for children aged 5 to 16 to extend the eligibility criteria to cover more groups of children; this will include support for those in joint custody arrangements, and children with special educational needs.
- update our policy for 16 to 19 year-olds so that it is clearer for parents to understand, with the eligibility criteria remaining the same
- create a policy document outlining the clear eligibility criteria for parents and young people over the age of 19
Any changes to our policies will come into effect for the September 2022 intake of pupil admissions, so we're is consulting with the public now to ensure responses can be considered ahead of the next round of school admissions.
Councillor Sue Clark, our Executive Member for Families, Education and Children, said:
The most common feedback on our existing policies is that the eligibility criteria aren’t clear enough, and the criteria are hard to interpret. We have proposed new wording for all of our policies to ensure that parents and practitioners are clear on who can get support with travel.
We’ve also made a number of changes to the 5 to 16 policy, to extend the eligibility criteria to cover more groups of children. This will include support for those in joint custody arrangements, and children with special educational needs.
We’re keen to hear people’s views on the proposals. It is important that everyone who is entitled to assistance to get from home to school is able to access the service, and I hope the proposed changes will make this clearer.