Decision details

To decide on the Council’s response to the petition regarding Home to School Transport provision. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for the Lead Member to hear the concerns of parents who signed the petition regarding the withdrawal of bus passes for some children attending Chailey School.

5.1       The Lead Member considered a report by the Director of Children's Services.

5.2       Ms Charlotte Strong, Lead Petitioner for the petition calling on the County Council for a bigger school bus to transport the rural children of Barcombe safely to and from Chailey Secondary School’ spoke to highlight safety concerns regarding rural children from Barcombe walking across fields unaccompanied by a parent or carer in order to get to and from school, the policies suitability in order to determine whether the routes are safe and requesting that the Council works together with families from Barcombe who are affected, to find safe routes to and from their nearest local school. 

DECISIONS

5.3       The Lead Member RESOLVED to advise the petitioners that:

(1) The home to school transport policy (HTST policy) has not changed, and is being consistently applied to families across the county; and

(2) Parents and carers of children who are not entitled to transport assistance can appeal via a two-stage process; and

(3) The possibility of combining current services into a supported bus service available to fare-paying passengers is being explored. Should this be successful, children who do not qualify for transport assistance would be able to travel by bus on payment of the appropriate fare.

REASONS

5.4       The HTST policy aligns with the Education Act 1996 and has remained substantially unchanged. ESCC policy has been able to provide transport only to children whose available walking routes to their local school are further than the statutory walking distance of three miles, unless they are medically unfit to walk to school or qualify under extended rights for low-income families.

5.5       Where walking routes have been assessed as unavailable, transport assistance is supplied.  Transport assistance is withdrawn if alternative routes are found to be available and within the statutory walking distance. In this case a route safety report was requested following an application for transport from a family living on the route, as the previous assessment was out of date.

5.6       Routes may be re-assessed at any time and it is possible that the above situation may change, should routes become available as a result of improvements to infrastructure and/or measuring systems.

5.7       The petition sets out that there are four families with six children affected in this case.  East Sussex County Council (ESCC) considers it reasonable to expect these families to work together to ensure that the children are able to make the home to school journey in reasonable safety.

5.8       The possibility of combining current services into a supported bus service available to fare-paying passengers is being explored. Should this be successful, children who do not qualify for transport assistance would be able to travel by bus on payment of the appropriate fare and petitioners will be notified.

5.9       The HTST policy has not changed and is being consistently applied to families across the county. Parents whose children are not entitled to transport assistance are able to appeal via a two-stage process.