The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance presented a report to Members regarding a previous decision of Cabinet to propose changes to the Council’s Learner Travel Policy which will take effect from September 2016, and to inform the Forum on how the policy change will contribute to the overall saving in the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy 2016/17 to 2019/20 (MTFS).

The report provided some background information, following which the report outlined that the Council’s Learner Travel Policy was no longer financially sustainable, and the MTFS sought to achieve potential revenue savings relating to the Learner Travel Policy as detailed in Table 1 of the report.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance advised that the Council had already made efficiency savings of £1m in respect of the Learner Travel transport Contract through the transport operators.

The next section of the report confirmed how further savings were required to be made in future years of the MTFS in respect of reviewing the Learner Transport Policy regarding statutory distances for free travel. £67k had been targeted in terms of savings in this area within each of the three years for 2017 – 2020.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance confirmed that in order to take forward these savings, the following three proposals to amend the LA’s Learner Travel Policy were put forward:-

1. To increase the distance required for free transport between a pupil’s home and their school, to match the distance required by law (including Welsh medium and Voluntary aided schools)
2. To charge the full cost of a school bus pass for pupils who do not receive free school transport
3. To stop providing free transport for learners aged 16 or over, who go to school or college

He added that a full consultation exercise was then carried out in respect of these proposals, with the outcome of this presented to Cabinet in September 2015. The decision Cabinet made was detailed in paragraph 4.5 of the report.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance confirmed that since the Cabinet decision in September, the budget proposal built into the MTFS relating to this saving/estimated shortfall had been removed, mitigating the potential budget shortfall.

Referring to paragraph 4.6 of the report, the Group Manager, Business Transformation and Performance advised that proposal 1 above was accepted. Proposal 2 was also accepted, but the cost of a paying place was amended to £1.90 per day. However, proposal 3 was not accepted, other than post 16 pupils receiving free home to school transport in line with the statutory walking distance for secondary age pupils ie at 3 miles rather than 2 miles.

A Member confirmed that he was unhappy with some elements of the report.

He asked the Officer if an Environmental Impact Assessment had been carried out in respect of the proposed changes. He asked this, considering that there was a distance of 3 miles from one end of the valley in Maesteg to the other, which was some considerable distance for any pupil who may be required to walk to school if not satisfying any of the criteria in order to qualify for transport arrangements.

He noted that Cabinet had approved the cost of a paying place at £1.90 per day for all school pupils (including post-16 students, and he asked upon what basis this fee had been calculated.

He also considered that the use of taxi’s could be considered in some cases of transporting young people to/from their place of education, as this could prove less expensive than some forms of transport, particularly if the taxi was shared by pupils.

He further noted that just last week, Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC had agreed  that no payment would be made by pupils in that area for school transport up to a distance of 3 meals from their point of pick-up/collection to their place of education.

He asked also if parents earning low levels of income had been considered for as part of the proposals, and if schools had been consulted upon in respect of car sharing for pupils, in order to ease traffic flow to and from schools. He was also concerned that there would be no pupils having to walk to schools along routes not considered as safe routes to schools.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance confirmed that a full Equality Impact Assessment had been carried out with regard to the changes in respect of Learner Travel provision, and that the report that was submitted to Cabinet had been an extremely comprehensive document consisting of over 400 pages long.

He advised that the proposals had been the subject of a very in-depth consultation process that involved children, parents, School governors, Head teachers (and  support staff), as well as the holding of a series of public meetings, where the impact of all the changes proposed had been discussed.

As a result of this consultation process, some changes had been made to that which had been previously proposed, so the Council had both listened to and acted upon some of the concerns raised by the consultees.

As part of the consultation exercise, Officers had also looked at any likely traffic implications that would arise as part of the changes to the Learner Travel Policy including highway safety, as a result of any potential increase in school transport provision. Matters of any increased pollution through carbon monoxide emissions had also been looked into he added.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance added that discretionary powers could be used by Officers through the use of a Welfare Fund, if an application was made to support a family if they identified any risks to them as a result of the changes, including financial risk.

He confirmed that he was aware that Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC had changed its Learner Travel Policy that would benefit its clientele, however, this had been their decision as part of their budget reduction proposals. They would still have to make the required savings they had originally earmarked for Learner Travel, but this would now have to be made in a different service area.

With regard to the qualifying distance for free secondary school transport changing from 2 miles to 3 miles, the Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance, confirmed that a considerable number of local authorities offered this, and BCBC were merely adjusting this more in line with what these other Authorities were providing. He reminded Members that savings had to be made in the area of Learner Travel under the Council’s MTFS, and particularly due to the fact that the Council had historically provided over and above the level of transport provision it was required to, (including free transport provision) under statutory legislation. Though some of the decisions in terms of changes to the Policy would disadvantage some, they quite simply had to be made he added.

A Member referred to the previous resolution of Cabinet, and that no decision had been made regarding proposal 3 above, ie to withdraw free post -16 transport to school and college students, leaving an estimated budget shortfall of £529k for 2016-17. She was of the understanding that this saving whilst having been deferred, would still have to be met in future.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance, advised that at present this required saving had been removed from the MTFS. He added however, that any future strategic evaluation review undertaken in the Education and Children’s Directorate may require revisiting this element of the Policy, particularly with regard to Post 16 students. The saving would still have to be made within the Directorate in any event he added, as it was incumbent upon Directorates to make the savings earmarked against them under the MTFS, with it being the responsibility  of Members and Directors in terms of in what service areas these earmarked savings will be made.

A Member raised some concern regarding any potential cases of children having to walk to and from school as a result of the proposed changes to the Learner Travel Policy.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance confirmed that no children would be expected to walk to school along a route that was not considered in the category of a “Safe Route to School” in accordance with the necessary guidance. Routes to schools were also reviewed regularly in order to ensure that they could still be classed as being safe under the relevant guidance. He added that the Education Authority did everything in its power to ensure that pupils refrained from walking to any school unless it was served by a safe route.

He added that there was a provision in the Learner Travel Policy to protect free transport in certain circumstances, that included Welsh Medium and Voluntary Aided schools, and the same applied up to 2 miles for primary schools and 3 miles for secondary schools. The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance further added that parents/pupils could also choose these category of schools if the closest suitable school and free transport would still be honoured to take pupils to/from these schools.

A Member asked how and when were families advised of changes affecting the Learner Travel Policy, and if there was an appeal process that could be pursued for those who wished to object to the changes to the Policy.

The Group Manager, Business Strategy and Performance confirmed that families were informed of the changes through the Schools Admissions Policy contained in the Council’s ‘Starting Schools’ booklet , ie it was made clear in this document the criteria under which pupils qualified for school transport arrangements, including free transport.

He further added that there was no appeal process, however, families could apply for free school transport through the Council’s discretionary transport policy, where each case received would be considered on its own merits.

The Chairperson concluded debate on this item, by advising that excess vehicular movements on the highway infrastructure was a problem that extended throughout the UK, rather than just being prevalent within the Bridgend County Borough, and traffic conditions improved significantly at normal school start/finishing times during school holidays. He added that as a Member of the Cabinet that made a decision regarding the changes to the Learner Travel Policy, he was confident in saying that these changes had to be made under the terms of the MTFS, even though this decision had been difficult to make, as had others affecting key service areas in all Directorates across the Authority.

RESOLVED:                  That the Forum noted the contents of the report outlining the decision of Cabinet on the changes to the Local Authority’s Learner Travel Policy and associated MTFS savings.