Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

1.    That Cabinet approve the draft Policy for consultation.

2.    That Cabinet approve the approach to the public consultation.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined the proposed key changes to the Home to School Transport Policy and sought approval from Cabinet to commence a period of public consultation. The Council had a statutory responsibility to make suitable travel arrangements to and from school for eligible children of compulsory school age. Statutory guidance was published by the Department for Education (DfE) and set out what local authorities had to do to comply with the law.

The consultation exercise would pay particular attention to any proposed amendments along with those that would ensure compliance with the new statutory guidance. The Policy review also aimed to improve the existing content and accessibility, so that parents and carers could easily source all relevant information, on which to make informed decisions regarding their children’s education.

The statutory guidelines had been updated and published on 29th June, 2023. Prior to this, the guidelines were last updated and published by DfE on 18th July, 2014, meaning that there was now a requirement to review the existing Home to School Policy ahead of the new academic year that would commence in September 2024.

Details of the key changes requiring improvement were at paragraph 2.4 of the report and the full draft Policy was attached as Appendix 1. The changes related to:

·       Local Authority statutory duties for eligible children and young people

·       Clearer definitions of key words which overarched full policy, such as “suitable school”, “home address” and “qualifying schools”

·       The definition of what was defined as suitable/qualifying schools

·       Statutory walking distances

·       Travel Solutions (including Independent Travel Training)

·       Behaviour expectations, public transport

·       Behaviour expectations on assisted home to school transport (SEND)

·       Eligibility and application process children/young people (SEND)

·       Local authority discretionary powers

·       Safeguarding

·       Suitability of transport arrangements

·       Parental payments

·       Overarching principles

The consultation would commence in January 2024 if approval was given by Cabinet. It would run for a period of 28 days during term time. A final draft Policy would be developed and presented to Cabinet for consideration in March 2024.

Resolved:

1.    That Cabinet approve the draft Policy for consultation.

2.    That Cabinet approve the approach to the public consultation.