The Council proposed several changes to its existing home to school transport policy. These changes were designed to bring consistency, to unify mainstream and special needs transport, and to help manage the overall home to school transport budget.
As part of the process there was an extensive consultation with all interested parties, to which there were nearly one thousand responses.
Whilst there were mixed responses to all proposals, there were two main areas of concern.
There were significant objections to the 'safer walking routes' proposal. This was not a policy change - having been previously agreed - but rather agreement on the implementation of the proposals to re-classify some walking routes that had previously been designated as unsafe to walk.
Also, there were challenges regarding some of the proposed changes to transport for learners post 19 with special needs.
The initial proposals, in advance of consultation, were taken to Scrutiny in September 2017. Subsequent to completion of consultation, the draft paper was taken again to Scrutiny in January this year in advance of going to Cabinet.
Following the responses to the safer walking routes proposal in the consultation, Scrutiny proposed that this proposal was removed from the paper. This was endorsed by Cabinet.
The paper for Cabinet proposed six policy changes. Although there were some objections to these policy changes, they were accepted by Scrutiny and voted through by Cabinet. The new policy is now available on the webpage for this consultation and on the school and college travel webpages https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schooltransport
The council has committed to continuing dialogue with partners regarding the 19-25 proposal to ensure that transport is not a barrier to the provision of education
The Home to School Transport Policy for 2018 onwards has now been published and is available below.
For more information on school and college travel please visit the webpage: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schooltransport
The Home to School Transport Policy aims to provide guidance for parents/carers, young people and young adults on transport assistance available for pupils aged 3 -25 years of age.
Why is the policy being changed?
The policy is being changed for a number of reasons:
All proposed changes are compliant with the Education Act 1996 and subsequent legislation.
What are the proposed key changes to the policy?
The proposed key changes to the policy are briefly set out below, further information on these proposals can be found in the Consultation Document here . Warwickshire County Council is consulting specifically on these changes.
We are aware that some routes are missing from this list, please bear with us whilst these are identified. We will contact any affected families directly in writing as soon as possible to clarify the situation.
Please take the time to read the related documents below as they fully outline the proposals, the Frequently Asked Questions and Scenarios will help you to understand how these may affect you.
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