A ‘reluctance’ for shared or independent transport arrangements has been labelled a reason behind the ‘increasingly challenging’ cost of home-to-school transport – a council report has stated.

A report prepared for the Furness Locality Board by Westmorland and Furness Council has outlined a series of factors that have ‘exacerbated’ the financial challenge in delivering the home-to-school transport service.

The council has a statutory obligation to provide free transport to students in a variety of circumstances. These include when the walking route has been deemed ‘unsafe’ and in certain instances when a student has SEND.

Other circumstances include where the student lives more than the statutory walking distance from their home address to the nearest qualifying school and a discretionary offer to the catchment school. This is defined as two miles for children aged under eight and three miles for children aged eight and over.

According to the report, there are currently 465 SEND pupils the council is responsible for making transport arrangements and this number is anticipated to increase in the coming years.

The home to school transport/SEND transport service has a net budget in this financial year £2 million higher than last year to reflect ‘the pressures experienced’ in both areas during the 23/24 financial year.

The report says: “As with many other local authorities, the financial context for the provision of the home to school transport function has been increasingly challenging: exacerbated over recent years due to a combination of factors.”

Factors stated in the report include:

  • Increases in the number of pupils requiring SEND transport including to a variety of specialist settings some of which are out of area, as well as an increase in need for individual transport.
  • Increases in cost associated with transport operators including fuel and fleet costs, staffing costs and shortages in availability of drivers and passenger assistants.
  • Working with expectations of families and settings, and in some cases reluctance for shared or independent transport arrangements

The report adds: “Our vision is that children and young people with SEND can travel to school in the most inclusive way possible; that our offer to families is high quality, cost effective, clear and offers flexibility to families and young people will be supported to develop confidence and skills for the future.”

According to the report, families are not ‘wholly clear’ of the options available to them and the funding available is not being used ‘effectively’ to improve outcomes for young people.

It adds: “There is no meaningful personal budget offer and no independent travel training which means too many young people are being transported alone in taxis without the opportunity to develop life skills or for their families to make flexible choices.”

The council is proposing to develop and offer transport solutions that are ‘more inclusive’ and not limited to individual transport (e.g. a taxi) being provided as the first solution.

Solutions the council are exploring include:

  • Parental Grants
  • Personal Travel Budgets
  • Independent Travel Training
  • More shared vs individual transport

More transport delivered by the council’s in-house team

The council report adds: “We are working to introduce an independent travel offer as a key element of supporting inclusive travel options, and hope to pilot an approach in the Autumn.”

Members of the Furness Locality Board will discuss the report on August 21 at Barrow Town Hall.