Agenda item

The Director of Environment and Commercial Services and the Transport and Infrastructure Manager will be in attendance to provide an overview of Middlesbrough Council’s Home to School Transport provision as an introduction to the Panel’s review of this service.

 

Recommendation: that the Panel determines what further information will be required for this scrutiny investigation.

The Director of Environment and Commercial Services and the Transport and Infrastructure Manager provided an overview of Middlesbrough Council’s Home to School Transport provision. 

 

It was highlighted that the increased need for home to school travel assistance was a national issue, with several factors contributing including increases in the number of pupils with special education needs and the numbers requiring an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

 

Middlesbrough Council’s Home to School Travel Assistance Policy was informed by the Education Act 1996 and additional duties required by the Education and Inspections Act 2006.   The Policy had been updated and published ahead of the new academic year 2024-2025.   National guidance, updated by the Department for Education (DfE) in June 2023, set out the expectations of Local Authorities (LAs) regarding home to school travel and transport arrangements.  The guidance set out the circumstances in which the LA had a duty to provide, or arrange, free school transport or travel support for children of compulsory school age.

 

Eligibility criteria for pupils of compulsory school age during the current academic year included:

 

• A primary school age pupil attending their nearest suitable school and that was over 2 miles from the home address, where the distance was determined by the Council and used the shortest walking distance along which a child, accompanied as necessary, might walk with reasonable safety.
• A secondary school age pupil attending the nearest suitable school and that was over 3 miles from the home address, where the distance was determined by the Council and used the shortest walking distance along which a child, accompanied as necessary, might walk with reasonable safety.
• A secondary school age pupil from a low-income family and attending: any one of their three nearest suitable schools and the school was between 2 and 6 miles away from their home address, or the nearest school preferred by their parents on the grounds of religion or belief and the school was between 2 and 15 miles away from their home address.

 

The eligibility criteria, application forms, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and parent/carer information was available on Middlesbrough Council’s website on the Home to School Transport page: https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/schools-and-education/home-to-school-transport/

 

Education and Inspection Act (EIA) applications could be submitted by the parent and/or carer of the student.  

 

Transport requirements were considered as part of a full assessment of a student’s special educational need.  If a student was assessed as unable to walk the statutory distance to their nearest appropriate school because of their special educational needs or disability, even if accompanied by a responsible adult, the Council would provide travel assistance which was subject to a statutory assessment or subsequent annual review.

 

Eligibility was assessed at the earliest opportunity.   SEND student applications were initially raised during a SEND Resource Panel which linked with a student’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).  A more detailed assessment was carried out once a referral had been received by the transport team.

 

When considering any placement for a pupil, colleagues were reminded of the principle that it was the family’s responsibility to take their own child to school.   However, there are exceptional circumstances as to why a student who was not eligible, may need travel support and these cases were assessed on an individual basis.  Where a student was assessed as being eligible for support, a hierarchy of travel assistance was made and the parent/carer might be asked how they intended to get their child to school.  Other offers could include:

 

• Travel training, walking bus, use of existing resources where available.

• 45p per mile as Parental Travel Allowance (PTA).
• Transport for a limited period to give parents time to arrange their own transport with a refund of fuel or other costs to be made.
• Full time transport up to Year 8 Assessment when the offer may be amended to meet the relevant needs of the student (if available).
• Refund of bus fares or seat on a designated bus.
• Multiple modes of transport, for example, use of a bicycle in Spring/Summer terms and refund of bus fares to use on public bus services in the Winter months.

 

The Council was also required to secure alternative provision for students who had been permanently excluded from a school or other education provider.  This might entitle the student to free transport or travel assistance to an approved alternative provider.

 

Applications for travel assistance were assessed in accordance with the Home to School Travel and Transport Policy for mainstream and special schools if the student had an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).   It was expected that assistance would be on a temporary basis until such a time as the child was re-integrated into mainstream or special school and would be subject to review.

 

During 2023-2024 the Council provided various types of travel assistance that equated to over 600,000 journeys.  This was delivered through a combination of in-house and external suppliers and vehicles using minibuses, wheelchair accessible vehicles, taxis and coaches.  Travel training was provided for both walking and the use of public transport services.  Payments were made to parents and carers and assistance provided with journey planning and other support in the form assistance and direct delivery in partnership with schools.

 

Whilst there was no statutory duty to provide Adult Social Care Transport, the Council’s Integrated Transport Unit (ITU) did provide a service in line with requirements under the Care Act 2014.   Draft Demand and Sufficiency Plans had highlighted a potential increase from 70 transports per day across 6 settings, to approximately 610 transports across 160 settings.  The increased demand for transport support was not new to the Authority, however it was new to the Integrated Transport Unit and would be a significant increase in workstream tasks for the team.

 

Statistics in relation to the number of staff, assessments undertaken and tendered routes were included in the presentation.

 

Sufficiency planning and transformation was being undertaken across all relevant Council departments to ensure that the ITU was able to meet any increasing demand.  This ensured the following:

 

• Demand data from SEND/Education/Children’s Services had undergone a comprehensive Quality Assurance (QA) process.            
• Transformation across the service was co-ordinated.
• Policies and working practices were streamlined and robustly followed.     
• Eligibility was assessed at the earliest opportunity to aid continuity of all relevant services including Education and Adult Social Care.
• Capital and Revenue Investments could be made in a timely manner.
• Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) projections were based on validated information to ensure robust financial planning.

 

It was a national misconception that Councils provided free transport for all which was not the case.  However, the Director emphasised the point that if transport assistance was required, the Council would provide it.  

 

Some of the challenges for the ITU were identified as:

 

• Increasing number of children with complex educational and medical needs with an EHCP aged between 5-25 in both Middlesbrough and out of area.
• Sufficiency of localised placements for both Mainstream and SEND.
• Evolving pressures within 2024/25 Budget of £6,644,770.
• Managing expectations.
• Managing a large workforce.
• Availability of Drivers with D1 entitlement.
• Availability of suppliers with vehicles in the private sector.
• Economic climate and increasing costs.
• Supply and maintenance of internal fleet.
• The Procurement Act – Implementation date of 28 October 2024.

 

In order to meet the challenges and the demands on the service, the following actions were being taken:

 

• Commenced delivery of 2024/25 service.
• Continuous engagement with all stakeholders to outline further improvements that could be achieved.
• Continue to build on successful relationship with Parents4Change forum.
• Develop and grow relationships with internal colleagues in People Services and Health.
• Engagement with other services to achieve their aims and co-production with service users and their families; developing confidence and reassurance in accessing the appropriate level of support and inclusion in the Travel Training Programme. 
• Sufficiency planning – working continuously with colleagues across Education and Finance for demand planning; which influenced the MTFP.
• Explore new methods of working such as further integration of ICT into the service or seeking invisible benefits for the student and school such as child welfare checks and improved attendance.

 

In relation to a query regarding transport to faith schools it was confirmed that although there were discretionary powers available to the Local Authority in this regard, the Council currently operated only 11-16 statutory provision.  Clarification was requested on another scenario: where a parent might choose a faith school for their child due to believing the school achieved better results, rather than on faith or belief.  It was confirmed that in such a case a thorough assessment would be carried out.  There was an appeals process.    The definition of a low-income family to meet the eligibility criteria for school transport was a family in receipt of free school meals or working tax credits. 

 

A Member asked how many students were currently being educated outside of the Borough.  It was agreed this information would be forwarded to the Panel.  However, it was highlighted that the numbers were decreasing year on year as new schools and extension were being built to increase school place capacity in Middlesbrough.  There would always be some requirement for specialist schools and efforts were being made to reduce those numbers also.

 

The Chair raised concern as to the current budget and asked how many students were transported via private sector providers rather than in-house and by how much the budget had increased over the last five years.  The Director stated that information would be provided and also commented that there were two elements relating to the increased budget: one was the number of people being transported and the second was inflation.  It was a constant effort to ensure that the Council was doing all it could to provide transport in very competitive market.  Neighbouring authorities in the Tees Valley and throughout the north east were experiencing similar difficulties in recruiting staff.  Another issue was the lead in time for the supply of new vehicles as well as the availability of suitably qualified drivers.  Traditionally the Council had used a significant number of private taxis to meet transport needs.   However, following the Covid Pandemic, the market had changed considerably.   Some suppliers had withdrawn from the market and the emerging delivery economy meant that drivers had different opportunities.  

 

The Chair thanked the officers for their presentation.

 

AGREED that the information provided was received and noted.