Agenda item

Executive Report for Decision.

Scrutiny Report to Note.

ORDERED that Executive:

1.    NOTES the content of the Environment Scrutiny Panel’s final report on Waste Management.

2.    APPROVES The action plan, as amended, developed in response to the Scrutiny Panel’s recommendations.

The Place Scrutiny Panel had undertaken a review entitled Home to School Transport Service. A copy of the full report was attached. The Scrutiny Panel had made seven recommendations upon which a response was sought from the relevant service area.

The recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel were:

A.    Investigate whether it would be cost effective to devolve the provision of Home to School Transport to individual schools, as they may be able to provide a more localised service. Ideally the funding could be passed directly to the schools making them responsible for controlling costs, ensuring there was no additional cost to the Local Authority.

B.    Review the eligibility requirements for free school travel, especially for post-16

students and for pupils who attend a school that is not in the catchment/nearest school by parental choice, but they meet the low-income criteria. There would need to be an option included for consideration of special circumstances.

C.   Ensure closer collaboration between Children’s Services, Schools and the Home to School Transport Unit to make certain that the most cost-effective and suitable transport arrangements are in place for each student, particularly in relation to students with SEND. The requirement for transport assistance should be included as a consideration in SEND assessments.

D.   Prioritise the promotion of independent travel to all parents and students, increase the number of travel trainers and bus buddies and encourage greater use of personal travel budgets.

E.    Introduce a spare seat scheme to offer discretionary transport assistance on existing transport for students who are not eligible for free travel assistance, with an option for part payment of the full cost.

F.    Investigate whether increasing the Council’s fleet of vehicles and reducing dependency on third party providers would be cost effective and whether this would enable better route planning.

G.   Explore whether entering into longer-term contracts with third party providers would provide for greater flexibility and consistency.

The Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability and the Director for Environment and Community Services submitted a service response to the recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel. A copy of the action plan was appended to the report.

The Chair Children’s Scrutiny Panel introduced and presented the Scrutiny report and advised the review had been undertaken by the previous People Scrutiny Panel.

Following a question from a Member in the public gallery, a conversation took place regarding eligibility criteria for children using Home to School Transport services. It was stated this area was complex, and while there was a hierarchy of need, each service user’s eligibility was assessed on a case-by-case basis. It was also commented that generalisations should be avoided when discussing the topic.   

In the absence of the Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability, the Mayor provided a response to the Scrutiny report and presented the Service Response.

It was queried what the impact would be if the Home to School Transport service was handed to Schools. It was commented that, while this would prove difficult, the Mayor stated it would be beneficial for a worked example to be created which would provide a clear understanding of the challenges involved.

ORDERED that Executive:

1.    NOTES the content of the Environment Scrutiny Panel’s final report on Waste Management.

2.    APPROVES The action plan, as amended, developed in response to the Scrutiny Panel’s recommendations.