Agenda item

The Panel will consider a report giving an update on the proposed changes to Kirklees Council’s Post 16 Transport Statement.

Contact:         Martin Wood, Head of Public Protection

Katherine Armitage, Service Director

The Panel considered a report giving an update on the proposed changes to Kirklees Council’s Post 16 Transport Statement for 2024/25 presented by Russell Williams, Operational Manager, Public Protection.

Russell Williams highlighted the following key points from a presentation entitled “Post 16 Transport Statement” –

• The Home to School Transport Team ensured compliance with statutory duties under the Education Act 1996 and statutory guidance, arranging home to school transport for all eligible children, in the main for students between the ages of 16 and 19.
• Pre and Post 16 Statutory Duties were different, for Pre 16 alternatives to physical transport could only be provided with parental consent.
• For Post 16 home to school transport a “Transport Statement” must be produced and published by 31^st May each year, which must consider what assistance will be provided to help facilitate attendance at further education. This did not need to be physical transport and parental consent was not required.
• The total cost of the service was £12.1m in 2022/23.
• The Service was seeing significant year on year cost increases, with the cost of Pre 16 transport up 33% in 2022/23 from 2021/22, and Post 16 up 26% in the same period.
• This was due to a number of factors including an increase in demand and the number of Educational Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), the number of routes increasing (especially single taxi routes), increasing costs from suppliers, supply and demand issues and cost of living/operating costs rising.
• As a result, the service was undergoing a number of service transformations, with a review of the use of single taxis, a contract review, and consideration of an in-house fleet, as well as publication of the Post 16 Transport Statement.
• Proposed changes to Post 16 Passenger Travel included a move to policy where a personal travel payment was the default, moving away from physical transport except where Special Educational Need necessitated Council arranged transport.
• Personal Travel Payments would be banded, based on the distance from home to the educational setting. The banding was to be consulted upon.
• Consultation on the proposed changes took place between 14^th November 2023 and 31^st December 2023 through face to face and virtual drop-in sessions.130 responses were received from parents of children using the transport, PCAN, the public, ward councillors, schools/colleges and governors.
• The main themes of the consultation were financial impact and impact on the family/parents.
• The proposed changed to policy were due to be considered by Cabinet on 9^th April 2024 and if adopted, the new Post 16 Transport Statement would come into effect in September 2024.
• If adopted, the application procedure would need amending and communicating to families, and the process of application would change, causing a greater administrative burden initially which had been planned for with temporary resources.
• Other Local Authorities regionally and nationally had adopted or were looking to move towards adopting a similar model of a personal travel payment.

In response to a question from the Panel asking if the new system was working well in other Local Authorities and if there had been any follow-up, Russell Williams advised that Wokingham Council had introduced a similar policy and had also experienced concerns from parents over the financial implications, and experienced the initial administrative burden on the service, however the process was now working and they were continuing with the approach which had been in place for a few years now.

The Panel asked about how vulnerable children and young people would be safeguarded if parents were to change their child’s mode of transport, especially when parents may be looking for the most financially viable options. Russell Williams acknowledged that this had been a concern that was highlighted during in the consultation and recognised that there was work to be done around the messaging on safeguarding. The Panel was informed that parents would have access to the same taxi drivers as the School Transport Team. Parents would be encouraged to use Kirklees licensed taxi drivers who were under the control of the Council’s Licensing Service which was under the same Directorate as School Transport. Work had been undertaken to ensure that West Yorkshire licensed drivers had a unified convictions policy and training policy, so parents living on the border of Kirklees could have confidence in these West Yorkshire licensed drivers. Russell Williams reiterated that it was important to help parents understand the robust vetting and training procedures involved in the licensing of taxi drivers in the West Yorkshire region to offer them reassurance that their children would be safe in those vehicles.  The Panel reiterated the importance of the safeguarding messages to parents and how essential it was to make sure parents fully understood how to help keep their children safe.

In response to a question from the Panel about parents being exposed to the risk of price hikes, for example, fuel increases, Russell Williams advised that the Council did not receive better terms from taxi operators than private individuals and added that Kirklees College were working with the School Transport Team to help parents co-ordinate the sharing of taxis and reduce costs. Within the policy significant discretion was given to Officers to provide transport where it would be more cost effective to do so.  Tom Brailsford, Strategic Director for Children and Families, advised that other Local Authorities had reported that when a taxi was booked by the Council it would be a different price than if booked privately, so there could be some economies of scale to be achieved here in Kirklees.  

The Panel noted that if young people were sharing taxis on a route, some children would have to be ready earlier than others on the same route, whereas this was not the case when there was a single pick-up point.  Russell Williams explained that the Policy allowed for changes to be made, and that PCAN, Kirklees College, parents and the School Transport Team would work together to make improvements over time. Tom Brailsford added that quite a lot of young people who used the Post 16 service accessed the three sites of Kirklees College. Where children and young people access independent schools out of area this could become more complex and resulted in more single taxi routes, and that Colleges had said that they would be more than happy to broker services on behalf of parents. The Panel was informed that the majority of young people that used the service had social, emotional and mental health needs and this approach promoted their independence and control for their families.

The Panel asked about the operation of the in-house fleet, the cost benefit of the proposal, how these vehicles might be utilised out of school time and what income might be raised. The Panel also asked whether low carbon transport had been considered and whether the inhouse fleet would be used for both pre and post 16 transport.  Martin Wood, Head of Public Protection, advised that a range of options had been considered to transform School Transport to make it more efficient and cost effective, and one of these was an in-house fleet and a pilot of 20 vehicles was planned. The Panel was informed that the Team currently operated approximately 460 individual routes on Home to School Transport and these could not be operated by the in-house fleet due to the size of the operation. Martin Wood explained that officers had visited an in-house fleet at Calderdale to see how it was working in terms of how many vehicles it had compared to the number of routes and the challenges it was dealing with. A paper would be coming forward to an individual cabinet member for decision in mid-April and associated papers would soon be published in the public domain with more detail. The cost benefit analysis looked at the top 20 most expensive routes that were currently operated and projected those costs out over the next ten years. In the published paper, it was anticipated that there would be a modest Year 1 cost saving to the Council, however any price increases would be more within the Council’s control. The Panel was informed that over the ten-year life span of the vehicles, significant savings would be realised year on year, creating a real invest-to-save prospect for the Council.

In response to the question from the Panel regarding low carbon alternatives, Martin Wood advised that for the initial pilot the Council would be purchasing new diesel vehicles, as they were easily available, purchase costs were significantly cheaper than electric or low carbon alternatives, no investment would be needed in storage, and they could be maintained within existing Council operations. Any future development of the fleet would look at low carbon or electric vehicles as their costs reduced relative to diesel or petrol vehicles.  Martin Wood advised the Panel that electric minibuses were very expensive.

In response to the Panel’s question on utilising the vehicles outside core business hours, Martin Wood explained that a future Policy would be coming through to advise how the existing Council fleet could be used by community groups and once that new policy was in place, officers could look at how this policy could be integrated into the Council’s own fleet used by Home to School Transport.

The Panel questioned whether any consideration had been given to schools with minibuses operating routes and Martin Wood advised that this had been considered and conversations had been had with a number of schools, however, it was not deemed to be a practical solution as a group of drivers would be needed. The Panel was informed that this would be revisited in the future, with the possibility that there could be other alternatives provided for schools, such as drivers or the use of school minibuses. Martin Wood explained that schools may not need their own minibuses in future if the Council could make vehicles available from the Council’s fleet for use by the community.

In answer to a question from the Panel on whether the vehicle engines would be to the Euro 6 standard, Martin Wood assured the Panel that the vehicles purchased would be the most modern and to the highest Euro standard available at the time of purchase.

The Panel noted that the changes made to the policy could present inconvenience to some parents, but more significant challenges to others, and asked how it had been made as fair as possible for all parents. Martin Wood acknowledged that there would be different experiences for the different people who accessed the policy and advised that there was a government led bursary scheme available to families and that Colleges could also look at supporting young people individually with transport costs and this would have to be looked at in more detail over the first and subsequent years of implementation. The Panel were advised that that responsibility was being shifted more from the Council to parents and Colleges, but that discretion remained within the policy to support individuals with the arrangement for transport where there were exceptional circumstances. The Panel commented that the Council needed to be aware of the changes that some families might have to make in view of the changes to the Post 16 Home to School Transport Policy.

The Panel noted that there was £1.6 m of savings which had been identified within the report and asked when this would be reported on to ensure that this projection was reflected in reality. Russell Williams advised that the projected savings would be monitored on a monthly basis through budgetary monitoring processes within the service and that overall savings would be seen in July 2025 at the end of the academic year.

RESOLVED:

That the update on the Post 16 Transport Statement be noted and Service Directors be thanked for their contributions.