Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Education (copy enclosed) updating members on the review of Denbighshire’s Home to School Transport policy.

09:40am- 10:30am

The Chair welcomed Mrs Kathy Jones, who had recently been appointed by the Catholic Church to serve as its co-opted representative for education related matters on Scrutiny, to her first meeting.

The Lead Member for Education introduced the confidential report (previously circulated) which updated the Committee on the review of the County’s Home to School Transport Policy which was currently underway.  A copy of the latest version of the draft Policy was appended to the report for members’ information.  The Head of Education gave a brief overview of the background which had led to the decision to review the policy in 2014, and the subsequent current review of the Policy.  She advised that legal counsel had been sought on elements of the revised Policy to ensure that they conformed with the requirements which governed home to school transport as well as other legislation relating to safeguarding and well-being.  Members were advised by the Head of Education and other officers that the reviewed Policy, as far as reasonably possible, had regard to points raised previously by councillors and parents during the implementation of the policy following the 2014 review, the requirements of the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008, the close relationship between ‘feeder’ primary schools and their related high schools, hazardous routes to school policy, discretionary travel policy and also the accessibility of the appeals process for parents/guardians.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Head of Education, Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services and the Education Resources and Support Manager (Planning and Resources) advised that:

•           the Council was of the view that it was important to take legal advice on the contents of the draft policy before consulting with the public on the proposals contained within it;

•           permitting parents/guardians to meet with officers as part of the Appeals process had proved extremely useful.  Discussions with parents/guardians would now be built into the policy in relation to ‘discretionary provisions’, as it was during such discussions and face to face conversations that individual circumstances were properly explored and understood;

•           the term ‘nearest suitable school’ did include transport to faith high schools out of the county if that was the pupil’s nearest faith school;

•           legal opinion had already been received on some elements of the revised policy, counsel’s advice on other elements was still awaited.  The opinion received to date was favourable;

•           the primary aim of the revised policy was to ensure that the right pupils were receiving the transport they were entitled to receive to their ‘nearest appropriate school’.  Once that had been determined consideration could be given to concessionary travel applications, including clear communication to parents/guardians of pupils awarded concessionary travel on the length of time of the concessionary travel award;

•           all applications for travel arrangements, statutory and discretionary, would be impact assessed;

•           anomalies which had come to light under the previous review i.e. long-standing relationships with a high school in a ‘feeder school’ capacity would be addressed within the policy in order not to have a negative impact on specific schools and their pupils;

•           every effort would be made to undertake the public consultation on the revised policy during term time to ensure that all stakeholders would have ample opportunity to submit their views;

•           as part of the consultation process meetings would be held to discuss the proposed revised policy with interested parties i.e. School Governors Forum, Head teachers’ Conference; all school governors etc.  Reference to the revised policy and the consultation process would be included in the new Education Newsletter which was scheduled to be distributed to parents early in the new year;

•           the timescale for the policy review process, including the consultation stage, was outlined in the report.  It was anticipated that the public consultation stage would commence early in the new year with a view to finalising the policy during the early summer and Council ratifying it in September 2017 for implementation in September 2018;

•           it was acknowledged that there would be an impact on the Council’s budget once the revised policy was implemented.  The Council had a statutory obligation to provide school transport to those pupils who qualified for it, including pupils with special educational needs (SEN), therefore any additional funding would have to be found;

•           it was vital to get the policy right to enable correct calculations of the actual budget required to deliver it;

•           if anyone had concerns with respect to whether a particular school was delivering the curriculum in line with is category designation, those concerns should be raised with the Education Service to enable it to investigate them.

Prior to concluding the discussion the Chair thanked the Lead Member and officers for all the work that had been undertaken during the last two years with a view to developing a fair and equitable policy.  It was of the utmost importance to balance the budget with Council’s statutory obligations.  Acknowledging that there would always be some anomalies when the rules were applied he advised that the Committee had been encouraged by the fact that discussions would be held with parents/guardians of individual pupils who appealed decisions, or who contacted the Council querying their entitlement.  He emphasised the need for all county councillors to be briefed on the revised policy prior to the public consultation on it.  The Committee:

RESOLVED: -

(i)         subject to the above observations to support the proposal to progress with the consultation phase in due course, once legal counsel’s opinion had been received on all aspects of the revised policy referred to him/her for advice; and

(ii)        that prior to public consultation the revised draft policy be referred back to the Committee for approval to consult.