Agenda item

(To receive a report from Teri Marshall, Education Transport Manager and Mark Rainey, Commissioning Manager - Commercial, which invites the Board to consider a report on the Post-16 Transport Policy Statement 2020-21, which will be presented to the Executive at its meeting on 5 May 2020. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

During this item, Councillor E W Strengiel declared a personal interest as a Director and Trustee of Lincoln YMCA, which was mentioned within the report.

Consideration was given to a report by the Acting Head of Service – Children's Strategic Commissioning, which invited the Board to consider a report on the Post-16 Transport Policy Statement 2020-21, which would be presented to the Executive at its meeting on 5 May 2020.

Members were advised that although Local Authorities were not obliged to provide subsidised transport, the Council had historically subsidised the cost of post-16 travel in Lincolnshire to support access to education and training opportunities for learners of sixth-form age. The Council currently spends £3m each financial year on transport for post-16 learners, of which £1m of income was received to offset this cost.

The contribution made by parents and students to the cost of post-16 transport had been maintained at £570 a year for the past three years. It was recommended that no changes be made to the rate of contribution.

Members were advised that an online consultation had taken place between 30 January 2020 and 1 March 2020. A summary of the responses were set out in the Executive report at Appendix 1.

The Board was informed that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee would usually consider the report at a meeting of the committee but due to the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, this had not been possible. The Committee had therefore received the report electronically and had been provided with an opportunity to consider and comment on the report prior to its consideration by  the Board.

The Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services thanked the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee for its comments and advised the Board that since 2010 schools and colleges had received a bursary to help parents and students that were struggling to pay for transport. Officers worked with schools to ensure that students had access to transport to schools or colleges if they needed it.

Members were advised that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee supported the recommendations set out in the Executive report. The Chairman of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee presented the comments that had been received from the Committee, which had been circulated to members of the Board prior to the meeting.

Members considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·         Fees for transport would be reimbursed to parents for the time schools were closed due to Coronavirus.

·         There was no evidence that education providers were not using the bursary fund to support post 16 students. This would be monitored by checking whether there was any additional contact from parents regarding payments as the Council was not made aware of how the bursary was used by education providers.

·         The £9 surcharge was low and was needed to help cover the costs to have staff to process the payments.

·         The school transport budget was overspent and an investigation would take place to understand the reasons why this had happened.

·         The Council was focussed on ensuring students were able to go onto post 16 education and that parents could afford to support their children to do this.

·         Cost pressures in the school transport budget in relation to the provider market were due to a number of factors, including rising fuel prices, the national living wage, and new vehicle regulations that transport operators had to comply with. When the Council went out to the market for school transport, there had been an increase in the price of bids as these had factored in the impact of the regulations and the cost of fuel and staff.

·         No explanation could be provided for why the daily commercial fares for two of the bus routes (Ruskington to Lincoln, and Gainsborough to Lincoln) had decreased for 2020/21. It was noted that most routes demonstrated a cost increase.

·         The contract for transport was with the parents/carers not the student, as usually the student was under the age of 18 years old. It was not usual practice to enter into a contract with the student directly.

·         With regards to the limited transport support for some specialist courses, such as agriculture and music, it was confirmed that this had been in the policy for a number of years. It had been included in the policy to allow access to these specialist courses, in particular the agricultural courses at Riseholme College due to being a rural agricultural county.

·         Sustainable modes of transport, such as walking, cycling and electric bikes, had been considered to see if there was a way to encourage the use of sustainable transport by students to places of learning, or to and from a pick up point. A Sustainable Modes of Transport to School Strategy had been developed and would be brought to scrutiny in the coming weeks.

The Board supported the recommendations to the Executive.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Board support the recommendations to the Executive,     as set out in the report;

2.    That a summary of the above comments be provided to the            Executive in relation to this item.

10.55 Councillor Mrs J Brockway left the meeting