Agenda item

Presentation by Service Director Children and Young People.

4.1       With reference to paragraph 8 of the Minute of 24 March 2016, there had been circulated copies of a briefing note providing information on the existing practice for school transport.   Ms Manson and Mr John Dellow, Team Leader Transport Services presented a summary of the provision within Scottish Borders Council.  The Policy was scheduled for review within the next two years and would take account of the financial challenges in place at the time.  Ms Manson explained that there was a statutory obligation to provide transport for all children who lived two or more miles from the catchment school and who were under 8 years of age; in the case of any other child, the distance was set at three miles from the school.  Within the Scottish Borders, this transport was provided free of charge.  Pupils enrolled at a Roman Catholic school were offered transport under the same restrictions where they lived within the designated catchment area of that school and transport was also provided for pupils with additional support needs.  Figures provided detailed that there were 178 contracts in place to provide 3,426 mainstream pupils with transport; a further 112 contracts existed for transport for pupils with additional support needs; 123 pupils required escort provision and 42 currently received a privilege lift (as defined in paragraph 4.2 of the briefing note).  Within the primary and secondary school areas, the percentage of the school roll receiving school transport ranged from 40% in Berwickshire, 38% in Earlston, 18% in Eyemouth, 10% in Hawick to 8% in Galashiels.  The Service was flexible and responsive and was delivered using Best Value principles.  The Passenger Transport section managed all aspects of school transport provision and utilised a range of vehicles which were verified as meeting required legislation.  The budget for school transport for 2015/16 was £5,016,300 and Ms Manson explained some of the issues facing the service e.g. increasing operator costs; supply in the market meeting the demand; and the number of licenced operators, drivers, vehicles and availability.  There were examples of exceptional partnership working such as when bus operators were able to continue services during challenging weather conditions with the help of local people; the implementation of additional vehicles at short notice when a primary school was relocated; and when a bus driver ensured the safety of pupils alighting from the bus on which they were travelling.

4.2       Following discussion, a number of questions were raised.  In terms of entitlement to free school transport being transferred along with a pupil when s/he moved to a different school, Ms Manson advised that a planned review of the existing Policy would address this issue, and emphasised that pupil safety was paramount at all times.  Ms Manson advised that using the Borders Railway as part of school transport provision would present risk assessment challenges and suggested that train travel might be considered only in specific circumstances.  Further discussion took place in respect of utilising unused seats on buses.  Ms Manson explained that under the statutory provision requirement, seat allocation was for individual pupils and allocating this seat if the pupil was not in attendance raised a number of issues.  This would also be reviewed as part of the current Policy which would be presented to Council for approval in due course.

            DECISION

            NOTED:

(a)     the presentation;

(b)     that information on transport received from parents would be included in the School Estates review; and

(c)     that there would be an incremental review of school transport linked to the Schools Estates review carried out over the next 12 to 24 months.