16 plus school transport costs for Buckinghamshire

[SallyfromBucks]

Parents who are concerned about the very high school transport costs being imposed by Buckinghamshire County Council are being asked to sign a petition.

www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/16pluschooltransport

The county is currently levying a charge (on average) of between £800 to over £900 per child, per year which is amongst the highest in the country. We feel this is an unfairly arrived at policy decision and are taking steps to get the charging reviewed.

Please sign the petition and forward it to others who have an interest in this issue. We need to protect the right our children have to access their educational establishments, without parents having to decide whether they can afford the transport costs or not. As it will be soon be compulsory to stay on in further education, we also need to ensure that the process is established whereby the students who are at the centre of this law are not penalised by finances.

Have added my name.

It's not only the 16+ children who are being affected by ridiculous council decisions. It's all the 11+ children - particularly those going 'out of area' because their only grammar school option happens to be 'out of area'.

There are a lot of cross people out there.

That's excellent, many thanks!

Yes, Bucks County Council is caning this area of Education Services in particular. It would be brilliant if you could pass on the petition address to any of the other cross people out there that it affects.

We also have a facebook page dealing with this issue in particular which people can apply to join - www.facebook.com/#!/groups/273963949371273/

Parents have to make a stand on this issue, because if this is their opening gambit, I dread to think how far it will spiral out of control for the future 16 plus-ers out there.

Just to clarify, once education for 16+ becomes compulsory pupils will have the same entitlement to free transport as they have up to age 16 by law.

ph Bucks cc have done some fine and expert juggling to save themselves a few £M. It has hit people in villages hard, as children have lost 'free' transport as they have chosen their 'most convenient' school (based on a direct bus route) rather than their 'nearest' school (based on distance on a map, which would, in the cases I know of, involve 3 changes of bus every morning and afternoon).

This is in addition to the grammar school problem I mentioned above (which is plainly unfair), and sfb's initial post.

@PRH - All pupils that have qualified (and will in future qualify) for 6th form places will have to pay for access to any school transport. In order for students to get to the school that serves our area - Chalfonts Community College - parents have been sent bills for almost £1,000. Unless you are registered as a low income family or have special requirements, all families will be subject to the charge, per child, per year.

Currently my year 10 daughter still gets free transport to school, although this was after a recent struggle with BCC to drop their proposed charges of over £400 in order for her to travel on the school bus. BCC closed our local school and moved pupils over to Chalfonts as a matter of course, this was no option chosen by parents - hence the massive outcry when they tried charging the parents for what had been free transport for the past 20+ years. They claimed they'd just been generous, whereas it was originally implemented to make up for the gross inconvenience of having closed our school.

Just because they need to tidy up their financial defecits, it doesn't give them carte blanche to impose charges unfairly and ride rough shod over the electorate. Some of the attitudes towards ensuring our children get a good standard of education is sadly lacking in any kind of forethought or care for how it will impact on many, many families. All areas of the BCC's educational processes need to be looked at as a lot of it is unfair, and basically discriminatory, as Alcofrolic rightly points out.

This is just to give some perspective on how the charges are varying wildly from county to county in England. Here's a brief selection......

Essex are charging £500... www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Travel-School/Pages/Post-16-Transport.aspx There is a charge for transport for students in school years 12 and upwards. The charge is set at £500 for the 2012/13 academic year.You may be entitled to have the £500 charge waived if you are in receipt of certain qualifying benefits. For more information, please refer to our application and guidance form.

Wiltshire are charging £414... www.wiltshire.gov.uk/wstan/wiltshire-post16-student-transport-scheme.htm Students living in Wiltshire and attending their designated college may be entitled to subsidised travel from Wiltshire Council. The cost of the annual pass in 2012/13 is £414. For those whose parents are in receipt of tax credits with an income of less than £20,819 before tax, (or those not in receipt of tax credits, whose household income is at a similar level) may be eligible to pay the reduced rate pass costing £144. Passes can be paid for in instalments if ordered by 30 June 20112

Cornwall are charging £327... www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=2294#Apply The contribution towards 16-19 transport is £327 for the academic year. Payment can be by one payment or collected before the start of each term; £120 a term (£87 for the summer term). Please note that the average cost of providing transport for mainstream students is £599 per student which equates to the Local Authority subsidising each students transport in the sum of £272.

Northumberland are free .... www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3564#cost Northumberland County Council operates a free student travel scheme to help students living in Northumberland who are aged between 16 and 19 access further education opportunities providing that the course is a full time course of at least 12 hours per week.

North Yorkshire are charging £350 (from Sept 2012)... www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=12433 The Local Authority (LA) will provide subsidised assistance with transport for students aged 16 years to 19 years.Transport assistance will continue for students who started their course before they were 19 provided that: ?students make a contribution of £350** towards their travel costs each year

Just to clarify since you seem unclear...

Students over 16 are currently not legally entitled to free transport although some LAs have provided it anyway. This is because any student over 16 is no longer in compulsory education. Once the school leaving age is raised to 18 students over the age of 16 will be legally entitled to free school transport on the same basis as students under the age of 16.

I'm not sure why Alcofrolic thinks she is disagreeing with me or that I am in any way justifying the approach taken by Bucks. However, given the point she makes I should point out that legally entitlement to free school transport is based on the shortest walking route to school. The fact that school X may be more convenient in public transport terms than school Y which is closer to home is irrelevant as far as the law is concerned. If you choose school X the LA is not generally required to provide free transport.

Bucks is one of many LAs that has in the past provided considerably more free school transport than is legally required. They are by no means the only one cutting back to the legal minimum. I am not saying they are right to do so, just noting the facts.

I'm not unclear when looking at the bills that have been sent out to parents this year :o)

Obviously, each case has to be judged on its own merit, but in our villages situation, BCC elected to send children to a school that is approx 8-9 miles away, with no direct transport links. The nearest school other than Chalfonts doesn't have the capacity to take in the extra students at 6th form level which means that if we want our children to continue within the same educational environment we would have to pay an extortionate amount - I notice that you didn't comment on the fact that, legal or not, the charge is at least double, if not treble, those of other counties.

As far as free transport goes reverting to the same rules once compulsory education kicks in, it makes little to no difference for a lot of very angry parents who simply won't qualify for it through no fault of their own. We didn't ask them to close our local school. The council seem to feel that Burnham is our closest school. However, Burnham, once it's own catchment area is dealt with (which, by the way, we don't come under) simply could not house the number of students floating about. And besides, why should we have to take our kids out of the school they have been with for 5 years simply because the method of getting there has been compromised?

The only replies regarding this situation from the BCC that I've seen, state that they need to claw back money from somewhere and if we can't afford it then look elsewhere! Not at all helpful to us, or the school who would be concerned at the loss of pupils!

Just to clarify regarding Wiltshire, if you send your children to the nearest denominational school then the council is providing no funding at all, and the school has been left to negotiate directly with coach companies and parents are having to pick up the full cost. In my friends case that's £750 for her dd starting in Y7

I am not here to defend Buckinghamshire. The only reason I contributed at all was that your OP said, "As it will be soon be compulsory to stay on in further education, we also need to ensure that the process is established whereby the students who are at the centre of this law are not penalised by finances". That post and, to a degree, your post of 23:42 last night seemed to imply you thought that all 16+ students will be charged for transport even after the school leaving age changes. I therefore pointed out that students who have to stay on to age 18 when it becomes compulsory will not be penalised. If they are legally entitled to free transport up to age 16 they will continue to be entitled until they leave school.

Just picking up on what you have said in your latest post, if a parent names Burnham as their first choice but is allocated another school over 3 miles walking distance away their child is entitled to free transport. If Burnham is not first choice but the child would not have got into Burnham even if it had been first choice they would still be entitled to free transport. Of course, as we are talking about 16+ pupils this isn't relevant currently but it will become relevant when the leaving age goes up.

I have no opinion on the level of charges being levied by Bucks CC. I understand your concern that the charge is much higher than the other counties you name but I don't know how comparable they are (number of students, distances travelled, etc.), which makes it difficult to judge. And I am fully aware that this change is difficult for parents with children who have previously been receiving free transport and now find themselves with a substantial bill to pay.

I am not your enemy. Indeed, I am a potential supporter but, given that I don't live anywhere near Bucks, my support would not carry any weight. On which point, I'm pleased to see that most of the signatories to your petition are (or at least claim to be) Bucks residents. They will carry far more weight than the signatory from Widnes or the one who hasn't disclosed a location.

Prh - how do you think the course choice will be relevant when the entitlement to free transport increases to cover 16+? For example if my nearest 16+ provider only offers A levels and my child wants to do something vocational only offered at the 2nd nearest provider (both over 3 miles away) will we qualify? Or could our LEA not provide on the basis that should have applied to our nearer college?

An interesting question and one which the last government failed to clarify when it passed the legislation raising the leaving age. Which is a long winded way of saying I don't know. Sorry. We may have to wait until someone takes a case to court to find out.

I should add that the duty to provide free transport to sixth formers once the leaving age changes is my understanding of the relevant legislation. It is possible the courts will disagree since what the last government did was more complex than simply raising the leaving age. They said that any student who has not achieved a Level 3 qualification (2 A levels or equivalent) must be in full time education or training, or be undergoing training as part of an apprenticeship or be receiving sufficient relevant training or education whilst working at least 20 hours per week.

Personally I think it will be close to impossible to police that. It would have been far simpler if they had just raised the leaving age.

However, this is getting a long way off topic!

PRH - I have gone through the many months of correspondence with BCC looking for any reference to your assertion that free transport for 16+'s - if they were legally entitled to it prior to the compulsory rule - would still apply and at no point do the councillors raise this. And given the amount of complaining I've been doing, I would have expected someone to tell me this, just to shut me up!

I'll be writing again to raise your point with them, so can I ask where you have seen this information so that in turn I can refer them to the rule?

Many thanks.