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Secondary education

Post-16 school transport - how does it work in your area?

51 replies

Mutakirorikatum · 29/11/2019 14:59

So I know young Londoners aged 16-18 get a pass entitling them to free bus transport and subsidised tube and train fares in the whole Greater London area. Which is obviously lovely.

However. In our rural county I have just learnt that there is no free or subsidised transport at all for post-16 education. Instead we have to buy an annual season bus ticket which gives access to all the county's bus services (most of which will never be used, since it's primarily for getting to and from college/sixth form a few miles away). For a grand total of...

Eight. Hundred. and. Ten. English. Pounds.

£810 actual pounds.

Blimey. Most 6th form provision is concentrated in regional centres, so almost everyone will have to travel, and only the lucky few who live actually in the town where the college or school is will be able to walk or cycle. There are 'bursaries' available for low-income families, but they have to be applied for through the individual school or college, and there appear to be limited funds available.

I had blithely assumed that because post-16 education is now compulsory, there would be some form of transport provision, not necessarily to any school or college, but at least to your nearest one. But nope.

Is this unusual? I'd be interested to know what the provision is in other parts of the country.

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SunnyUplandsOhNoTurnipSoup · 29/11/2019 19:08

There was an allowance for young people in education after the age of 16.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Maintenance_Allowance
Guess who cut it? I gather from friends the allowance gave young people enough to pay for e.g bus passes and some other expenses and was universal so gave them a degree of independence.
Here in Somerset, bus passes cost around £900 a year. £900! The County Council is on its knees financially - making impossible choices about funding for social care (there was a Panorama programme about it), SEN, transport...the list goes on.
Our school only goes up to y11. Most students then look to the county town where there is a 6th form and a FE college. It is 50 mins to an hour's car drive. The county council subsidises an extension to a service bus route to come out to us. We are well served compared to smaller villages around which have, at best, one bus / the community bus, and more often than not, nothing. They have to get here to catch the service bus which leaves at 7.50 am. It takes 1 hour 30 mins to get to the town bus station. Students then have a 25-30 minute walk to either college. The return journey is the same. Kids here therefore have a four hour round trip. Sometimes the late afternoon bus is cancelled and they are stranded. Many have dropped out.
We live in a low wage area, very low social mobility. Even if you have money in your family and can afford to learn to drive and buy a car, you have to be 17 to start driving lessons. For some this is a year into their course. I have contacted the council and they are looking at whether there are any other options. They have no funding. Working parents, even on a rota, would struggle to do a 2 hour round trip twice a day to take kids. The irony is that the law was changed to require young people to stay in education or training until aged 18 but no transport provision was put in place to enable this. It has been described to me as a missing piece of a jigsaw. I think the raising of the leaving age came in under the last Labour Government but then there were elections, and a change of Government. The next stage should have been transport provision but this was not forthcoming. Instead we have had swingeing cuts austerity. If you want to increase opportunities and raise education and vocational standards young people have to be able to access courses and apprenticeships - if sensible public transport does not exist then other funded solutions need to be available.
The current system does not work. It is failing young people and in my view it is a national scandal.
We need reinstatement of the Education Maintenance Allowance and proper funding for transport as well as for post 16 education. The Labour Manifesto commits to higher post 16 funding and will bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance. labour.org.uk/manifesto/rebuild-our-public-services/
They will increase funding and regulation of buses and if councils take ownership, they will give under 25s free travel. They will reinstate 3,000 routes that have been cut, including in rural areas labour.org.uk/manifesto/a-green-industrial-revolution/ I suggest they also need a programme for transport to get to colleges /apprenticeships. It should operate like school transport - it should be free, because by law they are in education /training so not working. If a journey is more than an hour to local provision, transport should be to the college / training venue. We need to raise the profile of this issue with our local candidates of all parties. I'd be interested to see posts with any responses you get if so!