Transformation of Travel Support Programme

Background

Cheshire East Council provides travel support (also known as school transport) for nearly 3800 children and young people. This vital service enables eligible children to attend a school or college that meets their needs as close as possible to where they live. Travel support may be provided to those who live some distance away from their nearest school or college, where the route for them to walk is unsafe or who have to travel further to have their needs met, for example, in a special school.

What is the transformation of travel support?

Cheshire East Council has embarked on a three-year change programme to improve and modernise travel support for children and young people across the borough. Over the next three years we propose to:

• Where appropriate, shift the offer to provide travel solutions for children and young people, including the increased and easier use of personal travel budgets and independent travel training.  This will help families to make travel arrangements that best meet their needs.
• Work together with parents and carers to introduce a customer charter that sets clear expectations between parents, the council and transport providers.
• Create an integrated travel team within the council to provide a joined-up travel offer, consistent and fair policy and strategic direction.
• Greater use of software to provide effective routes to meet children’s needs and best use of transport.
• Improve the way we procure transport for children to make it more effective and to minimise change, which we know is really important for children.

Further details of the five project areas can be found below.

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Personal Travel Budgets (PTBs)  

A personal travel budget (PTB) is a cash amount awarded to parents/carers as an alternative to expensive home to school/college taxi journeys, to enable them to make their own personalised and flexible travel arrangements. 

The new Personal Travel Budget scheme has been in operation since September 2023 and parents are taking advantage of the improvements made, where appropriate:

• payments of 45p per mile
• no proof of attendance required
• 11 monthly payments 

Following the optimisation​ of all routes we will now be contacting parents of children travelling on their own in a taxi to check if any circumstances have changed and to offer them a PTB , where appropriate.​

If you require any further information, contact SENDTransport@cheshireeast.gov.uk.

Agenda for Children and Families Committee Decision on Monday, 10th July, 2023, 2.00 pm | Cheshire East Council

Personal Travel Budget Scheme Consultation feedback/report 2023 (PDF, 360KB) 

Engagement with bus and taxi companies 

How to apply for free school travel

As part of the engagement with our suppliers, 163 suppliers have been accepted onto the Dynamic Purchasing System ( DPS ) to date and all have had compliance checks completed.  This new way of tendering routes to school/college with taxis and bus companies has increased our supplier base and should ensure that capacity is available to meet increasing transport needs.

The optimised routes to schools in the south of the borough went live in January, and whilst there were a few initial issues, these are being worked on with parents, school and representatives from the  SEND team. 

The optimisation of routes to schools in the north of the borough was completed in January and routes that will commence after the Easter holidays have been tendered and are in the process of being evaluated.  Parents and carers of children affected by any changes will be notified of the new operators by Friday 22 March so that ‘meet and greets’ can take place with any new operators before their child returns to school after the Easter break.

Available walking routes  

Transport ended in January for those children attending Fallibroome and Brine Leas schools where walking routes were accepted by the committee as available to walk.

An initial review has been completed of a further 800+ pupils on routes deemed unavailable, and a desktop exercise is underway to identify where routes could be improved, including the feasibility and costs of classing those routes as available to walk.  Some initial investigations have started, and a report will go to committee in April with findings and proposals.

Discussions are taking place with Network Rail regarding the safety of a level crossing and internal discussions with highways are taking place regarding the potential for Peacock roundabout crossings.​

Independent travel training  

Detailed work completed on eligible pupils at four colleges demonstrates that travel training could be a viable option for these pupils.

We are exploring options around Independent Travel Training at present. We have started to identify external suppliers who can provide travel training and conversations are taking place with local schools and colleges. 

​Limitations on our public transport network means travel training may only be appropriate for some young people. We will provide further updates on the options available to the parents and carers of any potential candidates for travel training in the future.

Review of Home-to-School travel policies  

Members of Cheshire East Council’s children and families committee approved proposed changes to our home to school transport policies at a meeting on 12 February.

The changes follow a consultation last year (PDF, 520KB) which saw around 450 responses from interested stakeholders, including parents and carers. Thank you to those parents and carers who helped us to gather as many voices and opinions regarding the proposed changes to our home-to-school policies.

The approved changes are:

• move to a consistent online approach to the application and review of school transport eligibility for all children and young people;
• policy changes for post-16 students to make the offer of a personal travel budget ( PTB ) the default method of travel support;
• changes to the spare seats, charging and collecting payments for school transport, including the increase in charges for both post-16 parental contribution (where  PTB cannot be offered) and spare seat provision to £900 per annum from September 2024 to be collected mainly by direct debit.
• amendments to the policy to reflect updated statutory guidance from the Department for Education.

Free and subsidised travel assistance to school is a valuable service for many families, but budget pressures mean that the council often has to make difficult decisions about how to make best use of the limited resources available to them. The council must comply with their duty to arrange free travel for eligible children, but it has some discretion in how they do this.

Like many councils across the country, Cheshire East Council currently spends a significant amount of its budget on providing transport for children and young people. As these costs are expected to continue to rise, it will adversely affect the level of service we are able to provide to children and their families. Many school travel charges have not been reviewed or been subject to inflationary increases since 2018.

For more information, view the Children and Families Committee minutes 12 February 2024 (PDF, 550KB)

The individual needs of children and young people will be central to our plans. We know for some young people, travel training that provides practical support to travel by bus, on foot or bike can help them to travel independently, and without fear, so they can get to school or college. Others need a door-to-door service to meet their needs.

We recognise that the proposals will mean change for some of our children and families to improve their arrangements in the longer term, and we are committed to working together with staff, parents, children, schools and other stakeholders to develop these new ways of working and to discuss individual arrangements.

Why there is a need for change

The impact of inflation and increased demand for school transport, in particular for children with special educational needs and disabilities, together with shortages in drivers, a reduction in the number of transport operators and the cost of fuel have all affected the level of service we are able to provide to children and their families and put pressure on our budget. These pressures on the service have given us the opportunity to find ways to make improvements.

What difference the changes will make

The transformation of travel support aims to provide a number of benefits to children and families including:

• an improved service, which minimises change for children
• fairer and more consistent decisions
• better communication
• flexibility through personal travel budgets
• clearer expectations through the customer charter
• improved independence for some children through support and training

When changes will happen

The transformation programme started in April 2023 and the main changes will take place over the next two years. It is very important that these changes make a difference over the long term. That is why we are proposing to introduce them in a phased way that is sensitive to the needs of children and families.

How to get involved and stay updated

'Together' is our shared definition of co-production in Cheshire East and it is essential that any changes are carried out together with our key stakeholders, including parent/carers of all children and young people who receive travel support to an education setting (including post-16), young people, schools and colleges, our workforce and providers. There will be opportunities for parents and carers to participate. We will engage with parents throughout this process to ensure that the experiences of children and their families are considered in these changes.

Bi-monthly meetings of key stakeholders, including parent/carer representatives, have been helping to shape our plans.

We will have focus groups to inform developments on areas of our policy and will consult formally with all those affected on all relevant policy changes.

We will continue to update all those affected through briefings such as this that will be emailed to parent/carers.

You can email TravelSupportReview@cheshireeast.gov.uk with your comments.

If your child has additional needs, then the Parent Carer Forum is keen to hear your views. 

Contact us

For general queries on the transformation of travel support programme, please contact:

Children’s Travel Support Team at:
TravelSupportReview@cheshireeast.gov.uk

For general enquiries about free and subsidised travel support for children and young people with special needs email SENDTransport@cheshireeast.gov.uk  or phone 0300 123 5012.

For other enquiries, email schooltransport@cheshireeast.gov.uk or phone 0300 123 5012.