Home to school transport consultation

The change would bring us in line with most councils and our neighbouring local authorities

The change would bring us in line with many local authorities (LA) including our neighbouring LAs. We’ve carried out a review of a number of LAs and the table below illustrates how neighbouring LAs have adjusted their home to school transport policies in the same way.

Should the change come into effect, we would not be unusual in only transporting pupils to their nearest suitable school. We are currently the only LA in our area still providing transport to catchment schools, whereas others only transport children to their nearest school.

Financial considerations

Central Bedfordshire Council is, like all councils, under immense financial pressure due to the increasing demand and costs in adult social care and children’s services. Our services are, in the main, funded by Council Tax. At a time when we are having to make difficult choices about increasing Council Tax and reducing services to be able to provide social care, spending £3.6 million per year on transporting pupils to catchment schools over and above statutory guidance is not the best use of taxpayer's money, so we need to look at all our services to see where there is potential to reduce costs.

The cost of mainstream transport has increased by 179% from 2020/21 to 2024/25. The current cost for mainstream home to school transport arrangements is £7 million per year, which is 36% of our overall budget for education transport costs of £19.7 million.

The remaining 64% of the budget is spent on providing transport for some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) that have an EHCP, and students over 16 years of age (Post 16). SEND and Post 16 are covered by separate transport policies and are not affected by the proposed change.

We have already taken significant steps to try and reduce the cost of providing home to school transport. We have:

• carried out annual reviews of transport routes to ensure these are the most efficient route plans to reduce transport costs
• been selling available seats on certain routes to students who are not eligible for home to school transport, to offset the cost of providing transport to eligible pupils
• improved available walking routes, for example installing pedestrian crossings and pathways where possible
• started to implement a voluntary independent travel training scheme for children and young people, helping them become more independent and confident using public transport, walking and/or biking to school

We will continue these efforts to reduce costs, but with rising demand, inflation and transport costs, we need to find other ways to make savings. This consultation focusses on one of these options, which we feel is the most significant.

Although the proposed change would only apply to new home to school applications, we cannot predict future parental admission choices and transport applications. For illustrative purposes, we have used the current mainstream home to school data to consider the potential impact of the change.

As mentioned, there are currently 4,331 pupils using mainstream home to school transport, costing £7 million a year.

Of those, 1,563 pupils are attending a catchment school and not their nearest school, the total cost of transporting these pupils this financial year is £3.6 million.

Of these pupils, 904 could still be eligible for school transport if they chose their nearest school, but their transport costs would be cheaper. By its very nature, this should achieve a budget saving as the journeys should be shorter from the student’s home to school. 659 pupils would no longer be eligible for school transport, creating a direct saving of £8.9 million up to 2031/32 on new applicants.

Based on the current policy, costs and application trends, the cost of mainstream home to school transport to local authority catchment schools will continue to rise, and our five-year forecast shows that the cost could be up to £30 million by 2031/32. This is in addition to the other transport arrangements we provide for SEND and Post 16 pupils.

The change would bring us in line with Department for Education statutory guidance

In 2014, the Department for Education (DfE) changed its statutory guidance due to the rapidly changing picture of educational provision across the country with the expansion of the academies programme, the introduction of free schools and the academy presumption for new local schools. Since then, it has referred only to the ‘nearest school’ in its own Home to School Transport statutory guidance, which is increasingly the reference point for most local authorities. Read the full DfE Home to School transport guidance document.

We have continued to provide transport for both the local authority catchment area and the nearest school – this is over and above the DfE guidance, and therefore beyond our statutory responsibilities. The financial pressure on the council due to increasing demand for statutory services such as adult social care, and the rising cost of school transport means the council can no longer afford to provide services, at a cost to the taxpayer, that go beyond our statutory responsibilities.

Amending our policy to ‘nearest suitable school’ only will bring us in line with the government’s guidance.

It would make the policy clearer for parent/carers

The reference to catchment mainstream schools creates considerable confusion amongst those applying for transport and as a result, it increases the number of overall transport appeals that we must deal with. This is because the catchments referred to in the home to school transport policy are the local authority catchments, as opposed to those of academies, that may have different catchment areas because they have the power to set their own catchment areas. This is one of the reasons why the DfE guidance changed.

The proposal to remove the reference to ‘catchment’ will make the policy simpler to understand and more transparent for parents, carers and pupils.

To provide alignment with some schools in Central Bedfordshire where admissions are already only to nearest suitable school, not catchment

Although most schools in Central Bedfordshire continue to use the local authority catchment areas for school admissions, some schools have changed their admission criteria to the nearest suitable school – schools in Dunstable, Caddington, Houghton Regis, Hockliffe, Leighton Buzzard and Stanbridge in Central Bedfordshire have done this.

Also, academies can set their own catchments, which some have chosen to do.

This means there is a mixture of different approaches to admissions arrangements already and we anticipate that more schools could move to the nearest suitable school admission policy in the future.

To promote fairness amongst those wishing to access school transport across Central Bedfordshire

Due to the complexity of how the DfE allows schools to be organised, not all areas are served equally in terms of school choices. Currently, some pupils are eligible for transport to both their nearest school and their local authority catchment school(s), while others may only be eligible to transport to only one school. By transporting children to their nearest suitable school only, every eligible pupil receives the same offer for transport.

Additional benefits

Changing school transport provision to the nearest suitable school only should shorten journeys and reduce the number of pupils eligible for transport, potentially leading to fewer school buses on the roads.

As a result of attending their nearest school, fewer pupils will require school transport, and we anticipate that more children will travel by foot and/or bicycle. Travelling independently while younger can be a great way to gain independence, build confidence and develop healthy travel habits for later in life as an adult.

Shorter journeys and/or less buses contribute to improving air quality and a lower carbon footprint. Reducing emissions is a key priority for Central Bedfordshire Council supporting a more sustainable future for generations to come.