Consultation on changes to post-16 transport funding to be held
Shropshire Council’s is to carry out a six-week consultation into proposals to save £202,625 from the council’s SEN (Special Educational Needs) transport budget. This is part of efforts to save a total of £717,000 from the school transport budget.
The move was agreed by the council’s Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday (6 March 2019). The consultation will begin later this month.
Nick Bardsley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children and young people, said:
“The proposals relate to areas of support that the council is not required to provide and we have tried to reduce the potential impact of the proposed changes as much as possible – and have already reviewed our initial proposals to reduce the impact.
“Despite what has been claimed by some, this will be a genuine consultation. No decision has yet been made and we genuinely do want to hear the thoughts and views of students, parents, carers, education providers – anyone with an interest in this matter. All comments received will be carefully considered before the results of the consultation will be presented to Cabinet in May for a final decision.
“We’re proposing a change to the policy about how post-16 transport is funded, and proposing to increase the contribution paid by the user for mainstream post-16 transport, and to introduce contributions for SEN children that are in line with the mainstream scheme. It’s also proposed to remove the council’s financial support for nursery SEN transport over time, but it’s important to stress that that the demand for the nursery transport has actually been reducing recently because we have improved our local offer at local nurseries.
“Nobody wants or likes to change or withdraw services or funding, but – as is well known – across the council we are having make savings in the face of severe budget pressures. The council’s passenger transport team have already introduced a number of innovative transport solutions to reduce the pressure on the home-to-school transport budget and, whilst these have been and continue to be successful, in order to realise a significant budget reduction a policy change is needed. However, we will continue to do things differently and more cost effectively to save the remaining £500,000.”
Any changes would come into effect from 1 September 2019 and would apply to new applicants.
The removal of provision would be on a phased approach, protecting all those pupils and students entitled within the existing schemes.
