To consider a report setting out the phasing out of concessionary home to school transport support as part of the ongoing transformation programme in Children’s Services.

That all discretionary home to school/college transport assistance be phased out over a period of three years as detailed in section 5.2 a) - f) of the submitted report.

To reduce expenditure on home to school/college transport by removing non-statutory elements of support.  The present home to school transport spend is not sustainable.  The main impact of these changes will be an increase in the cost of transport for parents of some post-16 students, also for parents of a small number of pupils attending faith or selective schools.

None – an amendment was proposed during the Council debate but was lost (please refer to the minutes of the Council meeting held on 18 July 2013 for further details).

This decision will come into force and may be implemented on Wednesday, 31 July 2013 unless the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

The Council has reviewed its policy on home to school transport as it currently spends approximately £113,000 per year in providing discretionary travel support to pupils across Torbay.  This funding could be saved if the Council were only to provide statutory home to school/college transport.  The current policy only provides discretionary help to pupils for transport to some secondary schools and not others so removing this discretionary transport would provide a ‘level playing field’ for home to school/college transport across schools.

The submitted report sought a decision on proposals to phase out concessionary home to school/college transport assistance.  Initial proposals to remove all concessionary transport support from September 2013 have been replaced with a proposal to phase their removal over three years.  A consultation has been undertaken on these revised proposals.

The Mayor supported the recommendations of the Council made on 18 July 2013, as set out in his decision above.

None