WARNING!

New Home–School Transport Policy

Powys County Council has drafted a new Home to School/ College Transport Policy. A copy is available for your child to collect from the main office. You can also access it on the Powys website under “Have your say” or as a pdf file from this website - download consultation document. This draft policy has serious implications for many parents, so please take the time to read it and to consider how it affects you and your community.

Until now Powys has decided which school pupils may travel to on a free bus or taxi through a combination of which primary school the child attended and where they live. The new policy will simplify this to distance from home to the nearest high school. This high school will be the ‘allocated’ school.This has serious implications for many children. In Newbridge and Rhayader, for example, pupils can now travel free to two or more high schools. If the new policy is adopted, from 2010 most Newbridge and almost all Rhayader children will only qualify for a bus place to Llandrindod.

Many parents use their legal right to ignore the Council’s ‘allocated’ school and send their child to one better suited to their needs. These pupils are the ‘non-allocated’ pupils and most of them now pay £85 a term to use empty seats on existing routes. This boosts the educational coffers by £51,000, but from 2010 this will be phased out. Existing vacant seat holders may be allowed to keep their places, but charges will now be hiked to ‘reflect the true, average cost’ – currently some £900 a year for each child!

From September 2010 new year seven pupils will no longer be allowed to travel on Council buses to ‘non-allocated’ schools – even when empty seats exist. Parents will have to make their own arrangements at their own expense. The Council will still have to offer free seats to another school to these pupils, however. This has major cost implications for the taxpayer. This also appears to clash with Powys’ environmental and rurality policies.

The draft document is unclear what will happen to post-16 children. While the law does not require the Council to provide free transport even to allocated schools, until now Powys has made this available. The new policy also seems to suggest ‘non-allocated’ pupils may lose their existing seats under the vacant places scheme unless they change school and move to the ‘allocated’ school. This has the potential to be disruptive and chaotic.

The draft states Powys considers all its secondary schools offer ‘a relevant and adequate range’ of post-16 courses. As a result no transport will be offered between schools. This is despite the Council putting pressure on heads to co-operate by sharing courses in future.

Once again, please take the time to read the new policy carefully. If you think it could affect you in any way fill out the response form (either on paper or on-line) or write to Rosie Davies, Schools and Inclusion Service, Powys County Council, Llandrindod LD1 5LG. Owing to complaints about poor publicity, the deadline has now been extended to 30th September 2009, but this is still frighteningly close. Remember, silence will be taken as approval!

Shan Davies Headteacher, Builth High School