Reason for plan
Statutory guidance for local authorities on ‘travel to school for children of compulsory school age’, was updated in January 2024. This new guidance set out the requirements on local authorities regarding home to school transport, but also clarified the duty on all local authorities to promote sustainable and active travel to school. We have a statutory duty under section 508A of Education Act 1996 (the 1996 Act) to promote the use of sustainable travel and transport.
Purpose of this document
This document sets out how we as a local authority with responsibility for both education and transport meet the requirements and duties set out in the statutory guidance. We will provide details of our initiatives and approaches and set out the recent data we hold related to this.
We will also look at possible future initiatives which we may wish to work towards during future iterations of this plan.
Our current position
We have a statutory duty to provide home to school travel for eligible children of compulsory school age in accordance with statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education.
In the academic year 2023/24, children supported to travel to school in North Yorkshire through the free home to school transport scheme are as follows:
The current population at compulsory school age (5 to 16) of schools in North Yorkshire is circa 75000 pupils and the number of those accessing free home to school transport is circa 10000. Of the circa 600 plus services provided to transport children accessing ‘mainstream education’, approximately half are provided by vehicles with 8 seats or fewer.
In regard to those children accessing transport support due to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), there are approximately 1800 children, of which approximately 250 receive a parental allowance, and the remainder have transport provided via a contracted service.
Current modal split (distribution across different modes of transport)
We do not currently hold any figures for the split of how children travel to school, nor do we have any understanding of the latent demand for various travel options. At this stage, beyond the provision that is made for allocation of home to school transport, we do not fully understand the extent of the desire for families and young people to travel to school by sustainable modes.
Plan objectives and guidance
Where schools, transport infrastructure and public transport can reasonably facilitate, support children and young people being able to access education in a healthy, sustainable, and safe way. This will help to support healthier lifestyles and communities, reduce congestion and the impacts of vehicles on our places, including safety, and reduced air quality, and ensure all children and young people are able to be fully included in all aspects of school life.
North Yorkshire is England’s largest county by geography. We are a diverse and special area with a range of places including towns and a cathedral city, rural areas, market towns and coastal communities. We have two national parks in our area, and three national landscapes (formerly areas of outstanding natural beauty). We have more than 350 schools providing education for more than 80,000 pupils, of which over 5,000 have an education and health care plan.
Relevant council visions and strategies
Council plan vision – “We want to build on North Yorkshire’s natural capital, strong local economy and resilient communities, to improve the way local services are delivered and support a good quality of life for all.”
Being young in North Yorkshire - “All children and young people are safe, happy, healthy and able to achieve in North Yorkshire.”
Council plan, vision for place and environment - “To encourage and support sustainable living in our communities and towns as well as the transport in between, including making it easier to charge electric vehicles, access public transport that meets the needs of the user and promoting and encouraging active travel including walking, wheeling and cycling.”
Local transport plan vision: “Our vision is that we want North Yorkshire to be a thriving county which adapts to a changing world and remains a special place for everyone to live, work and visit.”
Guidance requirements
There are four distinct elements to the duty that local authorities must meet, as follows:
- assess the school travel needs of children of compulsory school age and persons of sixth form age resident in their areas
- assess the facilities and services for sustainable modes of travel to, from and within their area
- promote the use of sustainable travel to places of education in their area
- publish a document which sets out their strategy to promote the use of sustainable travel to places of education in their area
Our current approaches to meeting these duties are as set out below.
Assess the school travel needs of children of compulsory school age and persons of sixth form age resident in their areas.
Our approach
Following the allocation of school places and identification of the number of children who are eligible for assistance with transport, our integrated passenger transport team establish the most appropriate travel arrangements for individual pupils.
Where relevant, in determining the most appropriate arrangements for integrated passenger transport, in consultation with transport providers when relevant, take account of a range of issues. For context, there are almost 1300 home to school transport services operating for 190 days per academic year.
Opportunities
Our current approach considers need based on our statutory responsibilities.
We would like to be able to consider looking at need from a wider, more aspirational perspective, but this would require additional funding.
There are opportunities to understand this need better via a variety of means including, but not limited to, engagement and formal consultation with schools and education providers, and children, young people, and their families. This could take a variety of forms, tailored as necessary.
Assess the facilities and services for sustainable modes of travel to, from and within their area
Our approach
We use mapping software to understand the transport options for each child that makes an application for admission in the ‘standard points of entry’ i.e. Year R (reception) and Year 7. This process includes assessing the shortest appropriate walking routes and use of existing contracted transport services.
Where, on the rare occasion, a child lives in an area that falls outside these mapped areas, manual intervention from officers may be needed to supplement the software analysis.
Similarly, if a parent, or school suggests that a walking route may not be suitable for a child to use, officers will assess that route via a site visit, taking into account the parameters of the statutory guidance and that from Road Safety GB, on Assessment of Walked Routes to School.
Opportunities
Enhancements in transport mapping could help to provide more detailed travel information tailored to individual schools and locations. A more detailed assessment of active travel routes, plus public transport services, and facilities to support use of sustainable modes could also be detailed to provide details of feasible travel options. Schools and their pupils could be canvassed about what facilities might encourage them to travel sustainably, and what barriers currently exist to that.
This is not a current programme of work, but could be investigated to understand the cost and resources required to deliver a suitable level of information. For an enhanced, more detailed level of information, additional funding beyond currently identified budgets would be likely.
Promote the use of sustainable travel to places of education in their area.
Our approach
Our home to school transport policy, details of bus timetables, travel passes and support for pupils can be found on our school and college transport page.
There is also travel information provided in the roads, parking and travel section of our website, although this is not specific to schools and places of education.
We provide Bikeability training to a number of schools in our area, aimed at giving children in years 5 and 6 the opportunity to learn safe cycling skills.
We administer and promote the Modeshift stars programme within North Yorkshire. Approximately 60 schools are current active participants. Those schools work towards a gold, silver or bronze award, which includes them using an online tool to develop a travel plan and promote sustainable transport.
Opportunities
There are opportunities to provide schools and their pupils and students with more detailed information about the travel options available to them. This could be by way of an individual travel planning approach, by rolling out Modeshift stars to a greater number of schools, through a more general area-based advice service, or by promoting travel advocates and specific support to particular schools and even particular pupils based on their needs. Such initiatives can be very successful, but require funding beyond our current budgets, and in particular a focus on revenue-based spending and resources.
Publish a document which sets out their strategy to promote the use of sustainable travel to places of education in their area.
Our approach
This document sets out what we are currently doing to meet the requirements of the guidance, and sets out, at a broad level, the future steps we could take to further develop and promote sustainable travel options for children and students.
Opportunities
This document is the starting point for our sustainable modes of travel to school plan. We are required to update this strategy annually, and we intend to consider future opportunities, working in a cross-organisational manner, to secure additional funding to enhance this strategy.
Possible future initiatives
In addition to the opportunities outlined above, there are many initiatives and programmes which could help to promote and encourage the use of sustainable transport to schools. In recommending these approaches to schools and educational establishments, partnership working, and engagement would be imperative in ensuring the most suitable approach.
Initiatives which could be considered as part of a future work programme include, but are not limited to:
- further roll out of Modeshift stars and school travel planning
- further roll of out of Bikeability cycle training, and pedestrian training
- consideration of ‘pluggable’ gaps in otherwise walkable/cyclable routes to school
- travel buddy scheme/travel training
- consideration of young people’s travel passes and how these might be expanded
- gamification of travel behaviour (i.e. rewards and incentives using schemes like Walk on Wednesday)
- audit of secondary school and college travel routes and options including consideration of local cycling and walking infrastructure plans where appropriate and also traffic management such as school parking zones
- audit of school travel facilities (e.g. bike/scooter storage)
- annual school travel survey to provide measurable data
Resources for programmes would need to be identified and budgets secured before any commitments could be made to delivering initiatives beyond those currently established.
It is important to ensure alignment between future iterations of this strategy, and emerging and linked complementary workstreams such as the new joint North Yorkshire and York Local Transport Plan, the North Yorkshire Local Plan, and public health and sport initiatives. Many of these are currently in development, or being revised at present.