Meeting documents

For the Committee to receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Education & Skills about H2S transport actions

Mr N Hussain left the room for the duration of this item.

Mrs Cranmer told the Committee that she had recently attended a meeting which gave a complete update on remedial actions. Home to School transport would sit within the portfolio of Richard Barker, the new Corporate Director of Communities.

As an overview, Mrs Cranmer told the Committee that:

·         Less calls and messages had been received within the service area and those that had been received had been answered more effectively

·         They had closed down all extraneous email boxes to reduce the likelihood that messages would get missed or sent to the wrong location.

·         Communications had been analysed and improved, with teams given guidance on how to communicate better with stakeholders.

·         A new team of people had been established to carry out special educational needs and disability (SEND) mobility assessments on Buckinghamshire students.

·         There had been a complete reorganisation of the whole system, with the new Director of Resources holding responsibility for the function.

·         The removal of free post-16 SEND travel, which would be replaced by a parental contribution system, had been delayed until the following year. This was to facilitate a robust communications process and to allow parents to apply for the necessary bursaries, confirm college placements and go through the appeals process if they weren’t happy with the decision. This was expected to affect 440 children within Buckinghamshire.

·         It was stressed that this was not intended to be a cost-cutting exercise but was intended to build resilience for SEND children and enable them to travel independently. An independent travel training scheme had been replicated from the scheme delivered in Nottinghamshire and there would shortly be a large train the trainer session delivered to Schools within Buckinghamshire. This would enable Schools to directly train students from November 2020.

The Chairman told Mrs Cranmer that he believed residents to be happy with the solution and communications as he hadn’t heard back from them, but wanted to know that the Service Area would deliver effectively next year. Mrs Cranmer assured the Committee that they were definitely on track and she didn’t believe another full system breakdown to be possible.

A Member asked about the likelihood of all of the commercial routes continuing, now that students were reliant on them, and whether there would be contingency measures in place should these stop running. It was hoped that plans would be in place so that their education and School attendance didn’t get affected. Mrs Cranmer told the Committee that there were short-term contracts in place and new processes would be rolled out in time for next September. They would look at standards and make any adjustments based on these findings, with the goal to roll all routes out to the commercial sector, providing benefits to residents in rural areas. It was suggested that Mr Robson, Head of Integrated Transport, and Mr Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation attend a future meeting to provide technical and operational information.

A Member queried the current position involving taxi provision and associated contracts. Mrs Cranmer said that these were mostly for SEND students. Contracts were in place until 31^st December, when they would be renegotiated and recommissioned. Mrs Cranmer expected a seamless transition in January 2020. The Chairman thanked Mrs Cranmer for her update.