Council may review level of support for some school transport services

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

Sixth-formers who travel to school on contracted vehicles are expected to have their transport fees frozen for the autumn term by a Welsh council.

The system for charging parents could be reviewed in the coming months, and Newport City Council may reduce its subsidy for the service as early as January.

For the time being, parents of post-16 learners travelling on contracted vehicles will continue to pay a £370 annual contribution for the service – the same fee as last year.

In some cases, the council estimates it is spending around £3,000 annually on each pupil seat on contracted vehicles.

This form of home-to-school travel costs parents more than travelling on public buses run by Newport Transport.

A handful of the city’s secondary schools are not fully accessible using public transport, so third-party firms are hired to help pupils travel to lessons.

The council already provides an annual discretionary travel grant worth £150 to eligible pupils.

Cost

For learners travelling on public transport, the current cost of a post-16 season ticket, known as a Youth Passport card, is £385, but the actual cost to parents is £235 once the council’s travel grant has been applied.

Although pupils travelling with a contractor firm pay more, a council report states the parental contribution for these contracted vehicles was set at £370 in 2015 and has never been increased – meaning fees for families have effectively been frozen for a decade.

Average costs per set vary significantly on services to different Newport secondary schools, however.

The council estimates a seat costs £948 for a year’s travel to Bassaleg School, while at the other end of the scale an annual seat to the nearest church school, in Cardiff, costs £3,483.

The council said it charges a “standard contribution” for the service because it is “too difficult” to charge parents different rates depending on their child’s school.

This week, Cllr Deb Davies, the cabinet member for education, confirmed the current parental contribution will remain at £370 until the end of the year.

Senior officers suggest it could be time for a change, owing to wider budget pressures the council is facing.

In the report, the council’s head of infrastructure described a “clear disparity” in costs to various schools and said the local authority would need to “carefully consider” the future of the service “without any fee increases factored in”.

Newport’s chief financial officer said the cost of services had increased over nine years while parental contributions had stayed the same.

Council officers will meet in the autumn term to discuss “a range of options” which “could reduce the council’s ongoing subsidy to this discretionary service from January 2025 at the earliest”.