Parents and councillors raise worries over impact of new school transport policy

Anthony Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

There have been reports of some pupils being bullied on public buses and some being late for exams when public buses don’t turn up in south Wales.

The emotional and wellbeing impact on pupils since changes to school transport eligibility in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) were brought in last September were raised at a joint meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee and the education committee on Tuesday, March 24.

A written submission from the Save the School Transport campaign to the meeting shared some of the experiences of pupils travelling to and from school in RCT.

One of these was that pupils of ALN (additional learning needs) are being bullied on public transport and one pupil in particular has now been so traumatised by the experience they are not in education at all.

Another example given was of a male pupil who had his hair pulled and had social media posts sent to him by a female pupil.

And one councillor raised concern about the stress some are experiencing when their public service buses do not arrive making them late for exams.

Councillor Cathy Lisles, Independent, said: “To read of the bullying that children have experienced on public service buses is disturbing. I am also concerned to recently hear of the stress being experienced by children when their public service buses do not arrive making them late for exams.”

She said it is to be hoped that emotional and physical problems and challenges can be properly considered and addressed in a future report.

The change to school transport policy

Cabinet approved the change to the school transport policy in March 2024 with the council facing a budget gap of £35m.

It meant only secondary and sixth form students living three miles or further from their school or college would continue to receive free home-to-school transport from September 2025.

Walking route assessments were carried out and around 2,300 students were no longer eligible for free school transport in September 2025.

But the council decided to keep the 1.5-mile discretionary distance criteria for
primary schools.

The report said the council continues to provide a significant amount of discretionary transport provision in excess of the current minimum Welsh Government statutory requirement and a more generous eligibility policy than 18 of the 22 councils in Wales that have already adopted the statutory distance requirements for secondary schools and colleges.

The council’s spend on home-to-school transport is expected to be £16.9m
for the 2025-26 financial year compared to £10.5m in 2021-22, the report said.

A notice of motion agreed by full council in October last year called for an updated equality and children’s rights impact assessment to include analysis of the impact on attendance and household costs across a range of scenarios, for the cabinet member to write to Welsh Government, and for the council to engage with the Save the School Transport – RCT/Wales campaign, school leaders, and governing bodies as well as the children’s commissioner for Wales and the Welsh language commissioner.

Attendance and lateness statistics

The report said secondary school and sixth form attendance for those have school transport and those making their own way to school has increased since the change comparing the autumn terms of 2023, 2024, and 2025.

It said for the same periods when attendance levels of pupils making their own way to school is compared to those who have free school transport these have been consistently higher for those pupils making their own way to school.

The council compared the number of late marks for those students receiving home-to-school transport with those those who do not use home-to-school transport to get to school.

The report said: “While the number of students who no longer receive home-to-school transport has increased from 9,519 to 11,769 there has been a 0.57% reduction in lateness for those pupils making their own way to school comparing the autumn term 2025 with the autumn term 2024.

“Overall there has been a decrease in students arriving late for school of 0.4%
comparing the autumn term 25-26 (2.95%) with the autumn term 24-25 (3.35%).”

Financial support and Welsh medium impact

The report said the council had used the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund to run the £1 bus scheme for five-to-15-year-olds in RCT and allocated a £100,000 hardship fund to secondary schools to support families which can be used to help cover any cost associated with overcoming barriers to attendance.

And the council worked with Transport for Wales around the monthly student tickets and initiatives to bring in reduced student fares.

The report said the decision to maintain transport entitlement for primary-age pupils living 1.5 miles from school was judged as positive mitigation against some of the potential negative impacts on Welsh-medium education.

It also said the data supported the position that there was “no disproportionate impact” on Welsh-medium education from the changes to secondary school transport.

Interim data from term one shows an increase in the percentage of pupils entering Welsh-medium education at nursery, reception, and year seven.

RCT should have a ‘more generous’ policy

Councillor Sera Evans, Plaid Cymru, said: “I felt that the report was devoid of those well-being and emotional elements”, adding: “I felt that this report only tells half the story of the impact of these changes.”

She said: “In my view RCT undoubtedly should have a more generous home-to-school transport provision.

“Many of our children, young people, and families are fighting against the odds and for some it’s a huge effort for them to attend school at all and we’ve made it more difficult for them to do so.

“Proportionately we should have a more generous eligibility policy so that we can meet the needs of our learners so they can have the very best start in life and have no barriers placed in their way.”

She also said they need to consider the non-financial costs such as the time it takes for parents and carers to take students to and from school, the time they need to take off work including if children become ill from walking long distances in inclement weather.

Cllr Evans said surely all efforts being made to grow the number of Welsh speakers in RCT through education settings will be in vain particularly at secondary level if pupils are unable to access Welsh-medium school due to limited transport availability.

And she said evidence from the Save the School Transport campaign demonstrates that often public buses are full, late, or simply inaccessible and for many families not affordable if they have multiple children even with subsidised rates.

Positive data recognised

Councillor Gareth Hughes, Labour, said despite the changes RCT still offers some of the most generous home-to-school transport across Wales.

He said he didn’t think that any member particularly wanted to make these changes but given the budget pressures and the statutory guidelines there was limited other choice.

On the data he said he recognised that it’s early but it seemed particularly positive and some of the concerns hadn’t been realised.

He also said his children get wet walking a mile to and from school so some of those challenges have been previously experienced.

Cllr Hughes also said the additional mileage on routes have been assessed using the same criteria that the previous routes were assessed on.

Ideas to mitigate the impacts

Councillor Cathy Lisles, Independent, said in reading the report and what was called for in the notice of motion she had become aware of some areas where she did not feel the report meets those objectives.

She mentioned several mitigations such as supporting new public bus routes and maximum bus fares and she thanked officers for bringing the new bus routes on line which have certainly helped students living in her ward and other residents in their journey to hospital.

But Cllr Lisles said: “Whilst these moves are to be commended there is still great uncertainty as to whether such support will continue into the future and in some areas of RCT it has not even been possible to introduce any additional public services at all leaving students with a long walk to then catch a public bus service to their school.”

She also mentioned other mitigations not mentioned in the report such as additional amendments to timetables and routes like the direct bus from Pontypridd to Coleg y Cymoedd bypassing Hawthorn and Lower Rhydfelen so the bus that did pass through her ward actually had space on it.

Cllr Lisles said in other areas additional bus shelters and pavement improvements were funded and in others public bus services even onto school premises to pick students up.