Schoolgirl’s attendance lowest it’s ever been because of free school transport changes

A schoolgirl says her attendance has been massively affected and is the lowest it’s ever been because of changes to free school transport in her area.

Laila Phelps, a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda in Rhondda Cynon Taf, spoke to a full council meeting of RCT on Wednesday, October 22, about the impact the changes had had on her.

Changes to home-to-school transport eligibility for secondary school pupils and post-16 students in RCT which came into force in September meant only pupils living three miles or more away are eligible.

This has meant many pupils who would have previously been eligible under the two-mile threshold now miss out.

‘Carnage’

Parents have described the situation since the changes as “absolute carnage” with crowded buses, traffic congestion, and pupils having to walk long distances to get to school.

Laila said fewer buses taking pupils to school has affected many children in RCT in so many ways.

Speaking about the impact on her she said that instead of catching the school bus she now has to get a train before catching a public bus and then walk from Porth station instead of arriving at school with everybody else.

“The train can sometimes be cancelled last-minute which then makes me late for school. This has affected my attendance.

“The bus I have to catch if the train is cancelled arrives at Porth hub which means I have to walk longer from there to get to school in all weather conditions.

“My school attendance has been massively affected by this as not only the days when I am ill decrease my attendance but a late mark and missed lessons in the morning are affecting my attendance due to these issues with public transport that is out of my control.

“My attendance has been down to 66% which is the lowest it’s ever been. This is an important year for me with exams around the corner.

“There is also an issue around my safety getting to school especially during the winter months approaching.

“The pouring down rain, cold weather, darker mornings, and evenings are not appropriate conditions for anyone, let alone a 15-year-old girl, to walk a kilometre twice daily.”

Impact

She said there are so many negative impacts that affect young people in RCT and the biggest issue they are now faced with is the cost of getting to school.

She said it’s £1.40 return for the train to Porth then £1 for the bus fare.

“I am just one child but think of the families with more than one child spending this amount of money every day for them to get to school.

“I know you will say it’s difficult to keep the buses going due to funding but on average the council has £255m in reserves, also the Senedd has £350m, so why can’t we have the funding for our school transport for a safer way of getting to school for our education?”

She also asked if cabinet members use public transport or drive to get to work and if they drive she feels this is a “massive hypocritical move” making students walk three miles to get to school.

“This decision is so unfair and I feel like it’s a criminal act which was not consulted about with us pupils and families first. What about our future?”

Councillor Ann Crimmings, cabinet member for environmental services, responded by saying: “Cabinet went to great lengths to consider the impact of making any changes and that’s why over the 14 years of austerity cabinet were able to shy away from making any changes.

“However, unfortunately, the circumstances are incredibly difficult and we do, by law, as a cabinet and indeed as a council have to set a balanced budget every year.

“There was an extensive consultation as part of this process and, reading through the many comments, changes were made such as keeping the existing primary school transport provision.

“I know the council were also involved in lobbying Welsh Government for reduced bus travel fees.”

Consideration

But she said she’d made a note of a number of things that Laila had raised and it’s something they will give further consideration to.

Later in the meeting council heard a notice of motion from the Plaid Cymru group which called for the production and publication of 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.

It also called for the relevant cabinet member to write to Welsh Government to seek fair funding for learner travel, integration of school transport into forthcoming bus reforms, and reform of national learner travel guidance to strengthen duties on promoting access to Welsh-medium education and to clarify the definition of “nearest suitable school” to reflect linguistic choice.

And the motion also called on cabinet to engage formally, as a matter of urgency, with the “Save the School Transport – RCT/Wales” campaign, school leaders and governing bodies, the children’s commissioner for Wales, and the Welsh language commissioner to co-design mitigations and route-specific solutions and to publish a public tracker of actions and walking route reassessments.

Labour tabled an amendment to the notice of motion and, after some debate, the final agreed motion was amended to read that cabinet engage formally, as a matter of urgency, with the “Save the School Transport – RCT/Wales” campaign, school leaders and governing bodies to co-design mitigations and route-specific solutions and to publish a public tracker of actions and walking route reassessments and to subsequently engage with the children’s commissioner for Wales and the Welsh language commissioner.