The Welsh Government must act to review legislation that governs learner travel

Rocio Cifuentes, Children’s Commissioner for Wales

“I feel like as young people we are being let down.”

This is a quote from a young person speaking to us just last week regarding the difficulties young people are facing in getting to school each day to access their education.

Learner Travel is a massive problem and one that I have consistently raised with decision-makers. Ahead of a debate today (Tuesday 25 March) on this in the Senedd, here is my take on the issue and my calls to the Welsh Government.

Mileage thresholds and unsuitable journeys

Primary school children are legally entitled to free transport if their walk from home to school is more than two miles, and for secondary school pupils the threshold is three miles.

Fortunately, local authorities have historically been more generous in their offer than the legal minimum set by the Welsh Government, with many lowering local mileage limits to adequately support children and young people.

However, with budgets being stripped ever closer to the bone, more councils are opting for the minimum legal requirement for children and young people. In practice this means some children walking up to six miles a day, setting off for school on foot at 6.30am in all weathers and sometimes on routes that families deem unsafe and unsuitable; we’ve heard cases of children having to walk across a common with wild horses, down side alleys and along canal paths without lighting or visibility.

Even when children and young people are entitled to free school transport, we hear through our independent Children’s Rights Advice and Assistance service about children having to walk lengthy distances to get to pick up points, including along thin grass verges by the side of busy A-roads.

In a persistently challenging financial context, many parents whose children don’t qualify for free transport are left with a choice between paying for a bus fare or breakfast, just to get their child to their education.

Yet, there are no concessions, even when children are eligible for  free school meals; we’ve heard of such children  having to pay £3.80 per day to get to school, and coming to a point towards the end of the week where it is no longer affordable to get  to school, meaning that child then misses out on their free hot meal on that day too.

 What has happened in relation to these concerns?

My office has called for many years, including through formal recommendations within our Annual Reports, for the Welsh Government to review the legislation that governs learner travel.

Interim report

In 2022, Welsh Government published an interim review of learner travel arrangements, concluding that doing nothing was ‘not an option’. The report stated that Government needed to do more work including looking at the mileage thresholds with local authorities.

Final report

The final report of the review, published in March 2024, noted that, wherever possible, school transport will be rolled into the scheduled bus service, with a new Bill to address bus franchising service issues.

It noted that there would be no wholescale review of the legislation despite this having previously been deemed necessary, and planned work to make minor updates to the guidance and travel behaviour codes has not yet come forward to consultation (as at March 2025).

The Bus Bill has not yet come forward, but even when it does it will inevitably take time to be introduced and implemented.

This will not help children in the here and now with sometimes prohibitively expensive travel to school costs.

In some areas, public transport cannot be the solution to learner travel either, due to a general lack of service/coverage.

‘Wholly inadequate’

Sadly, these reviews have been wholly inadequate from the point of view of children’s rights, and have failed to address the known issues with school transport. Without clear action from Welsh Government, more and more young people will be arriving at their school cold, wet and tired, and some simply won’t arrive at all.

 What would we like to see from Welsh Government?

Cost of living pressures continue to have a devasting impact on families across Wales.

Despite the publicity, the recently announced £1 bus fares for under 21s will not help with all learner travel, as this scheme is only intended to support those aged 16-21.

The Cabinet Secretary is hosting a Learner Travel Summit; here are some issues that need to be taken into consideration in the next steps:

• Consider how mileage thresholds can be reduced; what are the exact costs and benefits of different thresholds?;
• Review responsibilities for local authorities to risk assess walking routes to transport pick up points;
• Examine how certain groups of children are particularly affected by the current arrangements, including but not limited to children with disabilities, those attending welsh medium education, and those eligible for free school meals

Without due consideration of and clear action on these issues, the Welsh Government is failing to properly consider and give greater effect to children’s basic needs and human rights in this policy area and the time for wholescale change is long overdue.