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Response by the Cabinet Member: I am, of course, sorry to hear that you are still receiving regular correspondence regarding home to school transport. Whilst you will appreciate, I don’t have operational responsibility for the service, I am well briefed by the School Transport Manager and continue to seek assurance. The correspondence received on this matter is limited to two outstanding matters in your Ward. Having said that we take those matters very seriously and I know the team have been addressing the issues to resolve the difficulty. Whilst 45 minutes is a long time for any child to travel to their place of education it is within the guidance from Welsh Government. We work hard to ensure we comply with that guidance for the sake of all our learners who travel across the county to their place of education. Risk Assessments are always carried out by the operator and agreed with Powys School Transport. As these are already in place and agreed there was no need to undertake again. The Risk Assessments are the responsibility of the operator. I hope I have been able to give assurance to your questions answered below – I have repeated your questions for ease of reference: 1. Were any consultation exercises carried out with parents of primary or secondary school children prior to the introduction of changes to home to school transport provision? - No, given that nothing substantial had changed, for example operating school transport outside of the agreed policy, but rather amending some of the timings of the pick up / drop off by a few minutes or change of bus company, there was no need to consult. We have previously acknowledged that the communication to parents around the changes to times etc could have been better and we are taking steps to improve this for the next time we need to make operational changes to the school transport network. 2. Were impact assessments carried out to measure the effects changes to the home to school transport service would have on both children and parents? - No, as above, there were no changes ‘outside of policy’ that required us to undertake impact assessments as these have been done previously. 3. Where primary school age children as young as 5 years old are expected to share transport services with secondary school age children as old as 16 years old, is the Council concerned about bullying, anti-social behaviour, or the sharing of inappropriate content between young and old children on mobile phones? If so, how can this be monitored if there is nobody else present on a bus other than the driver who will clearly be focussed on driving the bus? - It is and has been standard practice to integrate primary and secondary school learners onto the same vehicle for many years. For example, if there were learners living in the Aberyscir ward, they would be transported to Ysgol Y Bannau on the same bus as Brecon High School learners. 4. What is the maximum length of time this Council considers it appropriate for children as young as 5 years old to be expected to travel to and from school every morning and afternoon? - In line with WG Guidance, insofar as is reasonably practicable, we consider a maximum journey time of 45 minutes in each direction reasonable. 5. Will you please revert the home to school transport service back to normal in areas where disruption is still occurring, and ensure that prior to the introduction of future changes, all parents and children can be assured the Council will provide a reliable service, with appropriate journey times for young children?” - No.
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