Hampshire County Council has agreed to launch a consultation on proposed changes to its School Transport Policy. This will be published on the County Council’s website and will run from Monday 30 October until Wednesday 6 December.
A separate consultation will run at the same time on the County Council’s Post-16 Transport Service, for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) travelling to further education or training. For more details of this consultation and how to provide feedback, please visit the Hampshire County Council website from Monday 30 October.
The consultation on the School Transport Policy will gather views on a range of proposals to make the service more flexible and responsive to children’s needs over time. These include the proposed introduction of Personal Transport Budgets which could give families greater choice and flexibility to create more tailored transport arrangements otherwise unavailable in the local transport market.
Other proposals include the development of an Independent Travel Training offer to support a small number of children to travel independently as part of their preparations for adulthood. If agreed, this would only be offered where absolutely suitable, following a thorough assessment process, and in agreement with the parents or carers concerned.
Also proposed is the regular review of Passenger Assistants (PAs), who accompany eligible children with additional needs on their journeys to school. If agreed, this would ensure that the right support continues to be in the right place, both for those children currently with PAs and for those without.
Finally, an uplift in the parental contribution towards discretionary School Transport services is also proposed, in line with inflation, as well as some other smaller suggested changes to Policy wording to reflect the latest statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE).
Submitting feedback
Those wishing to respond to the School Transport consultation will find an information pack and consultation response form on the County Council’s website from Monday 30 October.
