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Consultation has concluded
Over the past year, we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in the cost of living, impacting on everyone in Cornwall. The increased inflation is leading to a significant rise in the costs of providing our services. On top of that, demand for our services continues to grow due to an ageing population, the housing and the cost of living crisis. This comes at a time where we are still recovering from the financial costs of supporting and protecting our residents during the Covid pandemic.
Currently we are delivering both services that we have a duty to provide (statutory services) and services and functions that we can choose to provide (discretionary services). We are reviewing some of these discretionary services to see if we can stop them or reduce their costs and/or aligning the income to the real costs of delivering such services. This also applies to our Post 16 Travel Assistance.
The Council does not have a legal duty to provide free or subsidised transport for young people aged 16-19. However, it has a duty to prepare and publish an annual policy statement specifying the arrangements for the provision of travel or other support that it considers necessary in order tofacilitate the attendance of all persons of sixth form age (16-19) receiving education or training. In Cornwall, the Council has chosen to provide a subsidised transport for students aged between 16 and 19 to access Post-16 education and training in order tofacilitate access.
The Council is working closely with bus operators, and the Department for Transport (DfT) to provide a range of affordable transport options for students, such as our subsidised bus fares funded by our nationally recognised Bus Fare Pilot, in place until April 2026.In most cases, tickets and fares are available for young peopleat a lower cost than bus passes provided through the Council’s Post 16 Transport scheme. (Transport for Cornwall | Buses, trains, public transport information) In addition, eligible students can also apply for the 16-19 Bursary Fund is provided by Central Government to support 16-19 year olds with the cost of staying in education or training. Information about such schemes can be found on the Council’s Post 16 Travel Assistance page ( Post-16 Travel Assistance - Cornwall Council)
However, such initiatives are not enough to mitigate the pressures on the Home to School and Post 16 Transport Budget in Cornwall that have been growing for many years, due to the increase in demand for the service, including:
school population growth forecast to be 10% between 2020-2025 (Year 7 forecast to peak at 2023 with extra 200 students meaning limited capacity in the network),
a 60% increase in Education and Health Plans (ECHPs) since 2016,
a huge increase in specialist provision meaning longer distances are being travelled (including growth in out of county provision), and
an increase in need means increase in demand for taxi usage growth (56% increase in taxi costs since 2015)
The cost of providing the post 16 travel scheme in 2022/23 were:
over £4,400,000for approximately 1000 students, equating an average cost of £4,400 per student.
£3,500,000 of this expenditure was spent on providing transport support for young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (those with SEND)
The required payment contribution in the 2022/23 academic year was £540 per student. The Council has kept this contribution at a low level when compared to other local authorities. Comparablerural Local Authorities charge annual fees of between £825 to £1,300 for this service, while some authorities choose to leave parents and carers to make their own arrangements.
For the Council to be able to continue with the current subsidised transport for Post 16 students, we consulted on proposals to increase parental contributions to £700 per year which remains lower than many comparable Local Authorities. The Council is aware of increase in costs of living and we are trying to minimise the impact to families. This increase means that the Council would be able to continue to subsidise 90% of the scheme (as an average) for SEND students.
This change would only affect16-19 year olds who pay the charge to access our subsidised Post 16 Travel scheme. The offer for 19-25 year olds with EHCPs who, if eligible under Policy, get transport without paying the contribution, remains unchanged.
We consulted with current and future users to better understand the impact of our proposed parental charge increase.
Outcomes
We received over 400 consultation responses. The results of the consultation were considered by Cabinet in May 2023. Based on the consultation feedback, Cabinet decided to reduce the proposed increase and set parental contributions to £600 for the 23/24 academic year, rising with inflation in following years.
Over the past year, we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in the cost of living, impacting on everyone in Cornwall. The increased inflation is leading to a significant rise in the costs of providing our services. On top of that, demand for our services continues to grow due to an ageing population, the housing and the cost of living crisis. This comes at a time where we are still recovering from the financial costs of supporting and protecting our residents during the Covid pandemic.
Currently we are delivering both services that we have a duty to provide (statutory services) and services and functions that we can choose to provide (discretionary services). We are reviewing some of these discretionary services to see if we can stop them or reduce their costs and/or aligning the income to the real costs of delivering such services. This also applies to our Post 16 Travel Assistance.
The Council does not have a legal duty to provide free or subsidised transport for young people aged 16-19. However, it has a duty to prepare and publish an annual policy statement specifying the arrangements for the provision of travel or other support that it considers necessary in order tofacilitate the attendance of all persons of sixth form age (16-19) receiving education or training. In Cornwall, the Council has chosen to provide a subsidised transport for students aged between 16 and 19 to access Post-16 education and training in order tofacilitate access.
The Council is working closely with bus operators, and the Department for Transport (DfT) to provide a range of affordable transport options for students, such as our subsidised bus fares funded by our nationally recognised Bus Fare Pilot, in place until April 2026.In most cases, tickets and fares are available for young peopleat a lower cost than bus passes provided through the Council’s Post 16 Transport scheme. (Transport for Cornwall | Buses, trains, public transport information) In addition, eligible students can also apply for the 16-19 Bursary Fund is provided by Central Government to support 16-19 year olds with the cost of staying in education or training. Information about such schemes can be found on the Council’s Post 16 Travel Assistance page ( Post-16 Travel Assistance - Cornwall Council)
However, such initiatives are not enough to mitigate the pressures on the Home to School and Post 16 Transport Budget in Cornwall that have been growing for many years, due to the increase in demand for the service, including:
school population growth forecast to be 10% between 2020-2025 (Year 7 forecast to peak at 2023 with extra 200 students meaning limited capacity in the network),
a 60% increase in Education and Health Plans (ECHPs) since 2016,
a huge increase in specialist provision meaning longer distances are being travelled (including growth in out of county provision), and
an increase in need means increase in demand for taxi usage growth (56% increase in taxi costs since 2015)
The cost of providing the post 16 travel scheme in 2022/23 were:
over £4,400,000for approximately 1000 students, equating an average cost of £4,400 per student.
£3,500,000 of this expenditure was spent on providing transport support for young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (those with SEND)
The required payment contribution in the 2022/23 academic year was £540 per student. The Council has kept this contribution at a low level when compared to other local authorities. Comparablerural Local Authorities charge annual fees of between £825 to £1,300 for this service, while some authorities choose to leave parents and carers to make their own arrangements.
For the Council to be able to continue with the current subsidised transport for Post 16 students, we consulted on proposals to increase parental contributions to £700 per year which remains lower than many comparable Local Authorities. The Council is aware of increase in costs of living and we are trying to minimise the impact to families. This increase means that the Council would be able to continue to subsidise 90% of the scheme (as an average) for SEND students.
This change would only affect16-19 year olds who pay the charge to access our subsidised Post 16 Travel scheme. The offer for 19-25 year olds with EHCPs who, if eligible under Policy, get transport without paying the contribution, remains unchanged.
We consulted with current and future users to better understand the impact of our proposed parental charge increase.
Outcomes
We received over 400 consultation responses. The results of the consultation were considered by Cabinet in May 2023. Based on the consultation feedback, Cabinet decided to reduce the proposed increase and set parental contributions to £600 for the 23/24 academic year, rising with inflation in following years.
Please complete our short survey to give your views on the Post 16 Travel Scheme. This survey will close on 11/04/2023.
Privacy Notice
We will use the information you provide in this survey to inform the development of the Post 16 Travel Scheme.
The Data Controller for the information you provide in this survey is Cornwall Council, New County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY. Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294. Once the survey has closed, your data will be held within Cornwall Council’s secure network and premises for up to 2 years. Where we ask you to supply personal data on this form, we will only make access to this data available to authorised members of staff who are required to process it for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice. Please note that other information you provide, such as responses to open questions, may be published in full.
The feedback from this consultation will be reported to Cornwall Council's Cabinet in May 2023 and will help inform the decision whether or not to go ahead with this proposal.
Consultation has concluded
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