Post 16 Travel Scheme Consultation

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 to facilitate 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 to facilitate 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 people at 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:

 The cost of providing the post 16 travel scheme in 2022/23 were:

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. Comparable rural 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 affect 16-19 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.