Scarborough And Whitby MP Criticises Council's School Transport Policy

Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume says North Yorkshire Council's revised home-to-school transport policy is breaking down communities and splitting up siblings.

Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume has asserted that the revised home-to-school transport policy implemented by North Yorkshire Council is causing significant problems for families in the villages around Whitby and along the Esk Valley.

The local authority introduced the policy change to reduce an annual school transport bill of more than £50 million.

Under the new rules, the council provides free travel to the nearest suitable school for pupils from Reception to Year 11, rather than their traditional catchment school for admissions purposes.

To qualify for the free transport, the distance to the nearest school must be more than the statutory walking distance of two miles for children under eight years of age, and more than three miles for children aged eight and over.

Furthermore, children may also qualify for free travel if the route they walk to their nearest school is under these distances but is assessed as being unsafe, or if the child has additional needs.

However, the changes have led to frustration among local families who are finding themselves allocated to schools outside of the county.

Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume said:

"Filling up my inbox is the fallout from the decision about home-to-school transport, particularly in the Whitby area.

You know, why we're not using Whitby as a magnet for children in the area. The policy seems to be that we're splitting siblings up and sending children to schools where others from the area have not gone.

For example, the catchment school for the Hinderwell is Whitby, where the children have always gone, but one constituent she's been told due to the way the rules have been applied, that she'll only get transport to the nearest school which is outside of the county.

And I've got lots of people whose children are being sent to various schools."

The MP believes that the strict application of the nearest school rule is having a detrimental effect on the social fabric of the local area.

Alison Hume added:

"I do believe that the policy is wrong.

For example, one constituent from Mickleby where the nearest school is Lithe, except not as the crow flies, they've got siblings at Lithe, but not eligible for transport and it it just is lack of common sense.

We should be supporting Whitby secondary school as the school that children should be feeding into, rather than sending our young people into schools outside of the county where they won't be forming the friendships and the links that we want to keep them in the area going forward.

It's about community and I feel that the home school transport is actually breaking down the community in Whitby and the villages."

The criticism from the MP comes as North Yorkshire Council has been told to apologise to parents after failings were found over its handling of home-to-school transport appeals by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The authority must also rerun several appeals panel hearings made by families who were denied free transport following the change in policy.

Campaigners claim the council is still not treating parents fairly as more families discover the policy change will impact them, including parents being denied access to the route maps which decisions on nearest schools were based on.

Jo Foster, from the campaign group School Transport Action Group, asked members of the council's children and families overview and scrutiny committee if they were aware of a growing number of ombudsman decisions finding fault with the way the council handled parents' appeals.

Jo Foster said:

"Those findings have already resulted in demands that appeals are rerun and formal apologies issued. That is wasting significant taxpayer money and officer time revisiting decisions that should have been right first time."

Jo Foster added:

"The consequence is entirely predictable: more appeals, more complaints, more pressure on officers, more stress for families and further damage to the council’s reputation. The role of scrutiny is to intervene when systems are not working fairly and when residents are being disadvantaged. Many parents feel that is precisely what is happening here."

The chair of the committee, Councillor Caroline Goodrick, declined to debate the issue during a recent meeting, but instead read out a statement from the authority.

Councillor Caroline Goodrick said:

"The appeals are conducted in line with the DfE guidance and the 2024 home-to-school transport policy, upon which the committee members have been trained. The role of the committee is to consider whether the policy has been applied correctly and then whether there are any exceptional individual circumstances that would satisfy a departure from that policy. The appeals committee continues to apply the policy of the DfE guidance in a consistent manner, and whilst it would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases, we positively and constructively engage with the Local Government Ombudsman and take into account any findings that they make."

Councillor Goodrick confirmed that the findings of a post-implementation review, which is currently underway, will be brought back to the committee in September, when there will be a robust debate.