Fears school transport changes could cause 'great harm' to education in Central Bedfordshire

Planned changes from providing transport to a child’s nearest school, instead of to a catchment school, were expected to be reconsidered, according to Pyramid Schools Trust (PST) chief executive officer Steve Kelly.

In a letter to parents, he referred to a meeting of Central Bedfordshire Council’s (CBC’s) children’s services overview and scrutiny committee which “flatly rejected” the proposals.

“I and councillors with whom we were working believed this to be the end of the matter for at least the next 12 months,” he wrote.

“But it has come to our attention that council officers will be presenting the proposals in their entirety to a meeting of CBC’s executive tomorrow night [September 10].

“I’m shocked council officers are still insisting on pressing ahead with this, despite the hundreds of negative responses received to the initial consultation, as well as the recommendation of the council’s own scrutiny committee to not implement this element.

“We believe the proposed changes would cause great harm to children’s education and wellbeing, as the collaborative work we undertake with catchment schools would be undone if pupils were directed to other schools.

“It would have a huge financial impact on parents, as they’d be forced to pay for a service that’s currently free.

“This would bring about a great reduction in pupil numbers and funding at Parkfields Middle, Arnold Academy and Harlington Upper because the majority of our current feeder villages would be geographically closer to other schools.

“There’ll also be a huge financial and environmental impact, as the council will be forced to run multiple buses from the same locations for at least a further four years, as children currently attending a school would continue to receive free transport,” explained Mr Kelly.

“Furthermore, no consideration has been made to the physical capacity of other schools to take on more pupils from our current catchment villages.

“I’ve spoken already to several equally appalled local councillors, who intend to make representations to CBC’s executive committee and I’ll be speaking at this meeting.

“It’s critical we stop this ill-conceived recommendation from being adopted, so we can ensure educational continuity for your children and protect the schools in your communities.”

The report to the executive said: “In response to the scrutiny recommendation not to implement proposal two, “the Education Act 1996 (Schedule 35B) confirms eligibility based solely on distance from a child’s home and makes no reference to catchments.

“This position has been clarified in the recent published guidance. CBC’s eligibility criteria exceed the statutory requirement at present. The impact of the above is provision of transport to schools which are further away from a child’s home, but within existing catchment areas.

“Options to ‘trial’ the policy change in discrete areas of the district and to develop exceptions for specific areas have been considered since the scrutiny committee meeting.

“However, this would disadvantage one section of the community by treating them less favourably than other areas, which could potentially result in challenge under equality legislation.”

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