A total of £6.7mn is budgeted for transporting children in Middlesbrough to and from school This was confirmed by Ged Faint, Middlesbrough Council’s Integrated Transport Manager when she delivered an update at this week’s Place Scrutiny Panel. Speaking on Monday, 4 November, she outlined the council’s home to school transport policy.
She explained how the policy covers students who are compulsory schooling age, between five and 16 years old. She said that the policy is deemed as “good by our peers and by other local authorities across the Tees Valley” and that the council was going to “continue to promote the eligibility to our stakeholders”. Many of the children being transported have special needs, while others come from low income families and those who live a large distance from their nearest school.
Faint explained that there is a greater diagnosis level for “lots and lots of children with special needs and it’s about understanding for our team, to understand what that truly means for that child on that journey and so that’s one of our main priorities that we want to do is to get that better understanding.”
Travel training
The practice of travel training was mentioned, where children are guided on their journey to school and over time become capable of independently getting themselves to school. Ms Faint described the process as “exceptionally really positive for our young people if we can get them as independent as we possibly can be in preparation for adulthood”.
Questions and answers
Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA) Councillor David Jackson asked about the numbers of children being transported by the council. Faint responded: “At the moment, we have got 1,069 on record for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities).” She added: “The mainstream, we’ve got 388, of which of that, 150 are Outwood Riverside, so we take them out of the equation in essence, we’ve got 238 that are low income, distance needs.”
Cllr Jackson also asked about for the numbers of journeys offered as well as the cost per annum. Ms Faint said: “We’ve got 189 routes that we operate, that’s per day across 61 settings” and that “at the moment, the budget is set at £6.7mn.” She added that in September, “we’ve done approximately 600 alterations already, we’re in what we call a settling down period.”
“Do we get any direct government grants towards the costs or is it all from Middlesbrough Council?” was another question from Cllr Jackson. The response was that: “We get some Department for Education (DfE) monies” for the “low income and distance children”.
Labour Councillor David Branson asked how much money Middlesbrough Council receives from the central government. Ms Faint responded that the council is in receipt of £47,300 for transporting children in low income households and those with distance needs. Additionally, the DfE fund the transport of pupils to Outwood while the Riverside school lacks a physical building.
Labour Councillor John Kabuye asked if Middlesbrough compares themselves to other local authorities. Ms Faint responded that “local authorities won’t sign up to benchmarking because we all have different needs”. She commented how “urbanised” Middlesbrough is compared to the other surrounding local authorities.
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