Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of the seven proposed amendments to the Council’s Home to School Transport Policy in relation to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The report also set out minor consequential amendments and clarifications to the policy for mainstream pupils.

The report stated that the proposed Travel Assistance Policy, set out at Appendix 3 to the report, would replace the existing Home to School Transport Policy.

In order to inform the policy amendments service users, stakeholders and the wider public were consulted on the proposals in accordance with the Cabinet’s agreement on 21 November 2017 to a 6 week consultation period commencing in December 2017 on changes to Special Educational Needs (SEN) Transport Policy, as set out in section 4 to that report (decision number 132/2017 refers).  The outcome of the consultation was set out in sections 6 and 7 to the report.

The comments from the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee were set out in section 8 to the report.

A Diversity Impact Assessment had been carried out on the proposals, as set out in Appendix 6 to the report.

Reasons:

The revised Policy will help to ensure that travel assistance support can continue to be provided to all eligible children and young people in line with increasing demand. It will also provide the opportunity to offer a more flexible range of options to families and improve the quality of the service provision.