Charges for East Renfrewshire school transport to be scrapped
Last year, the council collected almost £17,500 through the charges, which are paid for seats remaining once all eligible children have been allocated a space.
The number of 'privilege' places has dropped in recent years, from 52 in 2022/23 to 39 in 2024/25.
Council officials are proposing the charges are removed and the way places are allocated is changed. Cabinet members will consider their recommendations next week (August 14).
School transport is provided for pupils who live two or more miles from their allocated primary and three or more miles from their allocated secondary. When there are leftover seats, they are offered to non-eligible families through the council's privilege transport scheme.
Currently, when there are more applications for privilege places than spaces available, a ballot is held to allocate seats. Efforts to make school transport more efficient, such as reducing the size of vehicles, has caused the drop in privilege places in recent years, a council report states.
However, a 43% uplift in the charge from the 2023/24 school year meant revenue increased. The education department received £14,199 in 2022/23, £18,417 in 2023/24 and £17,453 in 2024/25. Currently, privilege places cost £3.20 per day.
The Public Services Vehicles Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) was introduced in 2000 to require a 'baseline level of accessibility on buses and coaches designed to carry over 22 passengers on local and scheduled routes', the council report adds.
'Initially, the regulations applied only to new vehicles, with older vehicles given longer periods to comply in order that they did not need to be replaced before the end of their useful working life. The regulations have subsequently been implemented on a phased basis over recent years.'
There are exemptions for 'exclusive home-to-school transport services' but they do not apply when at least one passenger pays a fare. Those with privilege places 'effectively pay for a fare'.
That means that all providers would need to comply with the PSVAR across all their vehicles. However, the council report stated: 'Through ongoing discussions with our transport partner, SPT, we are aware that not all school transport providers are currently able to comply with all aspects of the PSVAR.'
Officials add many vehicles are fully compliant but this is 'not consistent across all services or operators, given the diverse range of vehicles operated on a daily basis'.
'It is therefore not possible to continue with the current approach to privilege transport with a charge being levied where we are unable to guarantee that a service will be fully accessible on all days on which it operates,' the report states.
The education department could charge only on services which are PSVAR-complaint, but officials say this would 'result in an inconsistency', where some parents would be charged while others receive the same service for free. It would also cause 'an additional administrative burden'.
It is proposed to stop charging for privilege transport from the start of the 2025/26 school sessions, but the scheme will continue. Places will no longer be allocated via a ballot.
Instead, a new distance-based ranking for all applications is planned. The report adds it would see 'all applications received by the advertised closing date ranked in order of distance within the catchment area'.
'This ranking would subsequently be used to allocate up to the appropriate number of places, ensuring sufficient reserved places were maintained for those who may require transport provision if moving into the school later in the session.'
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