APPENDIX 3

CONSULTATION PLAN

Pre-Consultation:

At the beginning of the autumn term 2010, leading up to the launch of the consultation a notice was published to give early awareness to the consultation in all admissions literature for parents and carers applying for school places for September 2011 admission. This explained that the there was to be a review of school transport, because of the acute financial pressures the county council is under, and that this would include a review of the discretionary elements (including 800 routes, faith school transport concessions, concessionary bus and rail cards etc) and could therefore be subject to change, by reducing or withdrawing discretionary arrangements. The discretionary elements were highlighted for ease of reference. Combined with this, was an early communication to all head teachers and chairs of governors, drawing attention to the forthcoming consultation.

Consultation Process:

The consultation was launched on 18 October 2010 and closed on 26 January 2011, (but extended to 27 January, midnight). Although the DFE Home to School Travel and Transport guidance outlines that good practice is for any consultation on school transport to last a minimum of 28 school days, it was felt to be helpful to families, schools and other stakeholders to consult for a three month period for this first consultation.

Media briefings were provided to coincide with the publication of the consultation, and throughout the consultation period, articles have appeared in local newspapers. Several radio interviews raising awareness of the consultation, including a BBC Three Counties radio phone-in on 11 January 2011, have been broadcast.

Awareness Raising:

The communication plan to raise awareness and gain engagement with stakeholders included sending emails to all head teachers and chairs of governors of all schools, including nurseries, children’s centres and special schools, in Hertfordshire. This email specifically asked head teachers to raise awareness within their school newsletters with parents and carers, provided standard text to include, with the website link to the school transport consultation.

An email was also sent to each neighbouring local authority, together with individual emails to each one of the out of county schools where Herts children are transported by Hertfordshire County Council, again asking schools to raise awareness with parents by including standard text to insert into their school newsletters. Awareness was raised on Channel Mogo of the consultation, so that young people may respond in their own right or so that they could raise awareness to this with their families.

The consultation document was also sent to faith representatives, all chief executives of local authorities in Hertfordshire, all county councillors in Hertfordshire, all Hertfordshire Members of Parliament, and Clerks to Parish Councils. Posters were distributed to all libraries in Hertfordshire, together with a supply of consultation documents, so that those who sought to access the consultation in hardcopy format were able to do so from the local libraries. In addition, the consultation paper explained that if stakeholders wished to seek help to access the information within the consultation, they should contact the CSC.

Consultation Events:

Given the breadth of the consultation and the wish to engage with local communities, five focus group events were advertised, to discuss the following themes:

  • Increasing parental confidence in home to school transport arrangements for children with special educational needs and disability;
  • How to promote sustainability in the school and local community; and
  • Local solutions, working with partners and self financing a school transport network;
  • The opportunity to ask individual questions about any of the proposals contained within the consultation document was facilitated through a Q and A session at each event.

These events were planned across the county so as to target areas where there were the greatest numbers of families living within the vicinity, which may be impacted by the proposals. This was so as to support easy access to the events, rather than holding them in the locality of the school attended. The first event in Waltham Cross was cancelled due to very low numbers registering and those that did were offered either individual meetings or the opportunity to attend an alternative focus group event.

The four other events were held in Bushey, Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield. A written summary from each event has been prepared and is available to view on the web. The feedback received from these events has been taken into account in considering the overall feedback to this consultation.

From these events key messages from stakeholders included:

  • Current services and expertise offered by the county council valued;
  • Current arrangements suit family lifestyles and working patterns;
  • Expectation that these discretionary arrangements would be in place until their children finished statutory education;
  • Schools should market travel by buses more;
  • Some families willing to pay more;
  • Concern for families who are unable to pay the proposed increase in charges, and particularly those who are just above the low income thresholds;
  • Assessing two/three tier nearest qualifying schools, could lead to disruptive education;
  • Hertfordshire families have a democratic right to send their children to Hertfordshire schools.

Consultation with Strategic Stakeholders:

In addition a number of strategic school and commercial operator stakeholder groups have received presentations on the consultation, again, to ensure the necessary raising of awareness and to gain engagement. These events included:

  • Primary Head Teachers Forum;
  • Hertfordshire Association of Secondary School Head Teachers;
  • Special Schools Forum;
  • Hertfordshire Admissions Forum;
  • Parents and Voluntary Advisory Group;
  • Chairs of Strategic Area Group Partnerships;
  • CountyGovernors Forum;
  • Hertfordshire Annual Governors Conference;
  • Herts Bus and Coach Operators Association;
  • Youth Council;

Other consultation events and meetings:

A number of other stakeholders requested presentations and the following events have been attended:

  • Carers in Herts, supporting families whose children have special needs and disabilities;
  • Three Rivers Local Strategic Partnership Poverty Action & Prosperity Employment Group;
  • Special Schools Working Group on School Transport.

Several meetings have also taken place, including a meeting with parent and governor representatives from St Paul’s WaldenPrimary School, Whitwell, and Kimpton Primary School. For those living in the villages in this area, there was concern that families would need to fully understand which their nearest qualifying schools were for both admissions and transport, to fully assess this before making their applications for school places. For some families living in the area of the north Herts villages, the proposals 2.2 and 2.3 would alter their nearest qualifying school for transport, because of their proximity to Luton and Beds schools, including those in the three tier area of education in Bedfordshire.

Written Submissions:

A number of the above stakeholders have responded either individually to the consultation and in some instances also provided written submissions as a collective group. The content of which has been considered in the overall analysis.

There have been 766 responses to the online consultation questionnaire, and 1 paper questionnaire response.

In addition, there have been 82 written submissions from individuals or on behalf of key groups to the consultation, including from 10 parish councils. This feedback has been captured in the overall consideration and analysis.

A set of the written responses to the consultation is available for inspection in the Members Room at County Hall. At the request of individual members access to the online responses can be organised.

Appendix 3 provides a complete summary of the 767 questionnaire responses received as at 27 January 2011 (midnight).

Appendix 4 provides a statistical analysis of responses to the questionnaire, together with summary narrative/comments concerning themes raised and recommendations.

An analysis of the stakeholder profile of those responding to the questionnaire is shown below:

Category of Stakeholder responding from: / Number of responses / Percentage of responses:
Non-faith communities / 364 / 47%
Faith communities / 261 / 34%
Special Schools communities / 50 / 7%
None specified / 92 / 12%

Of the 766 stakeholders who completed the online questionnaire, 9% indicated they have a child with a disability.

A formal response was received from the Liberal Democrat Group who recognise and accept the need for a reduction of the county council’s expenditure in school transport and accept proposals 1, 2 and 4. However, it is their belief that “a better alternative exists than the minimalist approach of just cutting services to Herts children and parents, and that with the co-operation of schools a new and imaginative bus network can be devised and implemented county-wide”.

At the Education & Skills Panel meeting held on 10 November 2010, a petition (494 signatures) was received on behalf of JohnFKennedySchool in Hemel Hempstead and St ThomasMoreSchool in Berkhamsted. This was on the basis that they believed that “the proposed changes will reduce parental preference for schools, dramatically increase travel costs and damage the environment”. They oppose proposal 2.1 ceasing faith concessions, proposal 2.3 (eligibility for transport based on distance from home to nearest qualifying school, regardless of whether the school is in a two or three tier area of education) and proposals 2.20 (full cost recovery charging proposal) and 3.2 (whether the county council should continue to provide 800 routes and E Routes where they are commercially viable, but at the full cost recovery rate). A response to each of these issues is incorporated into the overall analysis.

Townsend C of E School in St Albans, prior to the beginning of the consultation, submitted a response expressing concern about discontinuing to provide discretionary transport to the school, given that 56% of current pupils travel as discretionary travellers under the current policy. The provisions of the school’s admissions policy mean that it draws from over 60 primary feeder schools across a wide area beyond St Albans. Townsend C of E School has participated in the workshops associated with procurement (see paragraph 5.2 of report).

The written response from Hertsmere Jewish Primary School governing body explains that they believe the school “will be unfairly affected if the consultation is successful in removing access to free or subsidised transport”. The governing body’s concern is on the basis of “traffic management, lack of public transport, highway safety” and expressly request that “the bus service be continued under the current terms of agreement”.

The Youth Council considered the proposals at their meeting in November. The feedback from the meeting was that young people accept the proposals in the consultation document but release that the impact will be significantly greater for those who attend faith schools. Young people also commented that schools need to encourage pupils to use bicycles more, and suggested that bikes seized by the Police, unclaimed stolen property etc, could be given to schools for use by pupils. One representative suggested that more should be done to investigate the use of bio fuel and bio-buses (as per the example in Scotland, where Stagecoach accepts old cooking oil and in lieu, offer passengers discounted travel). Finally, they suggested that with regard to proposal 3, the potential of a social enterprise being set up, supported by volunteers to further reduce the costs of home to school transport.