The Isle of Wight Council has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the School Transport Policy, which could see free transport for those in Years 10 and 11 scrapped, changes for those with Special Educational Needs and a £180 hike in ‘spare seat’ contributory payments by parents. The Council currently arranges daily transport to school for over 1,650 children and young people. Of these, around 1,100 attend mainstream school places and more than 350 attend places that provide for their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The local authority is required, by law, to provide free-of-charge school transport to all children and young people of compulsory school age that meet the nationally set distance and statutory eligibility criteria stipulated by the Department for Education (DfE). But the Council is now looking into whether it can tighten up its policy to more closely align with the statutory guidance. Parents who are required to make a financial contribution towards discretionary school transport arrangements will see their contributions hiked in line with inflation from September 2024, with inflation-linked increases also being applied in future years. At the moment, the Council wants to increase the payment from £390 to £570 per year for these ‘spare seats’. There are also around 14 children on the Island who cost the Isle of Wight Council some £20,000 a year to get to and from school. Parents of these children are now going to be asked to contribute £640 if their child has to travel less than 5 miles to school, and £890 if they travel between 5 and 7.5 miles. A payment of £1,250 will be required from parents of those children who travel between 7.5 and 10 miles, and £1,420 if the journey is more than 10 miles. 
The proposals in the consultation include:
• For Personal Transport Budgets (PTB) to be available to families where a child or young person’s needs or circumstances mean that suitable transport is difficult to find, or not available at all, in the local operator market.
• Development and delivery of an Independent Travel Training service for children and young people with SEND as they prepare for adulthood, who may be capable of travelling independently to their place of education.
• The regular review of the provision of Passenger Assistants (this could mean the reduction or removal of such assistants)
• Where parents are required to make a financial contribution towards discretionary school transport arrangements, to increase this contribution in line with inflation (Consumer Price Index (CPI)) from September 2024, with inflation-linked increases also being applied in future years.
• The rewording and updating of the Council’s policy to ensure if reflects the latest Department for Education statutory guidance.
In addition, the Council is consulting in relation to post-16 travel arrangements. Although there is no automatic entitlement to local authority-funded school or college transport once a student is over the age of 16, Isle of Wight Council makes discretionary funding available in certain circumstances. The Council wants to removal the Year 10 and 11 discretionary entitlement but any existing arrangements will remain unchanged and will run until the end of the agreed arrangement. The consultations can be completed online at https://www.iow.gov.uk/schools-and-education/home-to-school-transport/school-transport-consultations/. For paper copies of the documentation or any queries about the consultation, email [email protected] with ‘School Transport Policy consultation 2024’ as the subject or call 01983 823780. Paper consultation forms can be returned to County Hall. The consultation closes on Wednesday 13th March 2024 and if approved, any changes to the policy will be applied to new applications for transport from September 2024.
The first thing to look at is if the parents have a car.
There are many parents on the island who do not work yet have one or two cars.
They decided to have children yet can not be bothered to take them to school or to pick them up.
There are several choices here ~ take their cars away to pay towards the bus fare, take their benefits away to pay towards the bus fare, or take their children away and give them to a couple who can be bothered to get up early and drive them to school.
It is hardly rocket science.
Problem being that so many of these spongers lie about being a single parent so the unregistered‘ invisible ‘ partner car owner would be shown at another address.
That or they pretend to have anxiety etc. it has become the new ‘ backache’ of old , as harder to prove and easier to fake and fake suffering liars can then say “I can’t face people in the morning etc”
Good idea otherwise
These aren’t ‘spongers’, Balderdash.
It’s clearly rocket science for you, Sloop John B. Do you really think the council is obliged to pay for children’s transport to and from school because parents ‘can’t be bothered’? Children have to go to school and the council has to provide for this in certain circumstances. Do you also think it’s a great idea for the school buses to be replaced by even more cars at the busiest times of the day? That’s already happened to a certain extent due to previous hikes in the price of what’s called ‘privilege seats’. Have a think.
And i bet these clowns still give themselves a pay rise!
Why the Fcuk should all of us Islanders pay for other persons children
to be taken to school.
Back in the old days many of us walked to school.
Back in the ‘old days” there was a school in every village.
Back in the “old days” there weren’t anywhere near as many cars on the roads and they weren’t nearly as fast.
Back in the “old days” the Island wasn’t full of paedos like you.
You sound like you should be inside, you obviously need medical help
You Cupid Sunt!
Try walking to school now Gary. Not possible for a lot of students purely because of the distances involved.
What a load of rubbish, council are supposed to support children in Education and ensure they get into school when over a certain distance. It’s the council that choose to use expensive means instead of in-house like when WightBus or Group 90. Take away some of the assistance and behaviour on bus will become dangerous for others and driver. As for charging parents more than Southern Vectis. Kids will end up failing in school, schools will fail Ofsted and council to blame and cost our kid’s education and future. Parents can’t afford an extra £600 – £1400 per child, imagine having 3 kids, could be over £4000 !
And so start the rise in cost for services to help bail out the council
As a single working man why am I continually having to pay Council Tax to cover other people’s pets through poor life choices??
Here Here.
Normal persons are being shafted.
Biggest con in the UK is the Corrupt Council Tax
I wouldn’t mind MPs pay Fcuk all!
Assuming you aren’t a sad and bitter little incel, I assume that one day you won’t be single and will have children.
The policy ought to be if YOU can’t afford to fund a child then use the free contraception available to all.
Also all parents receiving benefits ought to pay for all their children’s food, transportation to school, uniforms, and all SEND children should go to special schools as the cost of allowing access to mainstream schools is ridiculous.
Most need only a basic education to sign for yet another benefit as they take only ever take from the pot
http://www.gov.uk/free-school-transport:-
“Free school transport
Children of compulsory school age qualify for free school transport if they go to their nearest suitable school and any of the following apply:
the school is more than 2 miles away and the child is under 8
the school is more than 3 miles away and the child is 8 or over
there’s no safe walking route between their home and school
they cannot walk there because of their special educational needs or disabilities or a mobility problem
If your child does not qualify for free school transport for these reasons, they may still qualify if you have a low family income.”
True. But Taxpayers are entitled to be fed up with the additional financial burden, funding others.
People like you make me laugh. We have a government and council that are as bent as a 5 bob note and we get people like you moaning about children’s future over a few quid.
Because it is not a few children as it once was but millions now and ever growing percentage of those from parent not even born here.
See the real problem in the UK. It’s not from the real long established people here.
Wait until you find out about all the other people who are nothing to do with you that you’re funding through your council tax. I guess they shouldn’t have been born, or something like that?
So children do not qualify for free transport to school if their parents do not send them to the “nearest suitable school”. How does the local council interpret the phrase “nearest suitable school”?
Why should we pay for shipping children to school. If you have children take responsibility and not screw the rest of us.
I could be wrong but didnt the Government introduce mandatory school for children till age 18 if they were not in employment, so how can they with drawl payment for transport for year 10/11.
Are the taxis included, they cost us £2.2 million over the last year. In the photo it only shows buses. Can I get a handout for needing a bus to work, no!!!, I didn’t think so. Simple answer is stop all this crap and make the parents pay for their own kids to get to school, easy.
What’s the bet that the council are cutting the school kids buses ,because they don’t make money for themselves.
Why does it cost so much to send your kids to school Education Meant to be free to
This problem started when children stopped going to local schools and picked schools miles away that they thought were better. If parents decide that their children need to go somewhere else other than their local school then they should be responsible for getting them there
All these people moaning about a few quid being spent on giving children an education. These children will be paying most of yours pensions for years to come. If a child is unable to get to school as they live beyond a certain distance then it falls on the council to fund this with tax payers money. Maybe the council need to look in house at making cuts, either that or taking work back in house so they are not filling private companies pockets. Tory Britain in a nutshell.
People can make choices about where they live. If they live in a house that is beyond walking distance to school, they should either move house, drive their kids to school, or put them on a bus to school. They shouldn’t expect others to pay for transporting their kids to school.
Shalfleet. The local council gave planning permission for new houses to be built there, with potentially another 72. Aimed at young families to rent or buy. Yet the nearest school is miles away and there is no pavement from Shalfleet to Shalfleet primary school so parents use the buses (and pay) or have to use their own transport. Try parking near the Horse & Groom at the end of a school day – even the traffic cannot get through. More joined up thinking by the planning department and Councillors would be appreciated before approving any more housing estates with no infrastructure to support them. Thank you.
100% agreed, well said.
All the people moaning about the council supplying free school travel are the very same ones moaning about parents driving their kids to school. The contradiction in statements is outstanding. For every child on a school bus is a car that is not on the roads blocking up parking around a school. And this idea that parents should pay for all the education requirements is idiotic and removing free schooling would send this country back 100’s of years where kids would be sent down pits or to run the cotton looms, and die doing so. Our education decline is a direct response to cutting costs and standards and you want to cut more costs??? Then stop moaning about children’s poor education, you are the ones responsible for causing it!
To be fair, educational standards on the island have always been the lowest in the UK. It doesn’t matter how much you try to educate the locals because they are at a genetic disadvantage. Sending them down the pits from whence they came has much appeal.
There’s a sense of entitlement with some of these people. Someone I unfortunately knew was moved into temporary accommodation in Newport but because it was out of his children’s school catchment area in Ventnor he demanded the council provide transport. He has a car, works part- time and his partner has “anxiety” and “agoraphobia” which prevents her “leaving the flat” yet she was happy enough to attend the IOW festival. One child has autism and its sibling gets a free lift with the taxi despite not being entitled to school transport.
People like this use and abuse the system making it harder for children with genuine reasons (ie those that attend special schools) to be able to get transport/funding.