stc

There have been acres of newpaper coverage in the past few days about the new Government's proposals to encourage Academies and the setting up of 'free' schools - whereby parents can opt to establish their own schools in an area.

Charity 4Children earlier this week reported that its survey found 60% of local authorities had no safer travel policy arguing that "many local authorities have failed or have been slow to develop and implement important policies to prevent children from bulllying on the bus".

DCSF has launched a consultation on extending the eligibility to receive free school meals (following the Child Poverty Act in March).  The proposals could be significant for local authorities' school transport budgets as FSM is now a gateway entitlement to home to school travel. 

This is what I hope will be the first of regular blogs about all things school transport, the aim being to prompt discussion current and upcoming issues. This year there is no doubt that finances will dominate discussion about school transport - but I'd echo the recent view of the Audit Commission - don't slash and burn, there are alternatives to cutting entitlement (at least in most cases!). However, post 19 transport, new wheelchair passports, and safeguarding are all topics that I think will feature large in the next few months - I'll return to each.