“Demand outweighing supply” in school transport, councillors told

Councillors are keeping an ongoing eye on school transport issues in Wrexham, with a scrutiny committee set to examine updated information this week.

School transport has been a hot topic in recent months, previously councillors had expressed frustration in their attempt to get the Council’s Executive Board to look at the authority’s post-16 school transport policy, with the Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee ​a‌lso looking at a review of operational policy – and the topic on the agenda last month.

An update since December has been given, with bulletpoints below:

• earlier notification of allocated concessionary seats;
• reduction in termly-cost of concessionary seats;
• increased publicity and recruitment campaign around school escorts;
• fast tracking of recruitment of school escorts
• review of hazardous routes has commenced with progress report to the Committee proposed for April 2024.

School transport in Wrexham is currently provided for approximately 2,673 children with a budget of £5,436,409 – however “a range of factors mean that this service is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver” as “demand currently outweighing the supply available”.

The committee are being presented with additional information so they can “understand the scale and complexity of current challenge” and probe proposed actions, and proactively come up with suggestions themselves.

Councillors are told, “Transport is provided through a range of coaches, minibuses and cars – delivered by third-party transport operators. In addition a number of students are provided with ‘passes’ for public transport where this suits their circumstances. Passenger assistants (i.e. school escorts) are provided where they are required, based on an assessment of need. It is also important to note that the increase in ALN transport referrals has resulted in increased commissioning of single-occupancy vehicles (i.e. one child, one escort, one vehicle), in order to address the identified needs of each pupil. ”

The now usual recruitment woes from Wrexham Council are also explained to councillors, “We continue with a significant recruitment activity for school escorts. There is a rolling advert for school escorts, with targeted communication going to all schools (for inclusion in newsletters), Glyndwr, Age concern and others. Officers have attended recruitment events at a local recruitment agency. Offers of employment have been made to 28 interviewees since November 2022, with a small number of these having failed pre-employment checks, and some checks outstanding, 8 of these have now started employment. (Unfortunately please note that this period also saw resignations received from 5 school escorts).”

A Task and Finish group was convened to help identify short, medium and longterm solutions to address problems (full output report here) that details how a provision of “temporary fuel-uplift” to cover increased operational costs in 2022-23 has been completed.

Work has commenced to “explore the feasibility” of employing a driver and WCBC vehicle to service particular elements of high-demand, and a “draft timeline has been created to clarify key dates throughout the academic year” to populate a range of communications to parents, schools and other stakeholders.

Comms is also mentioned with a plan to create an Annual Communications Plan to “allow proactive communication at key points of the academic year, and will also allow for common questions/misconceptions to be answered”.

One key element of the whole issue is the Welsh Government review of Learner Travel (Wales) Measure, something officers are still awaiting, however they add “In the meantime, officers are gathering examples of innovative practice from elsewhere – which may assist in provision of transport in line with any updated policy”.