Agenda item

Jason Beattie (SEND and Passenger Assistant Manager) has prepared the attached Education Transport Statistics which were shared with Committee members via email in absence of the December 2024 meeting and will give an overview at the meeting.

Jason Salter (Head of Service – Passenger Transport) referred to the slides circulated with the agenda to provide an update on behalf of the Passenger Transport Team and highlighted the following:

·            It was anticipated that by September 2025 there would be an increase of around 250 SEND pupils requiring transport to their education settings which would raise to over 2,500 children and young people being transported.  The team were already putting plans in place for that and had ordered a further 12 vehicles to work in some areas to mitigate that risk.  There was increased market engagement and with new entrants to the taxi market it was hoped that they would be able to assist with the additional contracts to meet the demand going forward;

·            The number of taxi/Private Hire vehicles available in the in the north and west areas of Wiltshire remains limited, whereas in the south and east of the county competition was present when tendering.   An advertising campaign for new Wiltshire Council employed drivers and Passenger Assistants was being launched late spring.  They would also utilise advertising via social media, on petrol pumps, recruitment fairs and through the refer a friend scheme with existing staff and it was hopeful that this would meet the demand;

·            Officers also try hard and look at ways to mitigate or reduce the education transport need to be provided by the Council including the use of public transport and payments to parents to transport their children; and

·            The press had picked up over the weekend that the average annual cost of transport for Wiltshire SEND students was more than ten times more expensive than mainstream students.  The team would continue to review the eligibility of Passenger Assistants to see if there were any further efficiencies that could be made and were also looking at central pick up points for students.  The rising cost implications were due to growth in demand and obviously this was not in the team’s control, but the service was working well generally and preparing for the increased need in September 2025.

The Chairman commented that the provision of in house vehicles and drivers for education transportation seemed to be the way to go whilst acknowledging that that would challenge budgets with the purchase or lease of vehicles and those being employed to drive them.  He suggested that this might be a suitable role for those who had retired and were looking for part time work. 

A committee member asked about the vehicles that are provided in house and if they were used throughout the day or sitting idle sometimes.  Jason responded that usually vehicles return from the morning drop off around 9.30/10am and some then are idle and some are used on a public transport route, but agreed that it would be good to share the asset and make them more viable by looking at what other use there could be for social care providers or community use etc. 

A committee member asked if the council owned vehicles were wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAV).  Jason responded that around a third of the vehicles were WAV and consisted of some MPV cars and some minibuses. 

A committee member asked about the spare seat scheme that can collect a revenue income and if it was too early to ask if they would still be available after September 2025 and those using them would still have a space.  Jason responded that they would usually wait for things to settle down a bit after the summer break whilst they are still seeing how the routes work based on what is needed.  Some routes don’t work and tweaks have to be made move time to traffic times and finding out that child A cannot sit next to child B etc.  The spare seats are usually released about 3-4 weeks into September and that they did not tend to have an issue with SEN spare seats. 

The Chairman thanked Jason for the update and to his team for their work.

Resolved:

That the Committee note the update on behalf of the Passenger Transport Team.