Transport rule change 'could hit school funding'

Controversial changes to a home-to-school transport policy could hit future pupil numbers and finances, a councillor has warned.

In 2024, North Yorkshire Council voted to only fund transport to a child's nearest school instead of the previous system of catchment areas.

Conservative councillor David Staveley, who represents Settle and Pen-y-ghent, said the policy change could lead to a reduction in enrolment numbers at Settle College and consequently the amount of funding received.

North Yorkshire Council previously said the changes were necessary to save money.

Staveley said the potential impact on the college was because the "north end" of its catchment area was closer to Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale.

If more pupils from Bentham, Ingleton and Burton-in-Lonsdale choose the closer school because they can get free bus travel there, he said that would "clearly have an effect" on the college.

"Funding follows pupils," he added.

"The issue here is clearly the home-to-school transport and the free provision for that.

"The secondary issue is the funding that follows those pupils, who'll no longer be coming to Settle College who might have previously preferred to."

The councillor said the college was looking for "elements of financial support" and was working with the "education department to see what they can do with providing that".

Stewart Brennan, a former director at the Arete Academy Trust, said the change could disrupt long-established feeder links between primary and secondary schools.

He warned if more pupils attended schools outside North Yorkshire because they were closer and eligible for free transport, then funding attached to those pupils would leave the county too.

"That can have lots of implications if it is done at any scale," he said.

"School funding is incredibly tight at the best of times. Eighty per cent of the costs of a school, typically, are staff costs.

"If you have fewer pupils bringing less funding in, it's a significant change, and that can affect staffing levels."

The concerns come as a motion calling on the Conservative-led authority to reverse its transport policy was voted down at a meeting of the full council earlier.

Members voted by a majority of nine in favour of a ruling by chair David Chance that the motion should instead be referred to a scrutiny committee.

Annabel Wilkinson, the councillor responsible for education, told the meeting advice received from chief legal and financial officers was "very clear."

"We must debate this properly with all the information disclosed and validated, all the risks laid out and understood, and following our custom and practice of over 14 years, with proper consultation.

"That is the right way to do it, and the right place to do it is scrutiny."

Reacting to the decision, Jo Foster, from the School Transport Action Group, said the council had been treating parents, schools and rural communities with "total and utter contempt".

"They wouldn't even let it [the motion] be heard. That is disrespectful and the losers are children."

Foster said the authority was "hiding behind a post-implementation review" and were using it "as a shield to avoid making a decision".

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.