"Appropriate" safeguarding was in place for pupils says Central Beds Council after back to school transport chaos

The school transport team at Central Bedfordshire Council “successfully organised” travel arrangements for 5,434 pupils last week, Marcel Coiffait told councillors in an email seen by the local democracy reporting service.

Potential issues arose for 14 young people with the arranged timing of their school pick-up, he explained. “This represents only 0.25 per cent of children. Once aware of them, all 14 were resolved within three days.

“I’ve looked into the specific details of each of these. Although it would be wrong to share individual case details with members, an error was made by the team processing the application in only one of them and that was quickly rectified.

“In the other cases, either the wrong request had been made or the children weren’t eligible for the transport being requested. All 14 children always had transport arranged, but for some it needed to be more bespoke.

“Obviously ensuring appropriate safeguarding is in place for children is always a concern. But we’ve confirmation from the places they attend that the required safeguarding was always in place.”

Parents can apply for school transport for this school year before the end of May for mainstream transport, before the end of July for post-16 settings, and whenever an education, health and care plan (EHCP) is agreed for SEND pupils.

“The service is also working through 461 late applications,” said Mr Coiffait. “Although difficult to manage effectively, this is a significant improvement on last year when we received 1,378 late applications at this point.

“The priority for transport arrangements is progressed by the date applied and the needs of the pupil. This means we’re currently unable to issue concessionary passes to those pupils not eligible for transport.

“That’s because we need to ensure all pupils eligible for transport, but whose applications came in late, are prioritised. We appreciate this can be frustrating for parents and carers of children waiting for a concessionary pass.

“As can be expected with such a large number of arrangements, there were a handful of issues to resolve and these were addressed swiftly by the team. Our policy aligns with Department for Education (DfE) guidance across three key areas.

“These are supporting students with independence, sustainable transport by not running multiple buses throughout the day on different pick-up times where can it be avoided, and bespoke timetables to ensure those students with complex needs are collected and not waiting until end of the day.”

Mr Coiffait confirmed that CBC officers had all of the individual case details to hand at a meeting of its children’s services overview and scrutiny committee. “But understandably they couldn’t share the detail of individual children’s circumstances in a public meeting,” he added.

“That’s irrespective of whether some members chose to ignore the deputy monitoring officer’s advice and the council’s constitution. Whether members chose to follow advice is an issue for them and their group leaders. However, as head of paid service, I won’t allow CBC officers to breach these rules.”