East Riding of Yorkshire Council is consulting on a potential increase in contribution charges and adding an annual Consumer Price Index increase for pupils who are not eligible for free home to school and college transport but are using spare seats on our contracted vehicles.
Please note that the council has a budget to provide transport to pupils who are eligible for free home to school and college transport support, this consultation is not about charging for eligible pupils.
The council has not increased the parental contribution since 2013, despite an increase in the cost of delivery. The average cost to the council of providing a seat on a contracted vehicle (including all types of vehicles) for a pupil for one academic year is now £1,000 per seat, but the council only charges £540 per academic year.
This is the same amount that has been charged since 2013 and means that for each seat taken up, the council subsidises the seat by £460 per academic year. We do not think this level of subsidy is sustainable in the long term, but we are also conscious that if we were to increase the costs to £1000 per annum the cost may be too high for some families.
We have also carried out a benchmarking exercise against our statistical neighbours to be able to compare ourselves with similar local authorities.
The average price across our statistical neighbours is £640 per year.
We are therefore aware that the contribution needs to be increased as we are unable to maintain the current subsidy level. We are proposing to increase the contribution for pupils who are not entitled to free transport to £600. This would keep us under the average and would equate to £3.16 per day for a return journey. We believe this new price is competitive and comparable to public transport prices across our area. We are also proposing to introduce an annual Consumer Price Index increase.
We are proposing to increase the contribution to £600 from April 2022 and then each April thereafter to apply an increase to contribution in line with the annual Consumer Price Index. This would avoid any significant increases in future years but should make provision of the service more sustainable in both the short and long term. For families on a low income there would be a 50% reduction, bringing the annual cost down to £300.
To help in the decision making, we would like to gain your views, our survey should only take you a few minutes to complete.
The link to access the survey is below:
Smartsurvey - Parental Contribution for Home to School and College Transport
The consultation closes on 13 February 2022.