Policy instruments (4) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 252

These arguments cast doubts on the wisdom of the Government's introduction
of the full-fare concession (costing an extra £350m in 2006/07) and its extension for
travel anywhere in England (a further £250m a year from 2008/9) as compared with
alternative, better targeted uses of the same money (White 2008). However now that
these decisions have been made it is inconceivable that it will ever be practicable
politically to reverse them.
15.8 School transport
The provision of free travel to and from school for eligible children might appear as
another form of public transport concession but its origins are very different. Unlike
other publicly funded concessions it is not treated as an item of transport expenditure
but of education expenditure.
Present arrangements derive from an Act of 1870 which made school attendance
obligatory for children living up to two miles away who were aged 5-7 and up to
three miles for older children. Under the 1944 Education Act local authorities were
given comprehensive duties and powers as education authorities (LEAs), including
the power to provide transport to school free of charge where necessary. This has been
interpreted as catering for children of compulsory school age (currently 5-16) living
beyond the statutory walking distances in travelling to the nearest available State or
voluntary-aided school. Free travel is also provided irrespective of distance for children
with special educational needs or mobility handicap.
Most LEAs exercise discretion to arrange transport additionally for children
attending a religious denominational school beyond the statutory walking distance
even though it is not strictly their nearest school. Discretion is also exercised over
whether to arrange transport, free or otherwise, to children staying on at school after
16 or attending further education colleges.
'Free travel' can take a number of forms:
• a season ticket or 'pass' for use between home and school on bus or train services
provided for the general public
• free travel on a specially contracted school bus, minibus or taxi
• reimbursement of travel expenses.
In rural areas many ordinary bus services are themselves tendered services - hence
a duty is placed on local authorities to cooperate with education and social service
authorities in relation to tendering under the 1985 Transport Act in order to achieve
best value for money overall.
The principle of parental choice of school which was introduced in the 1980
Education Act conflicted with the presumptions on which the 1944 Act arrangements
were based. Choice of school beyond the statutory walking distances could only be said
to exist insofar as transport was available and affordable. Arranging transport for all
possible 'choice' combinations of origin and destination (as opposed to the traditional
approach of serving a single nearest or catchment school) was clearly impracticable
and LEAs were encouraged to pay 'equivalent fares' on a discretionary basis instead.
However, in rural areas particularly, LEAs proved unresponsive - typically they would
not have derived any saving in the cost of contracted transport for children continuing
to travel to the nearest school and hence would simply have incurred an additional
cost.