Following Labour pressure, Ministers have quietly abandoned plans
to spend £20 million transporting children up to 30 miles every
day by taxi to attend the nearest grammar school, but have
returned the earmarked cash to the Treasury rather than reinvest
it in schools.
The plan, announced by Chancellor in the 2017 Budget, had been
set to cost in excess of £5 million a year and up to £5,000 a
year per pupil. Hammond had told the Commons in his Budget
speech: “Pupils typically travel three times as far to attend
selective schools, so we will extend free school transport to
include all children on free school meals who attend a selective
school because we are resolved that talent alone should determine
the opportunities a child enjoys.”
But in a ministerial answer to a Parliamentary Question from
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary MP, the Government has now
admitted that “The Department is not … taking forward plans for
free transport specifically for children who are eligible for
free school meals who attend their nearest selective school.”
In a subsequent answer today, the Department for Education said
that the allocated funds had simply been returned to the Treasury
rather than reinvested in schools.
has repeatedly criticised
the spending in the context of wider cuts to schools, proposing
that the funding be used to reverse other cuts to school
transport for disadvantaged children.
The Tories had previously cut £6 million from the school
transport budget in 2015-16, which had supported a far greater
number of pupils to get to local schools by bus. The cut led to
disabled teenagers losing the right to get help for travel to
sixth form or college, pupils being forced to move schools and
families charged hundreds of pounds extra.
The Local Government Ombudsman revealed at the time that they had
received a 63% increase in serious cases relating to school
transport. In one case, a teenager with severe autism lost his
transport allowance and was told that he should get to school by
walking for a mile through an unlit area with no footpath,
boarding a train and then changing to a bus, even though the
boy’s condition meant that he had a significantly reduced
awareness of danger and a problem with loud noises.
MP, Labour’s Shadow
Education Secretary, said:
“It’s incredible that the Tories ever thought this was a good use
of taxpayers’ money at a time when they are breaking their
promises to protect funding for all children. It is unbelievable
that this money has now just been handed back to the Treasury
rather than reinvested in schools that face the worst cuts in a
generation.
“Even as they tried to divert millions into their grammar school
vanity project, disabled teenagers were left to fend for
themselves and other kids are forced to change school for lack of
transport. It tells you everything you need to know about the
Tories’ real priorities.
“It is clearer than ever that only a Labour government will
invest in all of our children and guarantee schools the resources
they need.”
Ends
Notes to editors
- · The Department for
Education (DfE) allocated funding for extended rights through the
Local Services Support Grant (LSSG), paid to each local
authority, to provide additional transport funding to support
children from low-income families to help them attend schools
further than two miles walking distance for children aged 8 and
under, or three miles for those between 8 and 16. The £25.1
million allocation for 2014/15 was cut to £19.7 million for
2015/16 and had fallen to £18.8 million in 2017/18:http://schoolsweek.co.uk/school-travel-fund-for-local-authorities-cut-by-6m/
