Your views on changes to the cost to families of Norfolk County Council’s Post-16 Travel Scheme

Overview

Norfolk County Council, along with its partners, has an ambition that Norfolk is a place where all children and young people can flourish. By investing in young people, we can support them to achieve their full potential and develop skills which prepare them for life and work. This ambition is set out in our Better Together, For Norfolk strategy available on our website.

As part of this ambition, Norfolk County Council offers subsidised travel for eligible students aged between 16 - 18 years old, and for students aged 16 - 25 years old who have Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND), to access education at a school sixth form, sixth form college or further education learning establishment. This is known as the Post-16 Travel Scheme.

We review our Post-16 Transport Policy annually to make sure we offer the best value for money, ensure that our Post-16 Travel Scheme remains financially sustainable and meets the needs of our families and young people. Download our Post-16 Transport Policy.

As a council, we continue to face significant challenges which includes higher costs and demand for services, after more than a decade of reduced funding. To help us deal with our cost pressures and invest in vital services, we are identifying various options to balance our budget.  We are proposing £52.2m of new savings for the council in 2024-25.

The council spent approximately £3.8m on the Post-16 Travel Scheme in 2022-23, of which the parental contribution represented £456,831. Year-on-year the cost of providing Post-16 Travel has increased, this is due to several factors including inflation, rising fuel costs, a growing number of eligible pupils and a shortage of specialist school places for SEND children which means young people often have to travel further for their education.

Like household bills, the cost of the services that the Council provides are impacted by the level of inflation. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in December 2023 confirmed inflation is currently running at 4%.

We usually increase the cost of the Scheme each year in-line with inflation. This year, we have outlined two options for increasing parental contributions (how much families/young people pay) for Post-16 Travel for the academic year 2024/25. The 3% option is based on current inflation levels and the 6% option is based on our inflationary forecast for 2024-25. The 6% figure more likely represents the cost uplift that the council will face in the coming year.

Norfolk County Council first consulted on an inflationary increase for the parental contribution to the Post-16 Travel Scheme in 2023. The Council reserves the right to make inflationary uplifts in line with the CPI without consultation in future years. 

Why your views matter

We want to find out what people think about our proposal to increase the annual parental contribution for the Post-16 Travel Scheme by either 3% or 6%, with the option remaining to pay daily*, half termly, termly or annually (*daily payer option not available on all routes).

We are consulting through:

• Emails to current users and potential users of the Post-16 Travel Scheme (young people and their families) to make them aware of proposals and asking them to feedback
• Emails to key partners and stakeholders
• This online consultation, which is also available as a paper copy

We are consulting from 30 January to midnight on 27 February 2024.  Please note that if we receive any consultation responses after this date, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to take them into account.

We will feed back the findings from our consultation to the Executive Director of Childrens Services as part of the evidence they will use to help them come to a decision about our budget proposals.

If you need a copy of this consultation document in a different format please email haveyoursay@norfolk.gov.uk, call 0344 800 8020 or Text Relay on 18001 0344 800 8020 (textphone) and we will do our best to help.

The consultation should take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

What happens next

Consultation responses will be carefully analysed, and a report will be produced showing the results of the consultation. The report, which takes into account the responses to this consultation, will be considered by the Executive Director of Childrens Services for a final decision on which proposal to take forward.