Your views on proposed changes to Norfolk County Council’s Post 16 Travel Assistance Scheme

Overview

Norfolk County Council is facing significant budget pressures, with the cost of providing vital services like adults and children’s social care continuing to increase. Despite continued efficiency savings the council faces a budget gap of £35.927 million in 2027/28.

This means that the council is having to review many of its services to ensure it can continue to meet its statutory duties. One area where savings are proposed is the post 16 transport budget, which is a discretionary service.

The council currently spends about £8m a year subsidising post 16 transport. Costs are continuing to increase because there are more students, higher fuel prices and pressures caused by inflation. This isn’t sustainable and the council needs to look at changing the subsidy it offers, to help towards balancing the budget.

Not all councils subsidise post 16 transport, but Norfolk recognises the importance of this service and wants to continue to provide support for young people to get to college or sixth form.

The council would continue to fund post-16 transport by several million pounds each year but is proposing changes that would deliver cumulative savings of £369,000 over the two-year implementation period, with an ongoing recurring annual saving of £277,000 from 2028/29. The proposals would also increase the council's subsidy for families on low incomes from 25% to 50%, although eligible families would still see a small increase in costs as a result of inflation and other cost pressures. Other families would see a larger increase in their contributions, as the council reduces the amount it contributes towards their transport costs.

The council wants to prioritise its spending on those students from low income families because it recognises that these young people can find it more difficult to access education and training and reducing the number of young people not in education, education or training is a priority.

At a glance

Norfolk County Council is consulting on changes to the parental contributions paid by eligible young people and families who use the Post 16 Travel Assistance Scheme and to remove the Daily Payer option.

• The standard annual contribution would increase from £660 in 2026/27 to £855 in 2027/28 and £1,050 in 2028/29.
• Support for low-income households would be enhanced, with the subsidy increasing from 25% to 50% of the standard annual contribution by 2028/29. Eligible families would continue to pay a discounted rate of £510 in 2027/28 and £525 in 2028/29. This means that despite a small increase in their contribution, low-income households would receive a greater level of financial support than is currently provided.
• The Daily Payer option would be withdrawn. Students could instead pay annually, termly or half termly instalments for a Post 16 Travel Assistance Scheme pass or pay the operator’s commercial fare for each journey.
• The changes are intended to make the scheme more financially sustainable while protecting households on low incomes.
• The consultation will run from 3 November to midnight on 15 December 2026.

The proposed figures shown above are the planned annual contributions. In line with the council’s current policy, contribution rates would also be reviewed each year and could be increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index without a further consultation.

The proposed changes are expected to increase the parental contribution received to £0.735 million in 2027/28 and £0.920 million in 2028/29.

Why your views matter

We want to understand what people think about the proposed changes and how they could affect young people and families who use, or may use, the Post 16 Travel Assistance Scheme.

We are consulting through:

• Emails to current users and potential users of the Post 16 Travel Assistance 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

The consultation will run from 3 November to midnight on 15 December 2026.

We cannot guarantee that responses received after the closing date will be considered.

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

How we will make our decision and report back to you

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

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond.

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