Proposals for changes to Home to School Transport

Home to School Transport is provided for around 9,100 mainstream pupils, 960 Additional Learning Needs learners, and 2,300 College students each day.

Over 9,000 of these learners are transported for free on a discretionary basis. This means that we provide discretionary transport for more learners than almost every other Welsh Council’s Home to School transport operations, and beyond the statutory level in Welsh Government’s Learner Travel Measure.

Current provision:

• One of the most generous provisions in Wales transporting over 9,000 learners, including £6.9 million of discretionary provision
• £6.9 million of discretionary provision for over 9,000 learners
• Cost to the Council has increased from £8 million in 2015 to over £15 million in 2023/24
• Primary Schools – we currently provide free home to school transport for learners of compulsory school age attending primary school who live 1.5 miles or further from their nearest suitable school 
• Secondary Schools - we currently provide free home to school transport for learners of compulsory school age attending secondary school who live 2 miles or further from their nearest suitable school
• Welsh/Faith Schools and Post-16 education - There is no statutory requirement to provide transport for these learners, however, we currently provide this for free.

Proposed changes:

• Proposed to start in September 2025
• We will still provide one of the most generous provisions in Wales, transporting nearly 6,500 discretionary learners each day under these proposals.
• Align home to school transport in line with Learner Travel Measure (Wales) statutory distance criteria. These distances are set by Welsh Government, not the Council. 
• The majority of Welsh local authorities (18 out of 22) have aligned their arrangements in line with statutory distance only.
• Provide mainstream English, Welsh and Faith primary school pupils with free transport if they live further than 2 miles away from their nearest suitable school.
• Provide mainstream English, Welsh and Faith secondary school pupils and post-16 learners with free transport if they live further than 3 miles away from their nearest suitable school/college.

• Deliver savings of approximately £2.5 million in a full year. 

• Additional Learning Needs/disabilities transport would remain unaltered under the proposal as transport is based upon their individual need as well as by distance criteria

The table below outlines our proposals for Home to School Transport compared to the Welsh Government statutory requirements:

You can find answers to the most frequently asked questions about this proposal here.

Read the full Council statement here

More detail about the proposal can be found in the full Cabinet report here.

If you would like to participate in the consultation on this proposal, please visit the Council’s website here.