BEST VALUE REVIEW - SERVICE SPECIFICATION
Service Review Title: School Crossing Patrols
Review Team Leader: Nigel Hill Date: 31st
May 2000
Departmental Lead Officer for Best Value: Nigel Hill
1. Aims of the Service and Statutory basis
To ensure that road traffic management and safety, and
the health and safety of school children, are properly
provided through school crossing patrols.
The statutory basis for the service comes from the
School Crossing Patrol Act 1953. However, the act did
not prescribe a method of delivering the service and
different local arrangements for administration have
evolved across the country.
Section 26 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
gives the statutory provision of the service to
appropriate authorities, defined as the County Council
in Hampshire's case. Local authorities may make an
agreement with their Police authority for the provision
of the service. This section also places a duty on the
authority "to provide requisite training".
Section 28 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
defines the circumstances in which a school crossing
patrol has the power to stop traffic.
2. Objectives of the Service
To achieve the aim, the service seeks to:
_ Evaluate and identify appropriate sites of new
crossings (Hampshire Police)
_ Train school crossing patrol staff in their duties
(Hampshire Police)
_ Recruit, appoint and arrange training for school
crossing patrol staff (Education)
_ Provide appropriate equipment for school crossing
patrol staff (Education)
_ Pay salaries for school crossing patrol staff
(Education)
_ Manage all employee relations aspects relating to
school crossing patrol staff (Education)
_ deal with complaints from the public (Education)
3. Links to corporate aims
The provision of school crossing patrols relates to:
_ Corporate Aim 1: Developing the quality of life in
Hampshire, where a key desired outcome is "Improvement
in road safety accident statistics".
_ Corporate Aim 2: Stewardship of the environment,
corporate focus to "formulate and implement strategic
policies, such as land use and management and
transportation" and a desired outcome to "Reduce the
environmental impact of transport while helping to keep
it moving efficiently"
Since the County Council employs the school crossing
patrol staff and they also play an important role
within local community life, the service also impacts
on corporate Aim 4: Promoting involvement,
participation and partnership to achieve the
development of strong communities in Hampshire and Aim
5: Providing high quality services to the public
through well trained, managed and motivated staff and
through third parties where the Council acts as an
enabler
4. Other links
The key stakeholders in this service should be:
_ the Police,
_ County Surveyors,
_ parents and children
_ headteachers and governors
Whilst school crossing patrol staff may store their
equipment in a school, the school itself has no
responsibility for the provision of crossing patrols
or their staffing. If a school identifies a need for a
crossing patrol, however, the governors can make
representation.
However, many schools build close relationships with
their school crossing patrol staff and may actively
involve them in school activities, on a voluntary
basis. This will usually be in their role as a part of
the community and with their responsibility for
safety.
5. Service Policies
The current policy of the service has been determined
over time such that:
The siting of school crossing patrols is determined by
local Police officers. There is guidance produced by
the County Road Safety Officers Association on the
calculation of traffic flows and school children to
enable a decision to be made.
Should a school crossing patrol be unattended due to
sickness or vacancy, it is the responsibility of the
Police to find appropriate locum cover for the first
absence only.
Within the employment procedures of the school
crossing patrol staff, the usual policies apply.
Education Personnel Services formally took on the
employer role for the management of School Crossing
Patrol staff in 1994.
A key document is the "Guidelines for the management
and operation of the School Crossing Patrol service"
produced jointly by the County Road Safety Officers
Association (CRSOA) and the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), in 1994. The
recommendations in this document suggest that school
crossing patrols are a Road Safety issue, and are best
delivered by the Highway's department of a council.
6. Summary of existing service and delivery methods:
_ Recruitment - the Education Personnel Services will
arrange advertising in the local press when vacancies
occur.
_ Appointment - Education Personnel Services carry
out the interview process and appointment
_ Training - Education Personnel Services will
contact the local police officers to ensure staff are
properly trained.
_ Uniform and equipment - Education Personnel
Services have a responsibility to ensure that uniforms
and equipment are issued. Any replacements are ordered
by Education Personnel Services from external suppliers
and paid for by a centrally held budget.
_ Payroll - School Crossing Patrol staff are paid
from centrally held budget, and Education Personnel
Services act as the point of contact for staff.
_ Assessment of route changes - Education Personnel
Services will arrange assessments by Hampshire Police
where a school governing body requests a new school
crossing patrol site.
_ Complaints - Education Personnel Services staff
receive and, where appropriate, respond to complaints
from the public
_ Employee relations - Education Personnel Services
staff advise on the management of employee relations
cases affecting School Crossing Patrol staff (e.g. ill
health, disciplinary issues)
7. Costs of the service (2000/2001 budget and fte staff
numbers):
The cash limited budget for this service in
2000/2001 is £839,000.
Actual
Budget
1999/2000
2000/2001
£'000 £'000
School Crossing Patrol salaries 743.7
802.4
Advertising 11.2
21.5
Employee related insurances
0.1 0.1
Other employee related expenses
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0.1 0
Clothing and Uniforms 17.5
14.0
Miscellaneous insurances 0.5
0.5
Other miscellaneous expenses 0.1
0.1
773.2
839.6
In addition to these costs, 1 fte is allocated from
Education Personnel Services.
There is also work incurred for the Police service,
estimated at 1 fte across the county.
8. Recent consultation
There has been no recent consultation about this
service. The last review was carried out in 1995
under Local Government Reorganisation.
9. Performance data
Some key indicators:
Number of requests for new crossing patrols:
12
Number of training sessions for staff in 12 months:
t.b.c.
Total number of school crossing patrols:
487
Number of current vacancies:
106
Number of resignations in last twelve months:
t.b.c.
Number of complaints in last twelve months:
55 (est.)
Road safety incidents:
t.b.c.
10. Competition and other providers:
None. It may be possible to envisage private enterprise
taking on this work on a contracted out basis, but this
would need to be cleared legally within our duties as the
"Appropriate Authority" in Section 26 of the Road Traffic
Regulation Act 1984.
11. Current challenges facing the service:
The main challenges are:
_ Recruitment of school crossing patrol staff is
increasingly difficult
_ Time spent on the service is increasing with workload
increasing
_ Should this be Education or is it about road traffic
management and road safety?
_ Lack of a supervisory structure to support School
Crossing Patrol staff.
_ Need to compare the service quality with the
guidelines produced by RoSPA and CRSOA.
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BEST VALUE REVIEW - PROJECT BRIEF
Service Review Title: School Crossing Patrols
Review Team Leader: Nigel Hill Date: 10th
May 2000
Departmental Lead Officer for Best Value: Nigel Hill
1. Goal
The review seeks to evaluate the school crossing
patrol service and produce recommendations for
improvements at the Best Value Review Panel
(Education) in October 2000.
2. Objectives
_ To establish the most cost effective procedures
to provide the service
_ To ensure that the service is efficiently
provided
_ To identify the most appropriate organisational
model for delivering the service
_ To identify strategies for improving the service
3. Approach
The service review team will:
_ Analyse and evaluate a range of options for
providing the service, with specific focus on:
_ Recruitment strategy
_ Advertising strategy - particularly seeking to
match the locations of advertisments to the likely
target group of 'healthy pensioners', and to
explore schools' communications with parents
_ Organisation
_ Communication, ensuring that changes are made
in response to changing circumstances (such as
school amalgamations and closures)
_ Resources needed to provide the service
The EFQM model will be used as an analytical tool to
evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the service.
3.1 Service Review Team
A small service review team will be set up to
provide challenge to the review and achieve the aim.
The service review team proposed is:
Nigel Hill, Project Manager, Education
Department
John Wakeling, Head of Education Personnel
Services
Sharon Caplen, Education Personnel Services
Ernie Sage, Principal Road Safety Officer,
County Surveyors
Inspector Peter Hughes, Hampshire Constabulary
Mrs Cole, a School Crossing Patrol officer
Janet Backhouse, Trade Union representative
An elected member from the Best Value Panel
(Education)
This team represents the key stakeholders in the
provision of the service and will invite
specialists, such as an Area Surveyor, to attend for
specific items.
3.2 Challenge
The main method of providing challenge will be
through the service review team members. The
analysis of consultation and comparisons with other
LEAs are likely also to feed the challenge process.
3.3 Compare
The service review team will:
_ Gather information from similar local
authorities:
_ to compare costs
_ to compare other benchmarking information
_ to compare organisational arrangements
_ to compare vacancy rates and recruitment
_ to compare salaries
_ to compare accident statistics
_ to compare the number of school crossing
patrols sited at pelican crossings
_ to compare the number of prosecutions where
school crossing patrol officers have been the
victim.
3.4 Consult
The service review team will:
_ Consult, through questionnaires and focus
groups, the following for their views on the
service:
_ School crossing patrol staff
_ A sample of parents
3.5 Compete
This service can only be provide by the County
Council as designated Appropriate Authority under
the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The County
Council may make an arrangement with the Police
authority. The Best Value review will seek to
establish if schools can be considered as part of
the County Council in respect of the Act, and
whether it is legal to contract out the service to
an external supplier.
The resulting legal views will enable the service
review team to consider the most effective body for
delivering the service.
4. Scope
The review will explore service provision and
administrative arrangements to ensure efficiency,
economy and effectiveness within the statutory
framework..
The review will consider the School Travel Advisory
Group 1998-1999 report.
The review will consider the impact of School
Crossing Patrols on road traffic congestion and
safety.
The review will assess how well the service meets
the national guidelines developed by RoSPA and
CSROA.
The review will not cover specific local crossing
patrol siting.
5. Constraints
Information availability is likely to constrain the
review.
6. Dependencies
The review is linked to issues on road safety and
home to school transport, and recommendations to
move the management of the service may be dependent
on reviews in those areas.
7. Resource Requirements
The review will require:
_ Staff time from Education Personnel Services,
Police, County Surveyors, Education Department,
School Crossing Patrol and support staff
_ Payment for hours and travel involved where no
reciprocal arrangement can be made
_ Costs of questionnaire design, printing,
distribution, collection, collation and analysis
_ Costs of benchmarking data collection, collation
and analysis
_ Costs of printing reports
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