Archived decisions

Description of what is wanted

1. Name:

School Crossing Patrols

2. Purpose:

To ensure that road traffic management and safety, and the health and safety of school children, are properly provided through school crossing patrols.

3. Proposed improvements

· Transfer responsibility for School crossing Patrols to the Road Safety Team in the Environment Grouping. This will link to initiatives on `Safer Routes to School' and School Travel Plans

· Establish new School Crossing Patrols supervisors in the Road Safety Team

· Evaluate School crossing Patrol provision in Hampshire - the target is to carry out a site assessment at each of the 471 school crossings by 1 April 2002

4. Progress on implementing the improvement plan

Over £60,000 has been spent carrying out a health and safety risk assessment on each of the school crossing patrol sites. The work was completed three months ahead of the target in the Best Value review.

Although the Best Value review recommended an early transfer of the management of the service to the Road Safety Team, it was agreed that the transfer would be better if it was based on the information from the health and safety risk assessments, to allow better planning of activity and resources with a new team.

The preparatory work for transferring the service from Education to Road Safety now shows that there may be additional costs not anticipated in the Best Value review, but that long term improvements in quality of service will be made.

5. Plans for future implementation

The service will transfer to the Road Safety Team in April 2002. An `invest-to-save' initiative will cover short term additional costs.

6. Conclusion

The investment in health and safety risk assessments has provided an excellent baseline from which the service can be developed and improved through Safer Routes to Schools and School Travel Plans. The future investment in a dedicated support team will ensure that the service continues to improve.