Contact: Jon Foley, ext 7559 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report sets out progress to date in delivering the County Council's school travel plan and safer routes to schools programme.

2. Background

2.1 The County Council has for a number of years provided advice and support to schools on the preparation of travel plans. The purpose of a school travel plan is to raise awareness within the school community of the impact of school journeys and to promote safer, healthier and more environmentally sustainable methods of travel.

2.2 In addition to providing advice to schools on the preparation of the plan, the County Council also assesses those travel plans it receives to ensure a consistent standard. Schools with `approved' plans are able to access funding for the implementation of measures contained within their plan. The advice available to schools also ensures that the measures identified within travel plans are practical and appropriate.

2.3 An element of the County Council's integrated transport capital programme (known as the Safer Routes to School Programme) is available to schools with an approved travel plan. The programme, which for 2005/06 stands at £1.5 million, is for the implementation of measures identified in individual travel plans. It should be noted however that urgent and essential safety improvements identified as part of the County-wide Child Casualty Reduction Programme are carried out separately and are not dependent on the production of a school travel plan.

2.4 The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) also has an annual one-off capital grant available to schools with approved travel plans. The amount of grant available to an individual school varies depending on the type of school and roll number of pupils. A primary school can expect to receive £3,750 (plus £5 per pupil) while special and secondary schools receive £5,000 (plus £5 per pupil). Those schools with an approved travel plan in place on 31 March each year qualify for funding during the following financial year.

2.5 The Environment Department liaises closely with a range of stakeholders in delivery of the school travel plan programme and maintains regular contact with the Children's Services Department to ensure a coordinated approach. In this respect a Joint Member Group involving representatives of the Environment and the (then) Education Policy and Resources Committees has provided valuable input to the process.

2.6 The County Council also works closely with local borough and district councils. A number of district councils have designated officers in place (some part funded by the County Council) who also provide school travel planning advice.

3. Progress to Date

3.1 In November 2004 the County Council again contacted all schools in Hampshire to advise them of the travel planning service. As a result of this a significant number of schools are now engaged in the process.

3.2 To assist with management of the programme the County Council organises schools into categories based on their `status' in school travel planning terms.

Level 0 - refers to schools who have shown an interest in developing a travel plan but are yet to receive a visit from the School Travel Planning Team.

Level 1 - applies to schools who have had their first visit from the School Travel Planning Team.

Level 2 - refers to schools who have submitted a draft plan.

Level 3 - is where a school has an approved travel plan in place.

3.3 As shown in the table below good progress is being made toward the national target of all schools to have a travel plan in place by 2010. The County Council is currently engaged with 409 of the 606 schools (both maintained and independent) in Hampshire, of which 168 have an approved (Level 3) travel plan in place. The County Council has a deliberate policy to phase in the development of school travel plans. If all of the schools currently without travel plans started to develop them at the same time, there would be insufficient officer and financial resources to assist in the development of the plan and the implementation of measures arising from it. This could lead to disappointment and frustration for all schools. As a result, the development of plans for schools who have volunteered for the programme is prioritised. There does not appear to be a need or justification for a campaign to encourage all schools to participate in the programme in the short term. All schools will be encouraged to develop a school travel plan by 2008/09.

3.4 All Members have recently been informed of the progress of schools within their divisions towards completion of travel plans. Additional updates can be provided as required via the school travel team. See paragraph 3.9 below.

3.5 The interest in school travel planning has given rise to an increase in the number of schemes being funded through the Safer Routes to School Programme. The table below summarises the current position.

	Number of Schools Benefiting from Safer Routes to School Measures
Prior to March 2004	82
2004/05	30
2005/06	59

3.6 As indicated above a number of Hampshire schools have also been successful in obtaining Capital Grant from the DfES. In 2004/05, 83 schools in Hampshire received £530,000. In 2005/06 an additional 71 local schools received £400,000. The County Council works with schools to encourage them to spend this grant on measures contained within their travel plans.

3.7 The County Council introduced its Annual Schools Hands Up Travel Survey in September 2003. In addition to asking pupils how they travel to school the survey asks how they would prefer to travel given the choice. The table below summarises the results of the first two years of the survey.

Mode Share for Journeys to School (Hampshire Hands Up Travel Survey)

Note: "Car alone" is defined as an adult driver plus a single child passenger. "Car share" is defined as an adult driver plus more than one child passenger.

3.8 The Hands-up Survey represents results from all schools in Hampshire and not just from those who have developed a School Travel Plan, it is therefore not possible to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the School Travel Plans/Safer Routes to Schools Programmes from this data. However, from individual school's monitoring results (undertaken as part of the STP process) it can be seen that development of a travel plan and implementation of associated measures has a positive effect on modal shift away from the car (see table below).

The individual school results outlined in the table below further highlight the positive impact that school travel plans can have on modal shift at individual schools.

3.9 The County Council regularly reports progress on delivery of its school travel plan and safer routes to school programme to meetings of the local Highway and Transport Advisory Panels. Regular updates on progress delivering the programme are also available from the school travel planning website at www.hants.gov.uk/schooltravel.

4. Issues for the Future

4.1 The provisional LTP Submission to the Department for Transport in July 2005 included the County Council's overall approach to school travel planning and safer routes to school. It is intended that in the coming months the detail of the approach will be developed and reflected in the full LTP Submission in March 2006. More details are provided in the proposed LTP annex on `smarter choices', which is the subject of a separate agenda item.

4.2 As the school travel planning and Safer Routes to School Programme has been in place for a number of years the opportunity is being taken to review the current approach. The review is currently under way and will report early in 2006. The findings of the review will be discussed with the Joint Member Policy Review Committee Group on School Travel Planning (referred to in paragraph 2.5 above) and reflected in the March 2006 LTP Submission.

4.3 The Government has recently announced that it will continue its bursary funding of school travel plan officer posts for another two years. Whilst the level of support is not yet known, it is expected to be broadly in line with current allocations. This will enable the school travel plan programme to continue at planned levels until at least 2008.

5. Impact Assessments

5.1 This report provides a position statement only, therefore an impact assessment in terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act has not been undertaken.

Recommendation

That this report be noted.

606/JF