I beg to move,
That this House has considered the cost of school transport.
It is a delight to start the debate under your chairmanship, Mr Walker. It is also a delight to see the Minister for Schools in his place. He is known as a champion of parental choice in education. I look forward to his response to this debate on school transport costs.
In many ways, this is not a partisan debate; it is all about parental choice and whether people should be, in essence, fined or taxed for sending their youngsters to the school that they prefer. That could be a faith-based school or a grammar school to which someone who has managed to pass the 11-plus or admission exam has been admitted. The child and parents might prefer a single-sex school. I will focus on the Ribble Valley, but I understand that the problem is happening increasingly in other areas now.
We know that a lot of local authorities are under financial stress; they must live within their budgets and must look for savings, but irrespective of the colour of party control of authorities, they are picking on school transport costs because they have, in the main, an element of discretion on them. Youngsters who are on free school meals or working tax credit will get support paid for irrespective of where they live, but the vast majority of everybody else in Lancashire could find themselves having to pay more than £500 per child simply because the school that they wish their child to go to is a bit further than the next nearest school. Later in my speech, I hope to pick at least one absurd example where that happens: the schools back on to one another and yet parents are asked to fork out £500 a time simply because they want their child to go to a Catholic school.
I am not being partisan. The hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper), who would have liked to be here today but has had to return to her constituency, emailed me to say that she strongly opposes the county’s stand on education transport costs. She said:
“Those who exercise their right to religious education where the school is more than the specified distance from home are forced to pay transport costs if there is a state school closer. Outrageous! You have my full support on this issue”.
She said that she would be delighted if I shared that with the Chamber today.
A number of parents have contacted my office over the past 12 months about their youngsters and the fact that they found that their choices came with financial strings. A lot of people who are just above the income level for free school meals or working tax credits find themselves being stung for up to £500 of taxed income. Parents from Mellor, one from near Burnley, which is just outside my patch, Lango, which is inside my area, Samlesbury, Chipping, Bamber Bridge, Wilpshire, Lostock Hall and several parents from Waddington, Dunstop Bridge and surrounding districts contacted me just before the general election to say that they were outraged by one particular instance. The local authority was edging them towards a school, suggesting that it was the school—Bowland high school—that it wanted them to
take, because it was in the catchment area and was where all the youngsters tended to go. The parents who got in touch with me said, “We put the school down as No. 1, Mr Evans, and we were delighted when we got it.”—maybe it was where the child’s siblings or friends were going—“but then the bombshell happened.” They received a letter from the county council saying, “You’ve been given the school that was your first preference, but we have to tell you that as the crow flies your nearest school is in Clitheroe. You are now going to be charged £500 per child for sending your youngster to the school we wanted you to send them to.” That is absolutely outrageous. Of course, once a parent has made a choice, there is nothing they can do. If the parents had known that in advance, they could have put Clitheroe down as their first choice, and would more than likely have been turned down, because the school would have been full of youngsters from the area. The local authority would then have said, “You now have to take your second choice, which is Bowland high, and because it is your second choice, we will pay.” A huge anomaly has resulted from the fact that the council wants to save money and thinks that it can do so by scorching parents for £500 a child.
I wrote to the chief executive of Lancashire County Council to say that the situation was appalling and ask her to do something about it. She wrote back to me in September 2014:
“The Council has no statutory duty to provide transport assistance in circumstances where pupils do not attend their nearest school or academy. Granting assistance to pupils who attend faith schools and academies which are not the nearest establishments to a home address is a discretionary element of the Council’s policy.”
The “discretionary” bit is what it is all about. Council after council throughout the country are deciding, “It’s easy pickings. We’re going to ignore the discretionary bit and we’re not going to give it.” Even on appeal, when people write to say that they are finding it hard to provide £500 per child, they still get turned down. If they want their youngster to go to the school, they have to pay.
In the olden days, when deciding where to put the Catholic school in Clitheroe, many people thought that it should be in the centre. They were told, “No, we have some land out in Billington, so that is where it’s going to go. Don’t worry, there will be school transport for the youngsters to be ferried from Clitheroe to Billington at no cost.” Therefore, no protest was made about the siting of the school. It is a very good school. Lots of Catholic parents in Clitheroe want to send their youngsters there. They have to pass at least two schools in some cases, if not just one, before they get to the Catholic school. If they want their youngsters to go to the Catholic school and they are from Clitheroe or outlying villages, they have to pay the full cost. Call me old fashioned, but I think that is discrimination. We are saying to the parents, “If you want a faith-based education, you’re going to have to pay, but if you want to go to the non-faith-based school, you’ll get it for free.” That cannot be right. I know that the Minister believes in parental choice; he is a champion of parental choice. Surely we should ensure that if people wish to travel a reasonable distance—perhaps a distance that they prescribe themselves, which could be up to 15 miles—they should
be eligible for free school transport. I am not saying that someone should be able to travel 40 miles down the road to a school.
In her letter, Jo Turton, the chief executive of Lancashire County Council, explained how much money the council had to cut, and requires difficult decisions. I looked at it and decided to find out how much the chief executive of Lancashire County Council earns. It is a package, including pensions and all that sort of stuff, of £206,000. That is a bit eye-watering; it is rather high. Why does she not make some difficult decisions there? Cut it back. The salary bit is £169,000, so she could make a difficult decision and cut it to below what the Prime Minister earns, which as we know is £147,000, if he took it all, which he does not. That would be a nice, difficult decision for her to make. Indeed, seven salaries on Lancashire County Council add up to over £1 million. Make a difficult decision there; cut it back. Lead from the front. That would be courageous. No, they will not do that, but they expect parents to dip into their own taxed income to pay £500 a child, and that cannot be right.
One area where two schools back on to one another is Longridge. There is Longridge high school and the Catholic school St Cecilia’s just behind. I have 30-odd wonderful, lovely villages. If parents want their child to be educated in Longridge, which is where the nearest secondary schools are, and they happen to be Catholic, the bus stops outside Longridge high school first. The schools back on to one another and the youngsters can—and do—get out at Longridge high and walk through a ginnel to get to St Cecilia’s. That is fine, but the Catholics get charged. It is only those who go to Longridge high who do not get charged. That is clearly absurd.
Woe betide those who decide that they want the education that is offered by the grammar school and manage to pass the admissions exam. If they pass another school that is non-grammar, they have to pay. That seems like a tax or penalty on academic success. I am really lucky that I have some very good schools. There is not a single school in my constituency that I would have reservations about sending my children to, if I had any. If I decided that I wanted them to go to the grammar school, the Catholic school or another faith-based school, I do not see why I should be penalised for taking my parental choice.
I mentioned Bowland high school, which is smaller than Ribblesdale school in Clitheroe. Some parents decide, if they have a sensitive child, that they would prefer him or her to be educated in a more rural setting. It has a brilliant and relatively new sports centre and they might prefer their child to be at that school. It may be that a school specialises in the arts or sciences. If parents choose that school, they will be penalised because the local authority, while it has discretion, has decided that it is not going to use it.
I am delighted to see the newly elected Chairman of the Education Select Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael)—a popular choice. I took the opportunity to raise this issue with him as soon as the jubilation at his success had died down, and suggested that his Committee might like to conduct an inquiry into this policy. We all believe that education should be free at the point of use. Parents have the choice, if they wish, to pay for their youngster to go, for
example in my constituency, to Stonyhurst. That is a private school and, if parents want to pay the fees, their child can go there; it is a fantastic school.
I do not think anybody would quibble with parents paying transport costs to get their youngster to that private school. They have made that firm decision. If parents wish their child to go to a school within the state sector and decide that it should be a single-sex, faith-based or grammar school, I do not believe that they deserve to be caned. If they have two or three children, it can be incredibly expensive. Mr Walker, you might find that people are making choices based not on what is in the best interest of the youngster but, sadly, on what is in the best interests of their wallets or purses, simply because they have difficult financial decisions to make.
I have also received correspondence from the Association of Colleges, which pointed out to me that, of course, parents now have to pay anyway after their child is 16. We have moved into a different era now, when—in the main—people are expected to go to college between 16 and 18. Local authorities have not caught up with that, and it can be incredibly expensive for parents to send their 16-year-old to a specialist college a few miles away, but they have to stump up for them.
This problem hits people irrespective of their constituency, but it hits people harder in rural areas, where the grammar schools or secondary schools tend to be further spaced out than in urban areas, and of course people in rural areas often live in villages that are miles away from schools. In many cases, rural transport is inferior to urban transport, so it may well be that parents have to make a decision about whether they themselves ferry their youngsters to school as they go to work. It is particularly galling for parents when they see the bus coming into their village, youngsters going to the nearest school getting on for free, and spaces on that bus, and yet they have to take their child to school themselves because they cannot afford the £500 or so each year for school transport.
What is even more surprising is that the county council has already stated that each year the cost to parents will go up by 5% above inflation. We are delighted that inflation is as low as it is, thanks to the long-term economic plan, but a 5% rise, year on year, and compounded, can be incredibly expensive.
I would like the Minister to do something. I have raised this issue several times in the House, and I know that it is the responsibility of another Government Department, but I dearly want that Department to back up parental choice and not to fine parents; not to penalise academic success; and to allow parents living within a reasonable distance of a school to get their youngsters ferried to that school. In some rural areas, it is very dangerous even to attempt walking or cycling on the roads.
I want the discretion removed. I want every youngster to be put on the same level, so that parents can choose a school within a reasonable distance in their own best interests without being penalised. I do not want the local authority to use them as cash cows to make up the shortfall because it will not make difficult decisions in other areas.
I plead with the Minister not to let this situation drag on. Let us help the local authorities to make the decision by removing the discretion, and let us ensure that people have full parental choice about where they send their youngsters.
3.18 pm