The Council is consulting on its draft Post-16 Transport Policy Statement for 2025/26.
Introduction and background information
The Council has broad duties to encourage, enable and assist young people to participate in education or training.
The Council’s duties in relation to transport to school or college depend upon the young person being supported.
The Council does not have a duty to provide free or subsidised transport for those of sixth form age[1]. The Council does have a duty to prepare and publish an annual transport policy statement specifying the arrangements for the provision of transport or other support that the Council considers it necessary to make, to facilitate the attendance of all persons of sixth form age receiving education or training.
The Council does have a duty to provide free transport for certain adult learners[2] (where the Council considers it necessary to provide transport), and it has the discretion to pay some or all of the reasonable costs of transport for other adult learners. The Council has a duty to prepare and publish an annual transport policy statement specifying any transport or other arrangements and any payment of travelling expenses made or to be made to adult learners who have an Education Health and Care Plan (ECHP).
The Council has considered and had regard to the relevant legislation including sections 509AA – AC and Sections 508F-H of the Education Act 1996 and the Statutory Guidance issued by Government on Post-16 Transport and Travel Support to Education and Training when preparing the proposed transport policy statement.
In preparing the Transport Policy Statement, the Council is required to consult persons who will be of sixth form age or who will be adult learners with an Education, Health and Care Plan and their parents, as well as other stakeholders, on the proposed policy. This consultation will run for four weeks from 10am on Friday 31 January 2025 to 4pm on Friday 28 February 2025.
All responses to the survey are welcomed and the questions have been designed to respect the anonymity of respondents. We have provided free-text boxes to enable other ideas, comments or suggestions to be provided for the Council’s consideration, but ask that you avoid identifying yourself or others in these sections. You can view the privacy notice for this consultation at the bottom of this page, and on the survey itself.
How to respond to the consultation
Before you respond to the consultation, please read our draft Post-16 Transport Policy Statement for 2025/26 in full. You can find this document at the following link:
Read the draft Post-16 Transport Policy Statement for 2025/26
Once you have read the document at the link above, please click on the link in the box below and complete the short online survey to respond to the consultation:
CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE POST-16 TRANSPORT POLICY STATEMENT 2025/26 SURVEY |
All responses must be received by the deadline at 4pm on Friday 28 February 2025 in order to be taken into consideration.
Next steps
Once the consultation has closed, the proposed Transport Policy Statement and the feedback from the consultation will be considered at the meeting of Full Council in March 2025 and, if approved, the Transport Policy Statement will be implemented immediately and will continue for the academic year 2025/26.
Further information
If you have any questions relating to this consultation please email Post16@scilly.gov.uk or call 01872 322 222.
[1] Sixth form age means they are over compulsory school age and aged 16 to 18 or 19+ if the student began the course before their 19th birthday. This includes individuals with learning difficulties or disabilities.
[2] Student over sixth form age. This includes individuals with learning difficulties or disabilities.
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Privacy Notice for the draft Post-16 Transport Policy Statement 2025/26 survey
Information gathered through this survey is anonymous and will only be used only to inform the final Post-16 Transport and Accommodation Support for Education and Training Policy. Data collected will be retained until the Policy has been approved, and then securely deleted. Any personal information that is unintentionally collected in response to the survey will be processed in accordance with the Council of the Isles of Scilly Corporate Privacy Notice
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