www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Equality Impact Assessment - Education Transport
1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?
Education transport (for mainstream and special education needs children).
2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? How do they relate to the departmental objectives in the Service Plan? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?
To provide home to school transport for entitled pupils and students attending mainstream schools, FE Colleges and Special Education Needs establishments and Units. This facilitates attendance and attainment of children and young people in education, in support of Corporate goals.
The current priority is to ensure that transport arrangements are as cost effective as possible while continuing to provide a safe, quality service that meets the needs of users (Passenger Transport Service Plan 2006-09).
3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Consider all six equality strands: race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age.
Entitlement to transport is defined by Council policy which closely follows statutory guidance and case law, and applications are treated the same irrespective of race and gender. There are special arrangements for dealing with applications from traveller families through the Traveller Liaison service. Transport is provided to anyone deemed to be entitled, and is arranged in the most cost-effective way consistent with safety and providing a reasonable quality of service. This normally means that all children from an area to a particular establishment travel together, unless special arrangements are required to meet the needs of the child, or unless there are reasons for separate arrangements on grounds of safety or cost. As a result there are relatively few differential impacts, as identified below;
Race – application forms and other information about school transport are printed in English only, but translations are available through Language Line. The schools would also be able to assist with completion of forms.
Gender – no specific issues identified.
Disability – special transport is provided where required for children with disabilities or special education needs (for example, wheelchair transport; special seats or harnesses; provision of a passenger assistant). However, there are a small number of cases where transport has to be refused on safety grounds (e.g. where special medication is needed, or the child is in an A frame, or is violent and aggressive and has been assessed as posing a category 3 risk). A similar issue arises where a child has a special wheelchair that is not of a type approved for safe use in transport, and another wheelchair has to be obtained before transport can be arranged. There are also cases where it is not possible to provide transport immediately because it takes some time to make special arrangements and (e.g. where a passenger assistant with special training is needed); or where arrangements through necessity do not fully meet the needs of the child (e.g. where the taxi driver has to be changed on transport for an autistic child, causing problems for the child to adapt to the new circumstances).
Sexual orientation – no specific issues identified, but see ‘other’ (below)
Religion / belief – the Council takes religious and philosophical beliefs into account when assessing applications for transport. Transport is provided in accordance with policy (at a charge from 2007 onwards, except for low income families) to denominational schools for those who are practising members of the faith in question.
Age – no specific issues identified, but see ‘other’ (below)
Other
- bullying on transport, although not restricted to children from particular backgrounds, may in some instances have an unequal impact on those from minority groups.
- inappropriate behaviour or poor attitude by transport drivers, although again affecting all children to some extent, may have a greater impact when linked to equality issues (e.g. use of inappropriate or offensive language; failure to take account of different needs or values; lack of awareness of the requirements of children with disabilities or special needs).
- children from low income families will be less able to attend a school or college of their or their parents’ choice as free or assisted transport is not provided except to the local designated school or FE college, and they will be less able to afford to make their own transport arrangements than those from more wealthy households.
4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to indicate that there could be a problem?
There is a system for recording complaints, and issues that have been raised through this have helped to inform the analysis in question 3 above. Liaison meetings with schools provide an opportunity for staff in contact with service users to raise concerns, and feedback from passenger assistants (where provided) is also a useful source of information – these have also been used to inform the answer to question 3. Most of the complaints and concerns that are raised are about specific problems with transport – failure to turn up, late running, suitability of the arrangements that have been made, particular instances of poor behaviour on the transport or poor driver attitude – and are dealt with as they arise.
We are not aware of any local or national research indicating any potential equality issues other than those mentioned under question 3.
5. How and with whom have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?
Questionnaire surveys were carried out among mainstream and special education needs transport stakeholders and users in February 2004, as part of the Passenger Transport Best Value Review. Whilst these did not ask specific questions about equality issues, they tested satisfaction levels with different aspects of the service and also allowed free comment about how the service could be improved. Satisfaction levels were generally high except with timekeeping and reliability, and behaviour on mainstream transport (both 20-25% dissatisfied). 93 -96% were satisfied with the suitability of the transport provided, while around 10-11% were dissatisfied with the attitude of drivers. Of the specific comments, very few were directly related to equality issues although there were many who suggested that the best way to improve the service further would be to improve pupil behaviour or to improve the attitude of drivers. Another common request was for an extension of the service provided in some way – free transport (rather than making a charge) for 16-19 years transport, transport to a preferred (rather than the designated) school or college, or provision of transport for after-school activities. For children with special education needs, there were a number of requests for more special training for drivers and passenger assistants in the particular needs of the children they are transporting.
Consultation with parents and schools is carried out when major reviews of SEN transport provision are proposed, and used to help ensure that the particular needs of the children are taken into account.
6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse or disproportionate impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?
Although every effort is made to provide transport to all those who are deemed to be entitled, there will continue to be a small number of cases (as described under question 3) where it is not considered that transport can be provided safely. In these cases, safety will continue to be given priority and transport will be refused.
Although it is recognised that the Council’s policy not to provide free or assisted transport to parental choice schools and colleges limits the ability of low income families to exercise choice, the Council has limited resources and it is considered that the current policy, which provides a guarantee of transport for entitled children and young people to their designated school or college, strikes the appropriate balance between the interests of pupils / students and their parents, and of Council Tax payers in general.
7. If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?
Improving behaviour on transport - although not specifically an equalities issue, and one that is often linked to behaviour away from the transport, it is recognised that poor behaviour and bullying on transport is an issue that needs to be addressed. A proactive approach to this is already being taken, developing relationships and protocols with the schools and operators so that incidents on transport can be addressed in a co-ordinated way and in the context of wider behaviour and bullying issues. Serious and persistent offences can result in transport being withdrawn. Initiatives such as a Bus Prefect scheme, CCTV on school buses and working with schools to tackle attitudes through teaching activities in the Citizenship module of the curriculum will continue and be developed further.
Driver training – the Council already works with other partners (e.g. Wiltshire & Swindon User Network, Go Skills, and the District Council taxi licensing officers) to encourage bus and taxi operators to provide disability awareness and customer care training to their staff, including in some cases specific training in how to deal with behaviour issues on school transport. This work will continue. It is intended however in most cases to continue to encourage take up of training on a voluntary basis rather than to incorporate it as a contract requirement, as to do the latter would at the present time present a serious risk to the ability to guarantee continuity of transport provision.
Provision of better information for drivers and passenger assistants – passenger assistants already receive training in dealing with children with disabilities or special needs and are informed about the special needs of the children they accompany. It is proposed in the near future to introduce individual risk assessments for all special needs children, which will allow more specific information to be provided to the passenger assistant and driver about the particular needs of the child.
Transport contract conditions already require operators to have an equality policy. This will in future be reinforced by a requirement to submit a copy of the policy for inspection when applying to tender for Council contracts
8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?
By continuing to liaise with schools and monitor complaints received.
9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this equality impact assessment? Please state any resource implications.
Continue to seek to apply policies and procedures fairly and equitably, and (where a child has special needs) to ensure that as far as is possible the transport is appropriate to these needs.
Continue and develop current activities to improve behaviour and reduce bullying on school transport.
Continue and develop current activities to encourage operators to provide training opportunities for drivers in disability awareness, customer care and dealing with behaviour problems on school transport.
Provide better information to passenger assistants and drivers about the special needs of the children they transport.
Require transport operators to submit a copy of their Equality Policy before tendering for Council contracts.
All achievable within existing resources.
10. There is a legal requirement to publish the outcomes of Equality Impact Assessments. Please outline how / where this will happen.
It is assumed that this will be done through corporate arrangements to make all EIAs available on the Council’s website and / or elsewhere.
11. Name of person completing form
Passenger Management Coordination Manager
Date assessment completed:
February 2007
12. Senior manager approval
Assistant Director - Planning & Regeneration
Date:
7 November 2007
Contact Details
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Equality & Diversity Team
Development Services
Wiltshire County Council
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Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JN
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