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ITEM EX6

EXECUTIVE – 5 MARCH 2002

TRANSPORT TO HENLEY COLLEGE

Report by the Chief Education Officer

1. On 8 January, 2002 the Executive considered possible action in response to the increasing cost of subsidy paid to Oxfordshire students for travel to Henley College. For the current academic year the subsidy stands at £610 per student and the likely cost in the financial year 2001/2 is £160,000. For further details please refer to the report submitted to the 8 January meeting (EX15).
2. The meeting decided "to defer a decision pending a further report to the Executive on:

• the possible capping of the subsidy for eligible students attending Henley College;
• the possibility of utilising existing public transport services for students travelling to Henley College;

3. Public transport in the area includes train services to Henley run by Thames Trains. They do not offer discounts for students but might offer the County Council a discount if we bought a number of season tickets on behalf of students. This could be explored further.
4. Current prices for annual rail season tickets to Henley are:

Cholsey to Henley £1224
Goring to Henley £1008
Shiplake to Henley £268

This suggests that we might reasonably expect students from the Shiplake area to travel by train (or bus: see the next paragraph) rather than college bus.

5. Bus services in the area are provided by a number of different companies, some of which are supported financially by the County Council. Students are already carried on the regular services to/from Henley such as the Arriva route from Reading and Shiplake and the Chiltern Queens route from Stoke Row and Sonning Common. There may, however, be issues regarding spare capacity on these services and further work needs to be done by officers to ensure that students can make use of these services wherever appropriate.
6. In 1999 the Environmental Services Public Transport section and Henley College jointly explored the possibility of a new public/student bus service to and from Watlington but unfortunately this did not prove cost-effective.

Post-16 Students in the rest of the County

7. Where we provide travel for sixth-formers in the rest of the County, this is almost always in the form of a concessionary place on a coach already provided for statutory age pupils. Those students who attend their local further education college use transport provided by the college or, particularly in the case of Oxford College, public transport.
8. School sixth-form students are required to pay £75 p.a. towards the cost of the transport provided, unless they receive income-related benefits, in which case the County Council waives the £75 charge. The same is true for Henley College students. Those who attend other further education colleges are charged varying amounts by the college but with no contribution by the LEA, as other options are available to the students in those cases. However, in all cases we will reimburse the charge for those in receipt of benefits.
9. The £75 charge has been provisionally increased to £81 p.a. with effect from September, 2002, subject to any decisions made at this meeting.

Financial Information

10. The cost of transport for sixth-formers is included in the total cost of secondary school transport provision. However the average cost per student is estimated to be as follows:

Average cost of 53-seater coach £28,500 p.a.

Average cost per student/pupil £538 p.a.

Net cost per student (deducting £75 charge) £463 p.a.

11. The number of sixth-form students receiving transport other than at Henley College is 880. The current net cost for sixth-form students (i.e. excluding all further education colleges, but including Henley) is £407,440.

Henley College: Position in 2002/3

12. Henley College inform us that at present they pay a subsidy of £100 towards the travel costs of each student attending the college but that this subsidy will cease at the end of the current academic year. This means that, even if the transport costs did not increase in September, the subsidy paid by the County Council would have to increase to £704 per Henley student (£785 less the £81 p.a. charge provisionally agreed), compared with £610 per student at present.
13. Henley College do not appear to use a tendering procedure at present but make informal arrangements with the same operators each year. They have contacted the coach operators they use at present and have been told to expect an increase of up to 12% on current costs. It is possible that they could reduce the increase if they sought competitive bids for the work but, if this does not reduce the costs and student numbers remain at around 260, the worst case scenario appears to be as follows:

Cost per Henley College student travelling £879 p.a.

Net cost per student after £81 charge £798 p.a.

Total cost for 260 students £207,480

Increase in total over 2001/2 costs £47,500

There is no budget provision for this increase.

Alternatives

14. If the Executive were minded to continue with the present policy in relation to Henley College transport, in order to maintain equity with sixth-formers elsewhere in the county, it would be possible to cover the additional cost at Henley by increasing charges for all post-16 students.
15. Income from concessionary fares paid by post-16 students throughout the county, including Henley College, amounts to approximately £85,500 p.a. at present. This will increase to £92,340 if the charge rises, as planned, to £81 p.a. (£27 per term) and student numbers remain static.
16. If the charge were increased to £123 p.a. (£41 per term) the additional income across the county would be approximately £47,880. This would cover the increased costs expected at Henley College.
17. An increase to £41 per term from the current £25 would be a large one. However, it is increasingly apparent that our neighbouring LEAs all expect a significantly greater contribution from post-16 students than we do. 2001/02 charges to students are as follows (compared with £75 p.a. in Oxfordshire):

Bracknell Forest £360
Buckinghamshire £300
Gloucestershire £205
Northamptonshire £230
Warwickshire £100 p.a. in full or £42 per term
West Berkshire £330
Wiltshire £200

We know of no neighbouring LEA charging less than £100 p.a. Charges for 2002/03 are not yet known.

Implications for those Living in Poverty

18. It is assumed that charges would still be waived for students receiving income-related benefits. However, any increase in the concessionary charge would adversely affect those just above benefit levels.

Environmental Implications

19. An increase in charges might encourage more students to use private transport to get to school or Henley College.

RECOMMENDATION

20. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to consider:

1. increasing post-16 transport charges across the whole county to £41 per term;
2. requiring Henley College to adopt a transport tendering procedure involving competitive bids; and
3. asking officers to continue negotiations with public transport providers in order to increase the use of travel to Henley College by public transport where this is available and cost-effective.

ROY SMITH
Acting Chief Education Officer

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Sue Tanner, Senior Education Officer Tel: 01865 815472

February, 2002

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