Dear Mrs Caldwell,

Petition: Review the current school transport provision from Great Gransden to Comberton Village College

Thank you for coming to the Children and Young People Committee meeting on Tuesday 25th April 2023 and for your clear articulation of the reasons why you and other families living in Great Gransden submitted this petition calling on the Council to formally review the existing transport arrangements to Comberton Village College.

I think it would be helpful to firstly explain the Council’s duties, in respect of home to school transport, and clarify how these relate to families living within Great Gransden.

Cambridgeshire County Council has a statutory duty to provide free transport for all secondary aged pupils (11-16) attending their nearest suitable school if that school is beyond 3 miles from their home address. The Council’s Home to School Travel Assistance policy defines the nearest suitable school as a pupil’s catchment or nearest secondary school. The Council’s defined catchment areas are designed to ensure access to a local school place whilst also ensuring the viability of schools.

In the context of Great Gransden, and the other villages served by Barnabas Oley Primary School, including Little Gransden, Abbotsley and Waresley, the designated catchment school is Longsands Academy in St Neots and the nearest secondary school, for the majority of addresses, is Cambourne Village College.

During January and February 2014 the Governing body of Comberton Village College, as a part of their annual consultation for their school admission arrangements, also consulted on the expansion of their catchment area to include the area served by Barnabas Oley Primary School with effect from September 2015. Any school who are their own Admission Authority, such as Comberton Village College, can seek to change or expand their catchment area for the purposes of admitting pupils to that school. This process does not, however, determine a change to the provision of home to school transport, for which Cambridgeshire County Council is responsible.

At the time of the consultation all parties, including the governing body of Barnabas Oley Primary School, were informed that whilst consideration would be given to the travel arrangements there would be no guarantee or automatic entitlement for Comberton to be recognised by the Council as the catchment school for the area, as there remained an existing catchment in this area for Longsands Academy, St Neots.

After full consideration by senior officers, the Council confirmed to both Comberton Village College and to the Governing Body of Barnabas Oley C of E Primary School that the College’s extended catchment area would not be recognised for home to school transport purposes, and the designation of Longsands Academy would remain. 

Since then, to ensure that families are able to make informed decisions when making their secondary school preferences, the School Admission publications have clearly confirmed that the revised catchment area is not supported by the Council for the purposes of home to school transport. As a part of the school admissions process families are advised to consult all the information available regarding school catchment areas and consider how their school choices impact eligibility for other services, such as home to school transport. This information includes the online school directory where the admission arrangements for each school, included Comberton Village College, are published.

With an increasing number of secondary schools converting to academy status and becoming their own Admissions Authority, it was recognised that a formal member process should be adopted for determining whether the Council should accept responsibility for the provision of free transport, as a result of decisions taken by own admission authority schools to change their catchment areas. In March 2015 the Children and Young People Committee gave its approval to the adoption of a process delegating responsibility for decisions on transport entitlement in such circumstances to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee, in liaison with the local Member(s).

In 2017, following representations from families living in Great Gransden, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee re-considered the decision regarding home to school transport arrangements to Comberton Village College. As a part of that process all representations received were considered, including views from local members, in accordance with the adopted process outlined above. The decision taken re-affirmed the existing position to not provide free home to school transport for pupils living in the area served by Barnabas Oley to Comberton Village College.

As a part of this process consideration was given to the comparison being drawn between those families living in Great Gransden and those living in Gamlingay, where it was agreed in 2016, via the above member process, to acknowledge Comberton Village College as the catchment school for transport purposes. It was considered that the decision taken, to recognise Comberton Village College for transport purposes for children living in the Gamlingay area, was not directly comparable.  As Gamlingay had previously been part of the three-tier education system with transfer links to Stratton Upper School in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, those children did not have an existing designated secondary catchment school in Cambridgeshire, unlike those children and young people living in the Barnabas Oley catchment area.

I appreciate the views and concerns raised by those parents and carers of children living in Great Gransden, and those expressed by Councillor Ferguson.  I am also aware that there has been a long-standing trend of parental preference for children and young people to attend Comberton Village College, pre-dating the College’s catchment area change in 2015. It is also clear that this pattern of preference was a significant factor in the College’s decision to extend its catchment area in 2015.

Whilst it is clear that the majority of families living within the area served by Barnabas Oley Primary School now choose for their children to attend Comberton Village College, there still remains a number of families whose children attend and receive transport assistance to Longsands Academy.

Families are entitled to express any school preference for their child, but it would be neither fair nor equitable of the Council to fund transport in these circumstances where there are other similar patterns of parental preference replicated across the County, where transport assistance is not provided.

I recognise and sympathise with the concerns raised regarding the cost of the current transport arrangements from Great Gransden to Comberton Village College, however, I am also aware that these arrangements are operated directly by the College. It should also be recognised, however, that families will have been aware of the responsibility to make or fund their child’s transport arrangements, when applying for a place at the College.

I have noted the feedback regarding there being no provision within the travel assistance policy for this type of catchment area scenario. I am aware that this has been included within the revised policy framework being presented today.

It is the view of the Chair and Vice chair of this Committee that the decision in respect of the home to school transport arrangements to Comberton Village College has been fairly and appropriately considered and that there are currently no grounds to undertake a further review of this decision.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Bryony Goodliffe

Chair, Children and Young People Committee