School Transport: Northumberland

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Joe Morris]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and for his attendance. I think he has attended every Westminster Hall debate that I have spoken in. I completely share his assessment. The provision of appropriate bus routes is important, and it comes up in my casework. I have spoken to families in villages such as West Woodburn, where they allegedly have a choice of school, but the only available routes go to one single school.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. I recently spoke to a constituent, Sara, who lives just outside Bruton in my constituency. She told me of her frustration that her daughter cannot catch the school bus that literally stops at the end of her farm track and goes to the local school. Instead, the council insists that she must drive her daughter or get a taxi to a different school, which is further away. Does he agree that our existing home-to-school transport legislation is too rigid? It is stifling local authorities’ ability to make common-sense judgments.

[Joe Morris]

As constituency MPs, we all hear the frustrations of parents, teachers and students, who, because of school transport provision, are often hit with lateness marks or are forced to attend schools that they would rather not attend, as the hon. Lady said. It is something that we need to address properly, considering all the solutions in the round to ensure that we can provide great education to every child. I know from looking at my inbox that the 685 bus in Hexham is regularly full and delayed by up to 40 minutes. When people rely on commercial bus routes to get to school, it becomes an additional barrier to attendance. That is damaging to children’s educational attainment and future prospects, simply because buses cannot always be relied on.

I spoke in the rural affairs debate in the main Chamber yesterday. Too often, people in rural communities pay more and get less. The previous Government, and other Governments before them, have allowed that to sail through without challenge. When we talk about rural-proofing our policies, it is essential that we look at things through the prism of how they affect some of our most isolated communities.

Fourteen years of Conservative austerity and neglect broke the very foundations of Britain and our education system, and took hope away from our young people, who have been let down and overlooked. I am extremely proud of our new Labour Government’s commitment to increasing funding for schools, to putting our younger people first and to ensuring that every child receives a world-class education. Parents want the best for their child’s education; they want their children to learn in a safe and secure environment where they feel part of the community and supported in their educational development. No child should be restricted from that because of inaccessibility.

I am proud to have secured this debate, and to be a voice for students and parents as we champion school transport in our local community. As Members— particularly the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron)—do not tire of hearing, I represent England’s largest constituency; I am delighted to see the silver and bronze medallists here today. The rural landscape has a considerable impact on school transport services. The reality of rural roads means that, despite having relatively short journeys, children are regularly late for the start of the school day. Children’s education is suffering, and more transport vehicles and a reassessment of transport routes could make considerable headway in reducing the number of pupils who are late for school.

I have had one constituent raise the fact that delays to school transport mean that her daughter regularly receives late marks at school. Despite the fact that her daughter is a 14-minute journey from school and is collected at 7.45 am, she does not get to school until after 9 am. That is a case of a student’s education suffering from a lack of adequate school transport services. As the early grid for learning report outlined, missing 15 minutes of school per day equates to 2 weeks’ absence a year, and that is equivalent to missing 55 lessons a year. Being late negatively impacts a child’s education and contributes to a loss of learning.

Home-to-school transport is often available only through the local authority, along with the additional support offered by parents and carers. Across the Hexham constituency and the Northumberland county council area in general, the provision of local bus and train services is unreliable—I have already mentioned the 685 bus—and not regular enough for young people to access when travelling to or from school.

I am pleased to see that North East Mayor Kim McGuiness has launched a consultation on the north-east local transport plan. That plan will cover five areas that are necessary for my constituents to be able to access a public transport system that is fit for all our communities, not just those in centralised areas. Those five areas are: journey planning and customer support; ticketing and fares; expanding infrastructure and making it more resilient; enhancing safety, especially for women and girls; and improving links between different modes of transport. There is a clear delivery plan that has outlined and established targets for 2040, setting the path for overcoming the current challenges and creating a more efficient and resilient transport network for the future of the north-east. That will make considerable headway in helping my constituents access education and training opportunities, as well as work and social opportunities more broadly.

The system on offer in Northumberland provides inconsistent results for families when they are allocated school transport places. One of my constituents, who is a resident in the far north of the constituency, contacted me to say that his daughter has obtained a free transport place but his son has not. As a result, he has to drive his son 170 miles a week, alongside the bus that takes his daughter to the same school. That is not just illogical, but vaguely Kafkaesque. It has environmental implications, in addition to educational ones, and it places a financial and administrative burden on a family who already qualify for free transport provision. I am sure the Minister will agree that we need to support the families in my Hexham constituency and families across Northumberland, ensuring that the provision of school transport is consistent for siblings within the same family. We cannot allow administration to provide inconsistent results for families.

In my constituency, I am often asked questions about school catchment areas. I was on a call with Northumberland county council on the train down here, and I was informed that one of the school catchment areas in my constituency is larger than the area contained by the M25. Unsurprisingly, I get quite a lot of incoming casework on this. Many students who are outside catchment areas and ineligible for school transport services require commercial public transport to get to school. That is particularly common in constituencies such as mine, and those of my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland or the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale. Villages and towns such as Haydon Bridge, Bardon Mill and Haltwhistle, as well as settlements such as Falstone, Greenhaugh and Kielder, have considerable numbers of students who travel to Hexham middle school and Queen Elizabeth high school, which sits in the Tyne valley at the centre of my constituency. Such places are deemed to be outside the catchment area for those schools, but the safety of students travelling to and from school in Northumberland should be a priority. Those children should feel safe travelling to school, and parents should be reassured about their safety.

A constituent has shared a deeply concerning story about the 685 bus breaking down on the side of the A69, with children being required to stand on the side of the A69—one of the busy roads running through the constituency—without any police presence or safety measures in place. I am sure that the Minister is aware of the growing concerns over that road. Since 2019, there have been 191 crashes on it between Hexham and Carlisle, with 44 of them being deemed serious by the police and six people losing their lives. When I heard about children standing on the side of the A69, I was deeply concerned. They should not be in that position.

Constituents frequently mention the delays to the 685 bus service, which affect children getting to and from school. Despite petitions by parents to change the service from a single-decker to a double-decker bus—that was raised with the previous Conservative MP—no action was taken to resolve the issue. Constituents have said that their children have had to wait for more than an hour for the next bus service to collect them, because of a lack of space in addition to delays to the service. We need to work collaboratively with local bus companies and local councils to ensure that the safety of our students is protected as they journey to and from school.

I will briefly mention transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities. I know that the Minister and the Government agree that SEND needs urgent attention, as has been demonstrated by the devastating consequences of the previous Government’s actions. In Northumberland at present, there are 407 routes transporting 1,738 pupils and their escorts. In six years, the number of children in Northumberland requiring an education, care and health plan has doubled, from 1,679 in 2017 to 3,369 in 2023. The figure is still rising, and the failure of the last Government to adequately provide for children with SEND is a damning indictment of that Government and indeed the Conservative party.

Children with educational needs and disabilities often have to travel further to schools, not through choice but just to get the education that meets their needs. My constituency surgeries are often attended by families who have to travel from the far west of my constituency to the coast of Northumberland—a journey that does not take a small amount of time. In large rural areas such as mine, the need for children to travel such extremely long distances isolates them from their local communities and friendships, and it ultimately undermines their potential to have a local support network.

I was contacted by a parent who travels from Prudhoe to Berwick every day, which is a three-hour round trip, to ensure that their child receives the support they need. We must ensure that parents feel supported as we look to reform the SEND framework. One of the things I am most proud of in the autumn Budget is the £1 billion uplift in SEND education and the prioritisation of improving SEND education nationally. I am hopeful for the future of SEND education and will always support the Minister and the Government in their commitment to it.

I want to acknowledge the work of Kim McGuinness on her Kids Go Free initiative, and her commitment to improving public transport services for young people across our region. That initiative offers free transport to children during school holidays, reducing travel costs for families, promoting sustainable public transport and encouraging families to explore the wonderful region that is the north-east—I draw attention to my Westminster Hall debate next week on improving tourism in Northumberland, at which I look forward to seeing the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). It is a positive step in the right direction in terms of improving transport services in the region. Through that collaboration and co-operation we will increase prosperity and make a real difference to the lives of young people.

I am sure Members present can agree that every child in Britain deserves an accessible and safe education. Moreover, every parent should feel safe and secure in the knowledge that their children are receiving support. Children deserve to have a safe and sustainable passage to school, to arrive on time and to access an education that is appropriate for their learning requirements. For my constituents in Hexham and for people across Northumberland, school transport is jeopardising that promise. With rural geography, inconsistency in allocating school transport places, problems with catchment areas, and journey delays, the very premise of that principle is being jeopardised.

I am proud that this Government are putting students and young people at the heart of the agenda, following the neglect of the previous Conservative Government. I am sure Members can agree that more can always be done to ensure that our young people access the educational support they need and deserve. Providing clearer guidance on transport provision for children will minimise confusion for local families. Giving more attention to the eligibility of SEND children will make a considerable difference to many of my constituents across Hexham.

I know that the Minister and the Secretary of State are committed to finding long-term solutions for education, school transport and SEND education. I hope the Minister will consider how, in the vast rural communities that make up my constituency, having greater provision for SEND students closer to their homes would minimise journeys and go a long way to dealing with the central issues we are debating. Everyone deserves the opportunity to access education, and we cannot allow a lack of access to appropriate school transport to jeopardise that.