Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of travel provision for children to attend school when living in temporary accommodation.

No child should be prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. The department’s home-to-school travel policy requires local authorities to arrange free travel for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, a disability or mobility problem, or because the route is unsafe. There are additional rights to free home to school travel for children from low-income households.

Children living in temporary accommodation may benefit from the continuity of remaining in their current school with familiar teachers and friends. They will not be eligible for free travel to that school if it is not the nearest school to their temporary accommodation, but local authorities have a discretionary power to arrange free home-to-school travel for children who are otherwise not eligible.

The department encourages local authorities to support vulnerable children and young people, and is working with local authorities to understand how well home to school transport supports all children to access educational opportunity.