Official Report 194KB pdf
The next agenda item relates to school transport and should be brief. The committee previously took evidence on and discussed school transport policy. Rhona Brankin was appointed as reporter and worked on that issue with the clerks. However, Rhona is now the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care. The committee needs to discuss how and to what extent we want to take the matter forward. There is a paper before us.
In case I have missed it, what did Rhona Brankin produce? What action was taken as a result of her reporting?
I think that she did not produce anything formally, but worked with Mark Roberts.
She worked with the clerks, but no specific paper has come out of that. The question is whether the committee wants to appoint another reporter. In view of the time that has elapsed, it might be more effective to ask the clerks to circulate local authorities, ask what their experience has been and report back to the committee.
Given our past experience, appointing a reporter might not be the appropriate way forward. There are outstanding issues and we should consider the wider context of transport. I can see the point about the possible next steps, but we need to link more closely the school run with the transport and environment issue. We should bear it in mind that one of the arguments for the Edinburgh tolls is to get congestion down to the level it is at during the school holidays. That begs the question, is the school run the problem? As well as contacting education authorities we should ask local authority transport departments, which also deal with environment policies, what initiatives they are taking to tackle the school run issue.
I seek guidance on that, because we seem to be straying into the remit of the Local Government and Transport Committee. It is valid for us to take a broad approach, but the issues that you are concentrating on are within the remit of another committee.
Rhona Brankin was going to speak to the Local Government and Transport Committee about the issues.
In essence, the committee's remit is concerned with education, children and young people. There is no difficulty with the committee considering that and, consequently, other relevant issues that arise. I would be happy to discuss that with the clerk to the Local Government and Transport Committee. I do not foresee any difficulty.
There is also the issue whether local authorities are implementing anything like the American yellow school bus. The minister said that the Executive was considering pilots, of which it should have the results by now.
I had a vague idea that the Local Government and Transport Committee planned to do something in this realm. Perhaps that is a figment of my imagination.
There is the wider public transport issue and the perspective of parents, particularly in rural areas. Elaine Murray will know of issues in her constituency such as people walking on roads that used to be quiet but which are not any longer. There are safety issues, on which we will best elicit information from parents organisations. The transport issue is more to do with local authorities.
I support what Fiona Hyslop has said. The issue of congestion charges is particularly relevant to the Lothians, but safety is relevant throughout Scotland. It would be a great help if, through the clerk, that could be followed up in discussions. Martin Verity has outlined the possible next steps extremely well, and an admirable way forward has been suggested. We would be missing an opportunity if we did not adopt it.
It is more than a year since we last considered this matter. I recall that the issue of two or three miles did not involve a requirement on authorities to provide education; rather, I think that it was about parents not needing to send their children to a school that was more than two or three miles away unless transport was provided. A number of issues arose with regard to whether that was the best basis for the provision of transport to school. I do not know how much we can delve into that issue. That is an education matter, because it is about a requirement for people to send their children to school.
Especially when rural schools are being closed.
The finance that the Executive gave to local authorities last year has made a huge difference in my area. An enormous amount of work has been going on over the past year, including drawing up school transport policies and improving safe routes to school. I will not mention the walking bus yet again, but it is no coincidence that—
We need to get a handle on it.
Exactly. I just wanted to say that the situation is noticeably different now, and we should comment on that. Conducting a survey among local authorities would be a good idea. I suspect that some of the issues about which we have been concerned have now moved on. I would be interested to hear how.
That is probably right. We could ask the Executive for its take on the matter. I am happy to write to the Minister for Education and Young People on the subject. There are also the points that have been raised in Martin Verity's paper, including the question of contacting local authorities. How practical is the proposal involving parent-teacher associations? There are many such organisations, but I do not know whether a central register of information is kept.
There is the Scottish Parent Teacher Council.
We could deal with the central body, but would that give us the information that Fiona Hyslop wants, as opposed to more local information?
You could ask the SPTC about that and say that we are keen to find out whether parents have any concerns about the current implementation of transport policies for schools. If they have no such concerns, that will give us a steer; if they do, that will give us another steer.
There is also the Scottish School Board Association.
We can proceed on that basis. The proposals seem to be manageable and practical.
I presume that it is highlighted on our website that we are looking into school transport, and that people who have views on the issue can let us know. We should do that under our participative role as part of the wider Scottish democratic process.
It is unquestionably desirable for us to get a handle on the question of transport to school and how it is delivered. There are safety issues; there is the issue of overlap; and there is the coherence of the guidance, which is one of the issues that was raised initially and which we need to take on board. If that can be got right, it has a lot of other implications.
Meeting closed at 11:18.