5.4 Education and Skills
5.4.1 Transport plays an important role in achieving wider objectives to improve education and skills. A number of measures improve access to education and training eg school bus services, scholars passes and travel training. These are described in the Accessibility chapter. In addition, the Yellow School Bus programme means that schools have access to a vehicle that can be used for visits during the school day, at a reduced cost. These savings enable schools to undertake more activities, improving the educational experience. GMPTE has worked closely with the ten Education Authorities to ensure that the transport implications of the Education and Inspections Act are understood and catered for.
- The need to prepare a sustainable school travel strategy.
- The need to provide access for young people to positive activities
- Pupils eligible for free school transport can now attend any of three suitable schools
- Schools now have more responsibility for the behaviour of pupils on the school journey
- Pupils may now attend classes at more than one location as a result of the new diploma qualifications
5.4.2 The impact of these changes is being monitored, but an early outcome of our joint working has been that GMPTE has amended the single destination Statutory Scholars Free pass to accommodate the need to travel to different destinations as a result of the introduction of Diploma Qualifications. The impact of extending free school transport to disadvantaged pupils has also been assessed, to ensure that the supply of school buses is able to meet the additional demand.