School transport funding unfair, says St Richard's

Principal Tony Campbell has spelled out his feelings in a formal response to East Sussex County Council's consultation paper on denominational transport.

He says the paper could be the subject of legal challenge.

Mr Campbell says: "Any proposal to reduce or remove assisted transport to denominational schools is opposed for the following reasons:

"The bias in the council's consultation information has been very noticeable.

1. It fails to show that the spending of 0.5 million on denominational transport is but a small percentage of the overall transport spend in funding pupils to non-church schools. In fact, the consultation information is quite inflammatory and discriminatory in stating "Most parents who choose not to send their child to the local school have to pay the transport '¦" It gives the impression that nothing is spent on sending pupils to local schools whereas the facts are as follows:

Total cost of transport in East Sussex (included home to school, adult/social care and public transport subsidies) - 13m. 8m of this is home-to-school transport (4.7 million of which is SEN transport).

585,000 of this m is spent on denominational transport '“ a mere 7% of the total budget for schools and a mere 4.5% of the total transport budget.

2. It aligns the increase in Council Tax and the increases in transport costs with the need to stop/decrease denominational transport. It therefore surreptitiously aligns this consultation with false premises and unfair / inconsequential reasoning.

"Why are the council not looking for their savings within the 93% of the 13 million where there is, in the opinion of many secondary headteachers, a level of wastage of taxpayers' money?

"Why are they not cutting the 80% given to rural transport which is also discretionary and which benefits pupils attending many rural schools in East Sussex in order to save tax payers money? How much is this rural subsidy costing the tax payers of East Sussex?

3. Contrary to the impression given in briefing papers and within the consultation information there is no part of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 which requires the council to review its home-to-school transport. It is clear from the Government publication 'Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance' DFES December 2006 that this Government advice follows that of successive Governments over a long period.

"'The Secretary of State hopes that local authorities will continue to think it right not to disturb well-established arrangements, some of which have been associated with local agreements or understandings about the siting of such schools.

'The Secretary of State continues to attach importance to the opportunity that many parents have to choose a school or college in accordance with their religious or philosophical beliefs, and believes that wherever possible, local authorities should ensure that transport arrangements support the religious or philosophical preference parents express.'

"The failure to make reference to this guidance during the consultation has laid the council open to legal challenge.

"In addition, there is no mention in the consultation of the fact that the Catholic Community meets a significant proportion of the cost of funding and other capital spending. Over the years the Catholic Church has invested huge sums in providing and maintaining Catholic schools within the state school system.

"Any savings will take years to achieve. The amount that can actually be saved has not been demonstrated. Since the savings have not been demonstrated, the consultation can be challenged as unfair and misleading.

"The predictable effect of transport cuts will be to move costs to other areas of the budget (eg. for alternative transport provision for the same children, and/or for the provision of alternative places at other schools). The recent extension of entitlement to denominational transport for poorer families also calls into question the scale of the savings that can be made.

"Disproportionately, the schools affected will be the Catholic schools and, in particular, St Richard's Catholic College.

"This has not been made clear in the council's consultation literature as no details of the impact on each school have been published. Whereas denominational transport assistance may be 'discretionary', the Council was granted the power by the Government to help it to fulfil its statutory duty to provide for diversity of parental choice. That duty remains.

"There has been no attempt at all to demonstrate the claim that the current arrangements are unfair or that changes will increase fairness. Such arguments would have to take into account the fact that Church schools have always recruited over a wide area which is why denominational transport provision has existed since the Education Act 1944.

"Nothing has changed.

"As a public body, the council must act in accordance with established principals of justice and equity. Overall 'fairness' must be taken into account.

"The churches have provided their land and property to the council for many years to help the council to fulfil its duty to provide school places.

"The council is, therefore, heavily subsidised, year in and out, by the churches. In addition, the schools make a 10% contribution to the costs of buildings and maintenance. These schools are providing not only for children of one denomination.

" Our schools serve the whole community in East Sussex, not just the Catholic community. A large proportion of the places in church schools go to children of other denominations, other faiths or none. (Nationally around one child in three in Catholic schools is non-Catholic).

"We are not aware that the council has researched the impact of this policy change. We believe that members are being asked to make decisions without the relevant facts, even on financial savings. However, the potential impact is much wider than that.

"St Richard's Catholic College is among the highest-performing in East Sussex and nationally. As such it delivers, as a recent Ofsted Report of November 2006 stated, "an outstanding education for its students". Destabilising it does not assist the council's wider objectives of raising standards, particularly along the coastal belt.

"Parental surveys carried out show that many parents will have no option but to drive their children to school. This runs counter to the council's policy to reduce the use of private cars as part of improving the physical environment by reducing congestion and tackling climate change.

"The council has a responsibility to promote community cohesion. The effect of these proposals will be to make church schools accessible only to the poorer and the better off. Many ordinary families will not be able to afford multiple transport costs. The new safeguards for the poorest will not help these families.

"The strategic location of St Richard's Catholic College reflects agreements to provide denominational transport when this school was sited in 1959.

"St Richard's Catholic College is especially vulnerable to cuts as it serves a wider area than other schools do. The future of the college may not be viable if transport cuts limit access. The county would have to provide places elsewhere and these may not be available, nor will there be resources to fund new places.

"Finally, it would have been magnanimous of the local authority to state within their consultation information that:

a)they value their church schools and their continued development in diverse religious and social culture within this county;

b)they value the work they do;

c)they value the longstanding partnership in the provision of high quality education;

d)that they are part of the provision of the Government's drive / policy for diversity in the provision of education within this county."