CORNWALL Council is seeking the views of young people, parents and carers, schools and colleges and the wider public on potential changes to its post-16 transport policy.

The Post-16 School Transport Policy sets out how and when the council provides subsidised transport for young people aged 16 to 19 to attend school, college or another education establishment. This only affects the post-16 transport policy and not any other school transport policies.

While young people are now required by law to be engaged in education, employment or training up to the age of 18, Cornwall Council does not have a statutory duty to provide home to school/college transport free of charge for learners aged 16 to 19 in the same way as it does for primary and secondary-aged students up to the end of Year 11.

This means that the council’s subsidised post-16 transport scheme is a discretionary provision.

The council spent more than £13-million providing school transport for children and young people last year, of which around £2.2-million was spent on post-16 transport.

Andrew Wallis, the council’s lead member for children and young people, said: ‘Unfortunately, when the Government raised the education participation age to 18, it failed to provide any additional money to local authorities to provide post-16 transport. While we are committed to ensuring that young people in Cornwall continue to have access to a range of post-16 education opportunities, we have been forced to take the difficult decision to look at reducing the level of subsidy we provide. We wanted to seek the views of all interested parties before any decisions are made and I would encourage as many people as possible to take part in the consultation process.’

The council is now consulting on a number of potential changes to the post-16 transport policy, which would come into effect from either September 2017 or September 2018.

It is seeking views on the proposals from all interested parties, including young people, parents and carers, schools, colleges and other learning providers and members of the public.

The consultation continues until Friday, March 17.

The full consultation paper and details of how interested parties can give their views on the proposed changes can be found at www.cornwall.gov.uk/collegetransport