What plans does the Minister have to review the rule under which children can only get free transport to and from school if they live three or more miles away?
The Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008 is the legislative framework which sets out the distance thresholds for learner transport in Wales. A review of the Measure was undertaken in 2021, and a subsequent internal analysis and evaluation exercise was completed in 2023.
It is the statutory duty of each local authority to provide school transport to eligible learners in accordance with the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure. We will be working with the National Attendance Taskforce to build on the findings from the recent Estyn report regarding the role that transport provision plays on school attendance. This will include how we can improve the practices and processes between schools and local authorities to support them to work in partnership to identify and overcome the barriers to attendance as demonstrated can be achieved by the example highlighted in Estyn’s report at Cefn Hengoed in Swansea.