Eligibility for Travel Assistance
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Eligibility for Travel Assistance
4.1. The Council recognises that some young people with special educational needs or disabilities may not be able to travel to college or further education independently and may need assistance. In the first instance, we will explore whether immediate or extended family members are able to support you with the journey.
4.2. The Council will only provide travel assistance to you, the young people of sixth form age, where it considers that travel assistance has been demonstrated as necessary to enable you to reasonably access their education or training provision.
4.3. When assessing the need for travel assistance, the Council will have regard to:
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evidence that you are attending a full time course and that there is not a suitable alternative course nearer to home;
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the distance between your home and the nearest suitable school/college;
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the nature of the journey in terms of accessibility, safety, active travel (e.g. walking, cycling) and public transport options, complexity and how long it might reasonably take. Statutory guidance sets a 75 minute guidance for young people from secondary school upwards - whether the journey could reasonably be made on foot or public transport if you were accompanied.
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the nature of your special educational needs, disability and/or learning difficulty. This includes the physical ability to walk, accompanied as necessary by a responsible adult, to the learning provision or a pickup point;
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the type of provision you are attending;
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whether you have physical, medical, or communication difficulties that would prevent you from safely using public transport;
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whether suitable public transport is available (e.g. for wheelchairs, specialist seating etc);
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whether you may be vulnerable and at risk of danger, or would be a danger to other passengers, drivers or the vehicle, if you use public or other transport;
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whether medical evidence confirms that transport / travel assistance is required on medical grounds;
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whether your needs would prevent your parents or carers from providing transport; Further information on how this will be considered can be found in section 5 below.
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whether independent travel is a realistic goal, and whether this has been appropriately encouraged by the family.
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the efficient use of the Council’s resources;
4.4. The above list is for guidance only, and satisfaction of one or more of the criteria does not automatically allow entitlement to travel assistance. Each case will be reviewed on its individual merits and any personal circumstances.
4.5. Where you have been assessed as eligible, the Council will allocate travel assistance in the most cost-effective manner to get you to school, college or training provider.
4.6. Eligibility will be considered from your ‘main place of residence’ - usually this would be defined as the location in which you spend the majority of the school/college week. If you live at two or more addresses for an equal period of time in the school week, we will discuss with you or your parents or carers which address you would wish for us to use for the purposes of assessing eligibility, provided that both addresses are within the London Borough of Sutton.