Issue - meetings

Report of Corporate Director of People

Claire Moores, School Swimming and Whynott Transport Manager, presented the report, and stated the following:

a)  Nottingham City Councils’ Why Nott? Transport, based in the Curriculum and Enrichment Education Services, had a history of over 10 years of successfully supporting schools and academies to access educational visits, school swimming and ice skating lessons, and allows schools to secure the best price for their journey through a competitive process within a pool of pre-approved transport providers.

b)  The benefits of this to children and young people are that they can:

·  travel on transport that meets a pre-approved standard with regards safety and quality and is appropriate for any SEND requirements;

·  access a range of inclusive learning outside the classroom activities that enhance their personal development, physical and mental health and life chances.

c)  The benefits of this to schools/academies are that they can:

·  evidence they have exercised due diligence;

·  secure best value through a competitive process;

·  share vehicles with other schools to bring the costs down;

·  receive support on a scale greater that the school alone should there be issues with quality;

·  reduce the planning burden of providing inclusive learning outside the classroom experiences that contribute towards meeting CMO, National Curriculum and OFSTED Personal Development standards.

 d)  The benefits to Nottingham City Council are that this service:

·  is income generating;

·  facilitates a degree of control over the costs and quality of school swimming, ice skating and adventurous activity transport (which directly affects the booking volumes for at Leisure Centres, NIC and NCC’s Adventure Centres);

·  supports the inclusion of those with SEND in these activities;

·  supports compliance with the Council’s statutory duties with regards Health and Safety in maintained schools;

·  supports maintained schools in offering an inclusive, broad and balanced curriculum that meets the requirements of the CMO, National Curriculum and OFSTED standards.

e)  Historically, the service had been delivered jointly by Passenger Transport (Woolsthorpe) and Education through interdepartmental charging. Whynott Transport services had now moved fully into the Education Division. This had achieved efficiencies by reducing administration and interdepartmental charging and streamlined service to customers.

f)  As part of the transformation of the service, the Education Division sought approval to continue to procure transport for school travel through the Why Nott? Transport Scheme via a range of Transport providers, as Whynott Transport works with the vast majority of operators in Nottingham through competitive pricing strategies, and approval would enable it to continue to do so.

g)  The approval would enable the establishment of a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for the contracting and supply of transportation from external transport operators.

During discussion, and in response to questions, Ms Moores stated the following:

h)  the service is a traded service, it has to be self-funding, with costs being covered by income;

i)  the condition, age etc of the vehicles provided is controlled by the DPS;

j)  due to the prohibitive cost of new, ‘green’ vehicles, it was unlikely that the Council’s target of being carbon-neutral by 2028 would be met by this service,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61