“Please provide the following:-
1. The budgeted sum set in advance by the authority to fund spending on taxi fares for pupils/students to travel to and from their school or other educational institution
Devon County Council (DCC) does not have a budget to spend on taxi fares for travel to school. It has an Education Transport budget set to transport eligible pupils/students to school by the most appropriate means which include: Public Transport, Contracted coaches and minibuses, In-house fleet, fuel allowances and Contracted taxis.
The budget for 2017/18 is £23,070,000 which includes Mainstream, Post 16 and special school transport.
2. The actual total amount spent by the authority for the purpose outlined in 1)
The predicted spend for the 2017/18 financial year (as at month 11, February 2018), is £23,650,120, Of this, the estimated spend on taxis is £6,679,578.
3. The number of pupils/students who received the support in 2)
DCC provides transport for 14,474 passengers of which 1,697 travel by taxi for part or all of their journey.
4. The number of pupils/students who were entitled to the support in 2)
14,344 are entitled with the remaining 130 purchasing spare (concessionary seats), 7 passengers on taxis purchase a spare seat not required by an entitled child.
5. The eligibility criteria for such support – that is, for funding of such taxi fares.
The eligibility for school transport is set out in the Education Transport Policy
The type of transport provided is set out in Section 9 of this Policy (Transport Provision).
6. Any categorisation of the reasons why the funding was granted in each instances, e.g disability, if this element of my request does not breach the cost limit for the provision of free information.
Each passenger had an eligibility reason. Summary provided here for all passengers (not just those on taxis).
7. The highest annual sum spent for this purpose for any individual pupil/student, and the reason for their eligibility, e.g. disability
The highest annual sum for an individual student is £28,500 for a child with severe learning difficulties.