Vacant seat scheme: fact sheet
Anglesey County Council provides transport for pupils who are entitled to free travel between home and school under the current policy.
Anglesey County Council provides transport for pupils who are entitled to free travel between home and school under the current policy. To do this, coaches, minibuses and taxis are procured especially for school transport and the transport network is designed to run in the most cost-effective way to serve pupils entitled to free transport.
Any spare seats on the transport can be offered to pupils who are not entitled to free travel. These places are called 'vacant seats'.
In some cases, pupils entitled to free travel are given a travel pass for use on local bus services. Vacant seats are not available on local bus services, but pupils not entitled to free travel may travel on these services by paying the appropriate bus fare.
Vacant seats are not guaranteed. They can be withdrawn (and a refund given if a payment was made) if the seat is later needed for a pupil entitled to a free seat. The transport network is not designed so that spare seats can be created to meet demand and transport services are reviewed regularly and services can be withdrawn if there are not enough numbers of entitled children travelling.
Parents are expected to make their own arrangements for ensuring that their child travels to and from school and need to ensure they have other plans in place if they are not able to obtain a vacant seat or do not qualify for free school transport.
Vacant seats on contract vehicles are limited, so if an entitled child needs that seat in the future, a child may have their seat withdrawn at 2 weeks notice. Details of bus routes and times may be changed if this is necessary to meet travel needs efficiently. Seat allocations are not guaranteed, and the Council reserves the right to move pupils between vehicles or re-route vehicles in order to manage loadings.
If more families want vacant seats than there are seats available, statutory school age children will be considered ahead of post-16 students. Applicants will then be prioritised according to the following criteria, in order:
- Children already in receipt of a vacant seat.
- Children with a brother or sister who already travel on the vehicle.
- Children for whom there is no other public transport available to travel to school.
- Children based on straight-line distance from their home address to the school, with priority being given to those who live furthest from the school.
Vacant seats will be issued on the presumption that the child will travel 5 days each week. If there are still vacant seats remaining on a vehicle once requests for seats for 5 days a week have been processed, vacant seats may be considered for partial weeks on a discretionary basis. However, where a vacant seat is made available for only part of the week, the vacant seat may be withdrawn if a request is received for another child to travel 5 days a week and the parent of the existing child does not wish to increase their concessionary seat to 5 days.
In being considered for a vacant seat, either on a 5 day a week or part-week basis, parents must commit to at least half a term of travel and ad hoc changes to travel arrangements within that period will not be considered.
Regular network reviews take place that can lead to spare places being removed. When issuing vacant seats, the Council will make it clear to parents that they will be given two weeks’ notice if the concession is to be withdrawn.
All seats are issued on 2 weeks’ notice. The notice period may include weekends, bank and public holidays and school holidays.
In some cases, it may not be possible to offer a spare seat until after the term has started and the Council knows the full number of eligible pupils travelling.