2 TRAVEL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
8. In Aiming high for young people: a ten year
strategy for positive activities the Government states its
aim for "all young people to enjoy happy, healthy and safe
teenage years that prepare them well for adult life and enable
them to reach their full potential - in short, to achieve the
five Every Child Matters
outcomes[2]
and be on the path to success."[3]
In order to support this aim, the document states that young people
should be able to: "take part in activities that develop
their resilience and the social and emotional skills they need
for life, and enjoy their leisure time [and] make a real contribution
to society, using their energy and dynamism to bring about change".[4]
9. The availability of travel for young people is
clearly an important issue. The UK Youth Parliament, UKYP, state
that "At almost every local, regional and national event
coordinated by UKYP, the organisation is made aware of the importance
that young people place on being able to travel".[5]
Cheshire County Council told us that "the Cheshire Youth
Parliament identified transport as their number one priority.
When offered funding their first action was to put it into a youth
bus and rail concessions scheme."[6]
10. Councillor Lawrence, giving evidence on behalf of the Local Government Association told us that a lack of available
transport in general in rural and semi-rural areas would make it difficult for these areas to provide not only school transport
but also prevent them from meeting their duties in respect of "the provision of access to positive activities for young
people".[7]
11. In urban areas, availability of transport is
less of a problem. Instead the main concern is the cost of transport.
One way of tackling this would be a concessionary travel scheme.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department
for Transport note that local authorities were given powers in
the Transport Act 1985 to offer local concessionary travel to
young people. As well as local authority concessions, many bus
operators also offer reduced fares to young people as commercial
incentives. [8]
12. However, as this is discretionary, the concessions
offered can vary between local authorities and they are also vulnerable
to budgetary pressures. The Passenger Transport Executive Group
(pteg) told us that in Tyne and Wear Nexus, the region's Passenger
Transport Executive, had been forced to withdraw its concessionary
ticket for teenagers as a result of under funding for free local
travel for older people and disabled people.[9]
This provided teenagers with a 50% discount on the price of a
multi-modal season ticket. Similarly, when Greater Manchester
was faced with the need to make a back-dated payment for a statutory
concession, it raised the flat fare for children from 50p to 70p
to reduce operator reimbursement for child travel.
13. Transport for London offers free tram and bus
travel as well as concessionary fares on the Tube and DLR for
under-18 year olds. The scheme for under-11 year olds was introduced
in 2004. This was followed by an 11-15 scheme in 2005 and a 16-17
scheme in 2006. Mr Barry of Transport for London told us that
the main benefit that was anticipated before the schemes were
introduced was an improvement in young people's general access
to school, to social activities and to leisure activities. Research
that has since been carried out seems to indicate that free and
concessionary travel "has increased [young] people's access."[10]
14. There is not universal support for a concession
for children and young people. Living Streets expressed concern
that, as had happened in London, a national free travel pass scheme
could result in fewer children walking short distances. Operators
were also wary of how the reimbursement mechanism for a young
person's concession would work following problems with the introduction
of concessions for the elderly and disabled people.
15. In 2008, we considered the case for extending
the concessionary
travel scheme to groups other than the elderly
and disabled. We recommended that, in the event that the Government
were to decide to widen the scheme, children and young people
should be among the first to benefit.[11]
The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department
for Transport accepted that there were potential benefits in a
concessionary scheme for young people, including ensuring that
cost of travel does not prevent young people staying on in education
or training up to age 18. It could also enable young people to
access out of school activities.[12]
However, Ministers were lukewarm at best about the introduction
of such a scheme. The estimated cost to the Government of a scheme
for 5-19 year-olds is around £1.4bn.[13]
16. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for
Schools and Learners claimed that a concessionary scheme for children
and young people would be expensive and that it was essential
to establish whether a concessionary scheme was the most effective
way to ensure transport was not a barrier to education.[14]
Paul Clark MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport,
also questioned how effective it would be to use money to fund
a concessionary scheme saying:
I am not convinced that the social exclusion
barriers that exist potentially for people who are over the age
of 60 and people with disabilities […] are necessarily the
same social exclusion barriers that young people would face. A
judgment has to be made about whether £1.4 billion is best
spent on what is a relatively blunt tool. […] it is quite
a blunt instrument just to have a blanket concessionary fare when
I am not convinced that the arguments are there or the case is
made at this stage.[15]
17. We have previously concluded that there was
a case for a concessionary fare scheme offering reduced fares
to young people. Although we recognise there are a number of issues,
such as cost and capacity that need to be addressed we are disappointed
that Ministers seemed to have ruled out a concessionary scheme
without having conducted any serious research into the viability
of such a scheme.
18. Government policy recognises the importance
of children and young people taking part in activities that develop
their resilience as well as social and emotional skills. The Department
for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Transport
must clearly identify how they are going to ensure that children
and young people do not suffer social exclusion as a result of
the cost and availability of transport.
2 The Government set out five aims for all children
and young people. These are: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and
achieve, make a positive contribution, achieve economic well-being.
Back
3
Department for Children, Schools and Families, Aiming high for
young people: a ten year strategy for positive activities, July
2007, p 8 Back
4
Ibid para 1.25 Back
5
UK Youth Parliament Fares Fare pg 3 Back
6
Ev 102 Back
7
Q 342 Back
8
Ev 80 Back
9
Ev 118 Back
10
Q 84 [Mr Barry] Back
11
Transport Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2007-08, Ticketing
and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport, HC 84, para 100 Back
12
Ev 80 Back
13
Ev 80 Back
14
Q 454 Back
15
Q 458 Back
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