SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION CONTRACTS:
This has been a hot topic here in Brighton & Hove for the last two years - here’s a brief background.
For many years the local trade: Streamline, Radio Cabs and City Cabs have worked closely with the council to ensure the highest possible standard of service while car- rying out the important job of transporting children and young adults to and from their schools and other places.
The traditional simple process of awarding contracts was via a bidding system which over the years moved to being via an online portal. This has always worked very well and the three main local companies have provided a great service with regular drivers assigned to specific contracts for the continuity and trust of the children and accompanying escorts. Which by the way I don’t think Uber could ever match as this is very much a local matter.
However some bright spark at the council decided for some reason this was not good enough, probably think- ing that the council could get a far better deal by bringing in a third-party to process the contracts and this was a company called Edge Solutions.
This is a small section from the councils Independent Review by the Local Government Association:
“The implementation of the new system was done very quickly due to the tight timescales with Edge Public Solutions commencing work in April 2019 and the system due to be in place for September 2019. This meant there were limited opportunities to engage with parents, carers and schools before the new system was implemented. The concerns raised by parents, schools and operators were disre- garded and key information about the changes were not effectively communicated to all stakeholders. Systems of communication between the council and key stakeholders needs to be improved going for- ward. Once the new service started there were clearly very significant problems from the outset with some children not receiving a service at all, transport arriving late, others experiencing frequent change of operator, some being mixed inappropri- ately with other children and young people or experiencing very long journeys. The independent review team were also very concerned that there were a number of safeguarding incidents.”
88
brighton-hove.gov.uk/independent-review-home- school-transport The full report is intensely damning.
Edge Solutions were finally relieved of the contracts and the local companies took these over. However instead of the council saving money it actually cost nearing £1m more! Yes this is not a typo - nearly one million pounds more! But I doubt that the bright spark who started all of this in the first place has been extinguished because this massive failing has been turned into a one big gigantic secret and all the juicy details have been locked behind the councils gates - and probably with a watchman standing guard as well, sworn to guard no matter what!
In late 2019 I went to a full council meeting to listen to the councillors’ debate on the chaos of the school transportation procurement system and sat in the public gallery with the distressed parents of children who were badly let down. I also listened to statements read out detailing their experience.
Following a decision from the Chief Executive to engage an independent barrister to investigate, in March 2021 the council finally held a council meeting on the findings. However the press and the public were barred from the meeting which had the barrister’s full report. This was reported in the local Argus:
tinyurl.com/schoolstransport1 and
tinyurl.com/schoolstransport2
Credit to reporter Jody Doherty-Cove: “The council was told it had broken the law and then voted to keep it secret so it did not risk being sued by those affected, The Argus can reveal.”
“Disabled children in Brighton and Hove were left with unsafe, or no transport to school after council officials changed contractors in 2019.”
“A review into the fiasco by an independent barris- ter was commissioned by the city council, with a promise that the findings would be made public.”
“The Argus can now reveal the barrister’s report concluded that the council had illegally handed out contracts, broke its own rules in the process, and risked being sued by companies who missed out on the £500,000 contract.”
JUNE 2021
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