Passenger assistants to remain on primary school buses

Passenger assistants are to remain on all primary school buses in Swansea, the council has confirmed.

Swansea Council had previously proposed to remove passenger assistants on 21 out of 44 home-to-school bus services for primary school pupils after carrying out detailed risk assessments.

But the council has now written to parents of pupils who would have been affected by proposals to confirm that passenger assistants will continue to be provided.

Jen Raynor, Cabinet Member for Education said: “We have taken the decision not to proceed with these proposals at this time and will be maintaining passenger assistants on all transport to primary schools from September.

“A number of parents raised concerns about the removal of passenger assistants on their child’s school bus service and it’s important that we take these concerns on board as part of the decision making process.

“We know that other councils in Wales operate school bus services without the need for passenger assistants and we will be looking at how these councils run their services.”

The original proposal to remove the assistants was taken as part of the council’s overall budget savings plans to save more than £80 million.

Swansea is one of a number of councils in Wales that provide passenger assistants on schools transport for primary school children. Other councils, including Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire do not provide them.