27 February 2008
School safety by the book
SPT has produced a unique package of material designed to help ensure safe school runs for children.
The training material, for use by local authority road safety staff, has been devised to support consistency in assessing safety aspects of pick-up and drop-off points.
SPT plays a key role in organising what has been described as the biggest school run in Scotland - getting 46,000 children in Scotland to school and back every day.
Local authorities are required to provide free school transport for children who live beyond the statutory walking distances of two miles (3.2km) for children under eight and three miles (4.8kms) for older childen.
With the increasing volume of traffic using the roads, a systematic professional assessment for each pick-up and drop-off point is vital.
SPT currently administers 1,000 school transport contracts and each contract has an average of five different pick-up and drop-off points.
That means across west central Scotland there are potentially 5,000 site assessments to be done using this system.
West Dunbartonshire Council led the way by carrying out a pilot study into site assessments.
The results proved extremely valuable and SPT has invested £50,000 in producing the specialist training package.
Glasgow-based MVA Consultancy was engaged to produce the package, which contains work books and CD Rom material.
SPT Chief Executive Ron Culley said: "This is tangible evidence of the benefits of SPT working collaboratively with business partners and I’m delighted with the end result.
"West Dunbartonshire Council officers are to be commended for leading the way through their pilot study.
"Through our work to provide safe and efficient school transport, we’ve had an insight into operational issues and the potential associated risks at school pick-up and drop-off points.
“The new training package is a comprehensive guide to the professional assessment of theses areas."
Willie Wills, Road Safety Manager for Scotland at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "Anything that informs the debate on children’s safety is to be welcomed.
"We particularly support road safety initiatives such as this that bring organisations together."
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