Walking routes to schools
It is a parent's responsibility to ensure that their child gets to and from school at the appropriate time each day and to put in place the necessary travel arrangements.
Local authorities are, however, required by law to make school travel arrangements where a route to school is not available for a child to walk to school in reasonable safety. If the nature of the route is such that the child cannot reasonably be expected to walk to school, even when accompanied by a responsible person, then the Local Authority (LA) will deem it ‘unavailable’ and will be under a statutory duty to provide travel assistance, as set out in its Home to School Travel Policy (PDF, 448KB). In determining what is reasonable, the Local Authority takes into account the latest national guidance issued by Road Safety GB (PDF, 1.1MB).
Full details about the assessment procedure can be found below:
The council has recently completed reassessments of some walking routes to school following highway improvements.
The latest assessments relate to routes where improvements have been made to the highway network. Where a route is assessed as available and is within the statutory walking distance, pupils will only continue to receive free travel if they meet another eligibility criterion, such as special educational needs, disability, mobility needs or low-income criteria.
The following documents provide more information about the recent route reassessments, the equality impact assessment and answers to frequently asked questions:
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Page last reviewed: 06 July 2026
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