A Parental Agreement (PA) is a weekly sum of money, which allows parents/carers to drive (or a friend/relative to drive) their child or young person to their education setting.
Am I entitled to a Parental Agreement?
Children and young people are eligible for a Parental Agreement if they are entitled to funded school travel under the school travel policy, meeting one or more of the following criteria and there are no suitable school travel routes available:
· Attending their nearest suitable school and their home address is beyond the statutory walking distance from home to school (over 2 miles for students under 8 years old and over 3 miles for students over 8 years old).
· The nearest suitable school is under the statutory walking distance but the nature of the route to school is unsafe and there are no suitable school travel routes available for them.
· The nearest suitable school is under the statutory walking distance but the student is unable to walk to school even if accompanied, because of their Special Educational Needs (SEN) or disability.
In order to be considered for a Parental Agreement, a student must have applied for and been approved for funded school travel. A member of the Passenger Transport team will make contact if a Parental Agreement is an option.
How much will I be paid?
The Parental Agreement is worked out on the mileage travelled. The mileage rate is 45p per mile, for the first 10,000 miles dropping to 25p per mile after 10,000 miles in line with HMRC guidance. For fairness and consistency - all personal Parental Agreement calculations are measured by the software used by the Council for assessing your child’s eligibility for transport assistance.
The calculation is based on the shortest driving distance from the child or young person’s home postcode to their education setting. For students traveling to and from school every day the distance is multiplied by four to represent journeys to and from home in the morning and afternoon.
For example:
if you live 7 miles from the school it would be 28 miles a day travelled, which would be a daily mileage reimbursement of £12.60p, up to 10,000 miles.
Payment is made weekly by our automatic payment system ADAM sproc.net. There will be a payment for 48 weeks, with no breaks, throughout the school year.
For days off school, you will not need to contact us, as Suffolk County Council will obtain attendance information and amend your parental agreement payment accordingly.
Why am I being paid this amount?
Suffolk County Council follow the HMRC guidelines.
This was adopted to address the inconsistencies recognised in the Parental Budget bandings and several Freedom of Information challenges.
How to contact us
For all Parental Agreement questions please write to PTUParentalAgreement@suffolk.gov.uk and put your subject as Parental Agreement.
