Safer routes to school

Selection criteria

Essential:

For applications to be considered, the following must be completed in full:

1. Signatures are required from the headteacher, chair of governors, and an elected representative (County Councillor, Parish Council, District/City Councillors).  For schools to successfully take part in the project, positive support is required from all the above.

2. Schools must have completed the tutor group and student questionnaires with pupils from the whole school, in order to gain a complete picture of the current travel situation, and show the commitment of the school.  Parent questionnaires must have been sent to all parent/carers (the number of returns from parents is an indicator of potential support from the school community).

3. Schools must have completed the statistical analysis of the questionnaires.  Extra weight will be given to schools that involve the students in the process, as a way of engaging pupils in the Safer Routes Project.

Variable criteria

Applications which fulfil the above criteria will be rated on the following factors (detailed point system in Appendix A)

(a) Potential Modal Shift

Schools will be scored according to the potential for change of existing travel mode choices from use of the private car to sustainable forms of transport

(b) Commitment to the scope of the Project

Schools will be scored on their commitment to all three strands of the project i.e. Health & Fitness, Safety, and the Environment.  Extra points will be awarded to schools that have already begun to address these issues independently.Community partnerships: willingness to work in partnership with other schools or agencies e.g. secondary schools working with their local feeder primary schools, or with schools already taking part in the project which will help to deliver best value.  This includes the "Health Promoting Schools" (HPS) initiative (1).

(c) Physical Environment

This criteria considers the existing accident record and future accident potential.  The accident record includes all fatal, serious and slight personal injury accidents reported within the area under study within the last complete three year period, as well as accidents on the school journey.  Congestion levels, vehicle flow, traffic speed and road character might all affect future accident potential and an allowance for these factors is included.

(d) Social Inclusion

Cambridgeshire County Council is committed to social inclusion, and the school's place on the local index of deprivation will be considered as part of the selection criteria, in order to encourage participation from all communities. 


1  :  HPS is a joint initiative between the County Council and the two local health authorities.  It provides a framework to help Primary schools develop a 'planned' approach to the promotion of 'health' in the whole school and local community.  Having examined all aspects of the school environment, service provision and practice, participating schools are supported through the project, to ensure the healthy development of pupils and staff.  Schools will achieve this by identifying realistic targets, one of which might be to participate in the SRTS project.

Appendix A:
Point scoring system

For sections marked with an asterisk (*), the relevant statistics will be calculated for each applicant and the results plotted onto charts.  Points will be allocated dependent on which percentile band the school falls into.  This enables schools to be compared with each other. 

(a) Potential for modal shift

(b) Commitment to the scope of the Project 

(c) Physical Environment

2 : Accidents related to the school journey are weighted by severity (Fatal = 4; Serious = 3; Slight = 1)  The total accident figure is then divided by the number of pupils on roll in order to avoid discrimination against smaller schools.

(d) Social Inclusion

e) Annual Monitoring system (only applicable to 2003 applications)

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