Milton Keynes City Council is asking for comments on proposals to move to a grant-based scheme to provide school crossing patrollers (SCPs).
The scheme would allow all local authority schools in MK to apply for a grant of up to £5k per year to cover the cost of providing a school crossing patroller at their school for a fixed term of three years (7.5 hours per week on average). The SCP would be a school employee.
Any applications would go through an assessment process to ensure that the schools with the greatest need would receive the grant such as though without a safe place to cross.
The existing system provides seven SCP jobs which are linked to a specific school permanently. Just three of these posts are filled with recruitment campaigns receiving little or no applications at all.
Cllr Paul Trendall, interim Cabinet Member for Public Realm said, “A new grant-based system would bring the school crossing patroller provision for MK up to date and would provide a service where it is needed most through regular road safety assessments.”
“By switching to this system, we can potentially provide more SCPs for MK schools targeting the funding where it is needed most.”
Cllr Zoe Nolan, Cabinet Member for Children and Families added, “Moving to a grant-based system will give our schools more of a say about where our road safety resources are spent and strengthens the link with road safety education. We’d really like to hear from schools, parents or carers and residents to find out what they think about the proposals”.
View more details about the proposals and make comments as part of the consultation, which ends on 22 December 2022, at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/consultations