509A Travel arrangements for children receiving nursery education otherwise than at school.

1

A local education authority may provide a child with assistance under this section if they are satisfied that, without such assistance, he would be prevented from attending at any premises—

a

which are not a school or part of a school, but

b

at which relevant nursery education is provided,

for the purpose of receiving such education there.

2

The assistance which may be provided for a child under this section consists of either—

a

making arrangements (whether for the provision of transport or otherwise) for the purpose of facilitating the child’s attendance at the premises concerned, or

b

paying the whole or any part of his reasonable travel expenses.

3

When considering whether to provide a child with assistance under this section in connection with his attendance at any premises, a local education authority may have regard (among other things) to whether it would be reasonable to expect alternative arrangements to be made for him to receive relevant nursery education at any other premises (whether nearer to his home or otherwise).

4

Where the assistance to be provided for a child under this section consists of making arrangements for the provision of transport, the authority may, if they consider it appropriate to do so, determine that the assistance shall not be so provided unless—

a

the child’s parent, or

b

the person providing the relevant nursery education concerned,

agrees to make to the authority such payments in respect of the provision of the transport (not exceeding the cost to the authority of its provision) as they may determine.

5

In this section “relevant nursery education” means nursery education which is provided—

a

by a local education authority, or

b

by any other person—

i

who is in receipt of financial assistance given by such an authority and whose provision of nursery education is taken into account by the authority in formulating proposals for the purposes of section 120(2)(a) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, or

ii

who is in receipt of grants under section 1 of the M2Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996.