Welcome to the the School Travel Health Check (STHC) website. The service has been developed over the last 5 years in conjunction with UK local authorities to provide key spatial analysis data to help achieve the switch to more active and sustainable modes of travel. It is delivered by Knowledge Mappers Ltd on behalf of Travel Health Check Ltd, a consultancy made up of ex-local authority officers with over 60 collective man-years of experience in the fields of spatial analysis, local authority data and delivering sustainable travel solutions. All are committed to delivering lasting change in the field of active & sustainable travel.

Knowledge Mappers are registered with the UK Information Commissioner and have successfully delivered the STHC process in to nearly 30 local authorities. In 2010 they processed at least 1.6 million pupil records from over 4,800 UK schools (some 22% of the LEA controlled schools in England). This clearly shows their ability to operate within this sensitive data environment whilst at the same time providing an effective, affordable and popular tool for achieving change - the School Travel Health Check. But don't just believe us - do take a look at what others have been saying about STHC in the green boxes!

This website describes the input data we need from client authorities in order to provide School Travel Health Check Service, the basic analysis process, what exactly they get back as standard output, and what they may want to commission as an additional service, the benefits it will bring them, who else is doing it already (and what they they have said about it), how much it will cost, delivery timescales for them receiving their analysis data. There is also some reassurance about data protection issues. It is also possible to download sample data as well as STHC Guidance documents to explain the process in more detail to managers and colleagues.

NEW (Jan 2011): View the key analysis results for all participating authorities using our interactive Instant Atlases.

NEW (Apr 2011): View the STHC Local Sustainable Transport Fund bid document as well as supporting papers from others citing the use of the STHC as best practice.

To undertake the School Travel Health Check...

1. Input Data

We take three (readily available) datasets from a client local authority:-

• an extract of the annual school census including pupil mode of travel information
• a school gazetteer file containing school level census information as well as national grid coordinates
• the OS CodePoint file containing the grid reference of the centroid of every postcode unit in the UK

Note a comprehensive list of what data fields we require, as well as the reasons why we ask for them, is contained in "STHC Guide Document 2: Client Input Data", available from our download section.

2. Analysis Process

We then spatially analyse the client input data using Geographic Information System (GIS software, looking at both existing journeys and various 'what if' scenarios. This gives us a quantified snapshop of the current school travel situation for the client authority which will also give an indication of what can realistically be achieved in the short, medium and long term.

From the confusion we work out where pupils have come from and how far they have travelled to get to each individual school in the authority ….

And then put it all together to form...

3. Standard Analysis Output

The results of the process - which includes key information such as the number of pupils within a realistic walking distance travelling by car as well as an overall travel carbon footprint or calories burned for all journeys to school by all modes of travel - are reported:-

• at multiple geographic levels – pan-Region; pan-Authority and Individual School...
• for all pupils in the dataset as well as by generic school type (primary, secondary etc.) and individual National Curriculum Year...

Results are then compiled into a standard suite of STHC Analysis Output Data, which contains a comprehensive mixture of...

• Tables and charts contained in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets...
• Points, lines and polygons contained in MapInfo GIS files...
• Individual, school-specific School Travel Health Check Reports (Microsoft Word (.doc) and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)) for every school in the LEA, comprising a covering letter, selected highlights of the analysis results for that school along with an overall “per-pupil” carbon footprint rating, calculated with respect to the authority average, and suggestions for how to use the information it contains.

Note each of the different types of STHC analysis output files are described in more detail in their own STHC Guides, are now available to download.

4. Additional School-Specific Output

We encourage client authorities to put the STHC analysis data back into all LEA schools (whether or not they have a formal school travel plan) in a form of a "STHC School Pack" that can be used as both a general resource but, more specifically, to initiate an informed debate around the issues of sustainable travel within the school community. Our STHC  School Packs consist of:-

• 10 page STHC report & covering letter...
• site-centred, large format (A1) "postcode plots" showing the distribution of pupils as well as how they travel to the school. One "Local Pupil Travel Map" covering the walk threshold on a detailed map or aerial photography background, and one "All Pupil travel Map" showing where all the pupils are travelling from to attend the school.
• Key Analaysis Summary Spreadsheet set out for large format printing and highlighting the individual school.

The standard STHC analysis output does allow for Packs to be produced in-house by client authorities (assuming they have the capabilities to produce the maps from the GIS files), however this is a task not to be undertaken lightly. The resource commitment in terms of tying up staff and large format printers for the amount of time required to produce packs for all the authority schools can generate conflict! Alternatively clients can take advantage of our STHC School Pack Service in which we print, fold and collate the packs in unsealed envelopes for all schools. These are then boxed and delivered to clients by overnight courier for them to send out to schools via their own internal postal system (or we can post them direct to schools for an additional charge to cover postage). All at a price and timeframe that most authorities find they are unable to match in-house.

5. Benefits

With our STHC Analysis data at their disposal, authority officers are able to take a strategic overview of school travel in their authority and beyond as well as be able to quickly identify and 'drill down' to operational issues at the individual school level. This enables authorities and officers:-

• Fulfil statutory duties such as the development of the authority Sustainable Modes Of Travel Strategy, Local Transport Plans, Carbon Management Strategies, 14-19 Strategy, Local Area Agreements etc.
• Develop, review and maintain school travel plans
• Easily visualise and quantify the current sustainable travel situation in their area down to individual school level using existing, standard technology (Microsoft Office and MapInfo). This means that there are few technical barriers to the sharing of the analysis data within the client authority.
• Enable inter-school comparison, benchmarking and setting of short, medium and long term targets at both operational and strategic levels
• Engage with all schools in their LEA in a consistent and regular way that is both meaningful and constructive
• Raise the profile of their work internally and externally with colleagues, managers and potential funding partners
• Support partnership working with other groups in related service areas with complementary objectives
• Enable inter-authority comparison as well as cross-border working

The list of applications of the STHC analysis data continues to grow the more existing clients use it and the word spreads through the rest of their authority.

Click here to see an example of short, medium and long term operational target setting using the STHC Analysis Data.

6. Client Authorities

The School Travel Health Check Service is currently bringing proven benefits to nearly 30 UK local authorities, At least 1.5 million pupils in over 5,400 schools will be analysed in 2010 – that’s 25% of all the LEA controlled schools in England – with many more authorities either expressing an interest in the STHC service or in the process of commissioning it. The map opposite shows the current take up of the STHC as well as as expressions of interest as far as we are aware at the time of writing. (Green - Authority Commissioned STHC; Dark orange - Authority Would Like To Commission STHC, Pale orange - Authority Expressed Interest In STHC). Please contact us to find out what is happening with the STHC in your area or register your interest. Authorities may commission the STHC service in isolation or in conjunction with their neighbours (each authority is still invoiced on an individual basis). In the latter case additional benefit is achieved for authorities as they can "see" the cross-border movement of pupils between all the authorities that are part of the analysis dataset. Some words of praise for the STHC from our existing clients can be found in our testimonials section.

7. Cost

Commissioning the STHC Service is via a simple authority purchase order. We are happy to provide written quotations in advance if clients provide us with the necessary information on the number of schools and pupils in their census data.

We have a flexible invoicing policy so client authorities can use currently available budgets to procure the STHC service for one or more years in advance.

The price of the STHC Service for a single census years data processing is set by our transparent pricing formula - £1,500 per LEA + £12 per school + £0.01 per pupil (exc. VAT) - so client authorities will always know in advance how much our service is going to cost. Our STHC School Pack service costs an additional £26-28 per school depending on delivery options, whilst consultancy services are charged at £500 per day (or part thereof).

At an average cost of just 16p per pupil for data analysis and STHC paper packs for every school, the STHC Service represents outstanding value for client authorities in their efforts to achieve active and sustainable travel. Furthermore our aim is continually improve our service by encouraging feedback from client authorities and incorporating their suggestions into subsequent output wherever possible. Once they join our growing "STHC Club" authorities will be assured of automatically benefiting from these future improvements.

We would encourage clients to seek out potential funding partners from other groups in related service areas with similar or complementary objectives. These could be from other service areas within the local authority or from other local agencies - for example many authorities are writing the STHC process and packs into their Local Transport Plan (LTP3) to secure funding going forward.

8. Delivery Requirements & Timescales

The processing time to produce standard digital analysis output is 2-3 working weeks, but this is dependant on all the client authority(ies) participating in the processing round supplying to Knowledge Mappers:-

• all "input data" to the required technical standard as instructed
• a valid Purchase Order
• a standard Mapping Services Agreement Contractors license for us to sign to enable us to work with your Ordnance Survey data (1st year of processing only)
• completed STHC Report and Covering Letter Template files as instructed
• authority logo and other graphic files as well as any specific instructions on their use

The delivery time for non-standard output and for School Packs will be agreed separately with clients e.g. school packs are often sent out around “Walk To School Week / Month”.

Where several authorities are in acting in conjunction the delivery time may well be longer. As analysis is carried out on a regional basis we can only begin processing once we have all the required input data from all the authorities that agreed to participate in the “round”. There may well be more than one round of processing for a region if other authorities subsequently wish to commission the STHC Service, in which case existing authorities will be re-issued with updated pan-regional level analysis data when it becomes available.

Output data is initially supplied to client officers via our secure, online file transfer service provided by www.yousendit.com. This is followed up by a final data pack containing selected printouts of the analysis output as well as all their data on a USB memory stick once the regional “processing round” has been completed. Note client officers need to be aware of the timing of the school census collection cycle within their authority. Mode of Travel data is collected from schools by the LEA in January of the school year. However it first has to be “cleansed and compiled” by LEA Information officers before it is released for analysis, which means it is not normally available to us until at least late February / March.

9. Data Protection Issues

We take the issue of data protection very seriously:-

• Knowledge Mappers is fully registered on the official register of Data Controllers maintained by the Office of the UK Information Commissioner – see it online at www.ico.gov.uk (our registration number is Z1303712t).
• The data supplied to us is at all times the property of the client authority and they are free to inspect our offices to ensure that it is being processed in accordance with due diligence.
• A number of technical measures have been undertaken by us to depersonalise what is already very depersonalised data -
  • use of postcode centroids not home address
  • dispersal of points around the postcode centroid point
  • assigning our own unique pupil identifier to each of the census records before we undertake the analysis process
• We are bound by rules as your contractor to only use data you supply for the stated purposes, to only allow authorised personnel to have access to it and not to share it with 3rd parties. We are happy to sign any additional data sharing protocols that your authority requires.
• Analysis Data is returned directly to client contacts and they will have control over what is released to whom and in what form.

That said we do encourage authorities to share their school and authority level summary data – this is completely ‘safe’ in data protection terms

We think our measures strike a sensible balance between maintaining pupil anonymity yet still allowing us to produce accurate enough distance analysis calculations for strategic purposes in a process that can be carried out for any local authority in the UK. If you have any concerns about Data Protection then please get in touch and we will be happy to discuss them with you.