South Yorkshire STARS &
Active Travel Officers
In South Yorkshire PWLC were initially commissioned to provide two part-time STARS Officers to work across the four local authorities (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham & Sheffield) and support schools to achieve accreditation. Our first Officer joined us in October 2016 and in less than 12-months, assisted Officers from Barnsley and Sheffield in increasing the number of STARS accredited schools from just nine schools to 36 across a year.
In South Yorkshire PWLC were initially commissioned to provide two part-time STARS Officers to work across the four local authorities (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham & Sheffield) and support schools to achieve accreditation. Our first Officer joined us in October 2016 and in less than 12-months, assisted Officers from Barnsley and Sheffield in increasing the number of STARS accredited schools from just nine schools to 36 across a year.
In December 2017, we were commissioned by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council to provide 5 x FTE Active Travel Officers as part of the Access Fund for each of the local authorities. Our team work intensively with over 100 schools across the region, engaging with parents, teachers, pupils and local residents to increase active travel, specifically walking, cycling and scooting to school.
We created a STARS South Yorkshire active travel menu from which schools could choose practical cycling and walking activities, resources, classroom-based activities and assemblies, training and support to run campaigns that result in tangible shift in mode of travel to school. A bespoke ‘scooter skills’ programme has been developed and implemented by the team across South Yorkshire.
The team have also been involved in trialling the Modeshift YTA programme in Sheffield and Doncaster secondary schools, and the development of new infrastructure schemes supporting the implementation of School Streets schemes.
Programme outcomes
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204 schools across South Yorkshire are currently engaged
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108 schools are supported by an Active Travel Officer
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99 schools currently hold a level of STARS Education accreditation with 66 Bronze schools, 23 Silver and 10 Gold
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Brookfield Academy in Rotherham are the current Yorkshire & Humber STARS Primary School of the Year
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Between December 2017 and December 2019, the team delivered 2,040 separate active travel initiatives and engaged almost 88,500 individuals including 79,000 pupils.
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Sheffield have seen an average reduction of car use of 10% in 2019/20, for Doncaster the figure is 7% (results for Barnsley and Rotherham are pending)
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In November 2020, our #StaySafeGetActive campaign was awarded the ‘Best Sustainable Travel Initiative – Education’ at the 2020 Modeshift National Sustainable Travel Awards
