United Parents will run school-run lift sharing programmes with schools in the East of England from Autumn 2026.
The old saying is that it takes a village to raise a child. But when it comes to the school run, most parents are doing it alone:
The same journeys,
The same time,
The same road,
🚗🚗🚗🚗 in separate cars.
Why these schools 🤔
We chose these schools deliberately.
For exemple, one is a small rural primary school where families are spread across surrounding villages, and where the number of cars arriving each morning is high relative to the size of the school.
Another, on the other side of the spectrum, is a secondary serving a broad rural catchment, a setting where the usual alternatives are hardest to reach. Distances are longer, bus provision is patchy, and “just walk” stops being a realistic answer entirely.
“School runs are a massive problem, there’s too many cars and not enough parking. Due to neighbours complaining, yellow lines have been placed on the road. Children are now having to walk through busy and dangerous roads to get to school.”
Chris, School representative
What we’ll be measuring 🔍
Running alongside each programme is a proper evaluation, so that each school finishes the term with evidence they can use, in their Climate Action Plan, governors’ report, or a conversation with their local authority. We’ll provide a report on:
- Journeys and miles saved, and the CO₂ that goes with them.
- Congestion at the gate
- Matching density
- Staff time, which is minimal
Auriane Cirasuolo, CEO of United Parents, said:
What parents and legal guardians have told us consistently over the past year is that they already want to share the school run, some already do. But for the majority, they just don’t have a safe, organised way to do it, and little headspace to ask around and manually organise it. Working with schools in the coming months means we can show what that looks like in practice, and put real numbers behind it.
Andy Tattersfield, CPSO at United Parents, said:
The hard part was never the routing. It’s trust. Parents will share a school run with someone they know is a verified parent at their child’s school, whose licence has been checked, and who they know are in safe hands. Everything we’ve built comes back to that.
Why schools are looking at this now
The school run is the single biggest source of a school’s carbon emissions, larger than heating and powering the buildings. With schools now expected to embed Climate Action Plans in line with DfE guidance, transport has moved from a footnote to the main event.
Interested in bringing this to your school?
We’re supported by Let’s Go Zero, the Eco-Schools, and lift sharing counts as a sustainable travel initiative under Modeshift STARS, the DfT-backed national accreditation scheme, so running our programme can contribute towards your school’s travel plan.
You can either apply to take part in the next round of trials, or leave your details and we’ll send you the programmes’ results when they’re ready. No commitment, and if you’d like to talk about running a programme at your school in the spring term, we’re always happy to have that conversation. You can contact us at info@united-parents.co.uk