More than one in three councils are taking new measures to slash spending on home-to-school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sparking fears more vulnerable pupils will be left with hour-long school drop-offs.
One council even admitted cutting travel support will be “significantly disadvantageous” for the hundreds of affected children and families, but was “necessary” given the financial challenges.
And transport is just one area being cut.
A Schools Week investigation into councils’ 2025-26 budgets also found an early intervention social worker programme for schools being axed.
An enrichment scheme guaranteeing disadvantaged youngsters a chance to go to the theatre and own musical instruments is also being scaled back.
Meanwhile, 10 councils are planning to increase the cost of traded services to schools to boost income.
Baroness Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives think tank, said declines in funding for wider services, especially on early intervention, means schools are “increasingly being left to pick up the pieces and the most vulnerable children are forced to bear the brunt”.
“It should be a core function of local government to fund transport to the most suitable school for a child,” she added. “We can’t expect every child can go to their closest school whatever their circumstances and whatever the consequences.”
Changes ‘significantly disadvantageous’
Schools Week found 60 councils with education responsibilities aim to reduce SEND transport costs by at least £100,000 this year.
In total, councils expect to spend £1.5 billion on SEND transport for pre-16 year olds in the 2024-25 financial year – which is triple the bill incurred in 2016. It is part of the broader crisis in the SEND system that has seen surging needs, rising costs, councils in crisis and widespread unmet need.
Common measures being adopted by local authorities include increased use of independent travel training, replacing directly provided transport with personal travel budgets for SEND children’s families, changes in routes and reduced use of single-passenger taxis.
Some councils are also factoring in reduced transport costs stemming from plans to increase the number of SEND children educated within the local area, thereby cutting the number of expensive journeys to schools outside a locality.
Proposals affect hundreds of children
In some areas, the measures are intended to temper the growth of SEND transport costs rather than cut spending outright, with home to school transport frequently being both a cost pressure and savings measure in local authorities’ budgets.
Leicester City Council has among the severest proposals, affecting 350-450 children and young adults with SEND. Its plans mean such pupils would “not be provided with any transport assistance, save in certain limited cases and where exceptional circumstances apply,” a council report said.
Any transport assistance that is provided would only be in the form of a personal transport budget.
The council report recognises the changes are “likely to be significantly disadvantageous for affected young people and young adults (and their families)”, but are “necessary… in the circumstances facing the council”.
A spokesperson for Leicester City Council told Schools Week the proposal had been through consultation and the authority expected to publish a decision shortly.
‘Councils ignoring equality duties’
But Eleanor Wright, legal officer at charity SOS!SEN, said: “Too many [councils] are ignoring Department for Education guidance reminding them of their equality duties to young people with SEN and disabilities, who should not be disadvantaged when it comes to accessing further education in comparison with non-disabled peers.”
She expressed particular concern over measures focused on young people aged over 16, where councils’ legal obligations are weaker than for those of compulsory school age.
Schools Week has identified 16 councils with savings plans related to post-16 SEND transport, such as Hampshire County Council, which is looking to save £300,000 in 2025-26 and £2m in 2026-27.
The council will cease post-16 transport for families not on low incomes. Those on low incomes will be expected to make financial contributions and act as “passenger assistants”.
Councils are not legally obliged to provide free SEND transport to over-16s, but Wright warned that councils will be breaking the law if transport cuts mean young people cannot get to the school or college named in their EHCP.
“We are hearing anecdotally of disabled young people who have had to leave education because they cannot travel to their school or college, which is wholly unacceptable,” she said.
‘Exploiting weaknesses’
Meanwhile, Simon Knight, joint head of Frank Wise community special school in Oxfordshire, said: “Too often, reviews of access to transport focus on exploiting weaknesses in the statutory requirements in order to minimise cost, irrespective of whether the outcome is reasonable for children and families.
“The system is broadly incoherent and this incoherence can impact significantly on children and their families.
“Too often, access to transport is just another battle for families to fight, as local authorities try to reduce expenditure that is rising due to the wider dysfunction of the SEND system.
“Once again, as local authorities try to reduce their costs, it is children and families who pay the price.”
Multiple pick-ups and route ‘optimisation’
Barnet Council in north London is among those looking to increase the take-up of personal transport budgets, where parents have to arrange transport themselves, as well as using multi-pickup points rather than individual taxis.
Ten councils are seeking to increase independent travel training for SEND pupils, while others are proposing “optimisation” of travel routes.
But Wright said travel budgets “often fall far short of the actual costs involved”, while optimising routes can drag out journey times, causing potential difficulties for children with medical conditions such as musculoskeletal problems, travel sickness and seizures.
She said: “Routes tend to be changed so that one taxi or bus can take more pupils, which can take journey times well over 75 minutes as the vehicle travels to various pick-up points and may take time loading in a number of disabled children.”
Other councils are making individual cuts to education programmes.
Merton, in south London, is ceasing to fund its Social Workers in School project, which carries out child protection work and engages with schools to reduce the flow of cases coming into statutory services.
The council’s budget documents admit the funding cut will mean additional statutory child protection work having to be absorbed by current social work teams that are “already under pressure”.
Theatre trips and music grants axed
Newham in east London is cutting 25 per cent of funding for its Enrichment Programme, which funds cultural and creative activities for 25,000 children and young people, particularly around music.
This includes axing its secondary school theatre scheme, meaning teenagers will no longer be guaranteed a professional theatre experience.
In addition, schools will no longer be able to bid for arts and culture projects, the maximum value of school music grants will be lowered, and the fund to purchase musical instruments for children will be scrapped.
The council says it will develop “a revised approach to enrichment, heritage and cultural strategy programmes”.
Increase in fines
Dorset is halving funding for its Education Board, which works to close the school attainment gap and commissions projects to improve outcomes.
Meanwhile, 10 councils are seeking to drive higher income from traded services to schools, while three – Manchester, Oldham and Staffordshire – are registering parental fines for unauthorised school absences as income growth to help balance the books.
Mohon Ali, Oldham’s cabinet member for education, said a new national framework introduced in September had “led to an increase in requests for the council to issue fines for leave/holidays in term time”.
“The [national] fine rate has been increased from £160 to £180 and we are now able to issue two fines to the same parent for the same child within the same academic year,” he added.
In its response to the National Audit Office’s report into the SEND crisis, the Department for Education said the “rising cost of school transport underscores the need for more children to attend a local mainstream school that meets their needs”.
A new data collection was launched in February to help councils benchmark their provision, “enabling them to learn from one another, find efficiencies and support decision making”.
New guidance for “partnership working” on school transport will also “be published soon”.
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