What is driving the cost of home to school transport?
In 2019, we published research, commissioned by the Local Government Association and the County Councils Network, that showed the pressures placed on local government finances by duties to transport children and young people to school. Four years later, county councils and county unitary authorities are facing a perfect storm in relation to expenditure on home to school transport.
In our latest research, undertaken on behalf of the County Councils Network, we found the following.
This year, spending by England’s 37 county and rural authorities on school transport is set to reach almost £1.1bn for the first time, with over two-thirds (£720m) dedicated to transporting an increasing number - 85,000 – of SEND pupils to school or college.
Modelling within the report predicts that the costs of providing SEND school transport will almost triple over a decade – from £397m in 2018/19 to £1.125bn in 2027/28 – with the number of children eligible for free school transport increasing 122% over the same period, from 58,000 to 129,000.
This increase is driven by the introduction of SEND legislation in 2014 and a subsequent explosion in the number of children receiving Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) which set out the support they need, including transport to school. The number of students on these plans has doubled from 105,000 eight years ago to 230,000 in 2023.
With many of these plans specifying that a child should attend a special school, and with the number of school places unable to keep up with this increase in demand, councils are required to transport tens of thousands of young people over long distances across large rural counties. Over the last five years the number travelling to special schools has increased 24%, with almost 50,000 pupils travelling to these in county areas every year.
Increasingly frequent use of individual taxis, due to the complexity of children’s needs, parental expectations and demand for individual travel arrangements, means their use to transport children with SEND increased by 36% from 2019 to 2023. As a result, some 31,500 pupils are using cars and taxis, compared to 31,900 in minibuses. Just 2,200 SEN pupils are transported using traditional buses.
Overall, spending on both mainstream and SEND school transport is expected to rise to £1.5bn by 2028 if there is no change in policy. Aside from SEND, the remainder of school transport expenditure is on transport for mainstream pupils who are eligible, depending on how far they live from their nearest school. Costs have remained largely stable over the last few years as councils have reduced services to the statutory minimum due to financial pressures elsewhere, including SEN transport.
Our report sets out a series of recommendations to address cost pressures, including capital investment for councils to create more specialist school places, consideration of introducing a national means-testing policy, so that families above a specified income threshold are required to make a financial contribution to home to school transport, and to ensure that SEND tribunals do not rule on cases until there is full consideration of transport costs.