NAO report says SEND reforms need to address home to school transport pressures

• For the children and young people who receive it, home to school transport is a valued service that helps to ensure transport is not a barrier to accessing education
• An estimated 520,000children and young people in England get home to school transport, costing local authorities £2.3billion in 2023-24
• An increase in the number of children and young people assessed as having special educational needs has significant implications for home to school transport
• The National Audit Office (NAO) recommends the upcoming reforms to the SEND system should consider implications for transport, so the whole system works better for children and their families
• Read the full report
• Statement from the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Local authorities are struggling to balance their legal duty to provide transport for eligible pupils and the duty to balance their budget, says the NAO.

The NAO’s latest report examines the reasons why home to school transport is one of the fastest growing areas of spending for local authorities in England.

Between 2015–16 and 2023–24, spending by councils in England on home to school transport rose by 70%, leading them to spend £415 million more than they had budgeted in 2023-24.

Local authorities must provide free transport for school-age children who cannot walk to their nearest suitable school due to distance, special educational needs or disabilities, or safety concerns, with extra support for low-income families.

But councils are facing a range of pressures, which have implications for demand and costs of home to school transport, including:

• More children travelling further to schools that can meet their medical, behavioural or safeguarding needs, as the number of education, health and careplans increased by 166% between January 2015 and January 2025, from 240,000 to 639,000.
• As children and young people travel further, the number of unique journeys and the use of smaller and single occupancy vehicles is increasing.
• Councils spend around five times more on transport per child with SEND than on other children. In 2023-24, on average, transport for a child with SEND cost£8,116 compared with £1,526 for ‘mainstream transport’.
• Provider markets have not yet recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic as driver recruitment was affected by competition from other sectors.
• Transport operators facing higher costs, from fuel and wages.
• A reduction in public transport services, particularly in rural areas, increasing reliance on local authority transport.

Responding to these pressures, many councils are reducing the provision of discretionary transport. The NAO spoke to ten local authorities who had all withdrawn or restricted free or subsidised transport for young people of sixth form age, children below compulsory school age, or those not attending their nearest suitable school.

In some cases, losing this transport can impact on pupils who may miss out on school, or their parents may have to adjust working patterns or give up work altogether to take their children to school.

Local authorities are using a range of approaches to manage rising school transport costs, including independent travel training to boost pupil independence;route-optimisation software; in-house transport; and tighter contract management.

As DfE seeks to improve its data on home to school transport, the NAO also recommends they:

• Work with councils to understand the overall effectiveness of its home to school transport policy and the impact of changes in policy or discretionary transport, e.g. on attendance.
• Track how changes to the funding formula affect different types of local authorities, and ensure funding aligns more closely with actual local needs.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said:

“For the children and young people that rely on local authority-provided transport to get them to school and college each day, itis an invaluable service. Without it, many may struggle to continue with their education.

“Local authorities are making savings to meet their statutory duties, but they are looking to DfE’s upcoming SEND reforms to ensure the long-term sustainability of home to school transport.”

Sector Reaction

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Home to school transport is a vital service, particularly for pupils with special educational needs (SEND) or those who do not live near their school and whose parents or carers are struggling financially – not all have their own car.

“As this report shows, however, the costs to local authorities are significant, especially after a period in which the number of children with SEND has grown substantially.

“It is not fair or sustainable for councils to have to go over-budget or artificially restrict transport that families rely upon. Doing so could harm school attendance and learning or plunge families deeper into poverty, with all the damage that can do to children’s learning.

“The answer is investment and reform to ensure all children and families with SEND get appropriate support – and this must start as soon as signs of additional needs first emerge. Action to tackle the root causes and symptoms of poverty would also help, and we hope the government’s child poverty taskforce will deliver this.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We are concerned that the national conversation about children with special educational needs and disabilities has increasingly become focused on cost.

“Let’s be clear that these youngsters often require special school provision and home-to-school transport is vital in ensuring they are able to access that support.

“We expect the government’s forthcoming reforms to focus on supporting more children with SEND in mainstream schools.

“This may have the knock-on effect of reducing home-to-school transport costs.

“However, these reforms will be a huge undertaking which will require investment, training and resources, and will take time to implement.

“Even then, many children will continue to need the support of special schools.

“We have to put the needs of these youngsters first and ensure that the SEND system and associated costs are sufficiently funded both now and in the future.”