Families with children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) should be screened for school transport, according to councils in England, which say demand is growing at an “unsustainable rate”.
Local authorities want the Government to be “radical” in its sending reforms, which are predicted to be imminent, warning that annual costs of home-to-school transport for sent children could rise to £3.4bn by 2030-31, up from £2bn last year.
The County Councils Network (CCN) found in its analysis that without significant system reforms, local authorities could transport 100,000 extra pupils – “a city’s worth of young people” – to school by the end of the decade.
It calls on the government to introduce a national means-testing system, so that families above a certain income threshold have to contribute financially to transport from home to school. “It needs to be implemented smoothly and gradually in view of the current cost of living crisis,” the CCN report suggested.
The statutory walking limit calls for a rethink of eligibility criteria (two miles for under-eights and three miles for children aged eight and over), annual reviews of transport arrangements, greater independence over time and a clear message to parents that personal taxi transport is the “last resort”.
However, campaigners have warned that there is a risk of locking disabled children and young people out of education altogether. Anna Bird, chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership and chief executive of the charity Contact, said: “School transport should be based on children’s needs and not what their parents earn.
“Getting disabled children to school is more complex than their non-disabled peers. That means testing transport doesn’t balance budgets – it risks putting disabled children and young people out of education altogether.”
Local authorities should provide free transport to school-age children who cannot walk to their nearest school due to distance, special educational needs or disabilities or safety concerns.
Earlier this month, the government announced it would spend £5bn to clear 90% of local authorities’ remitted debt, on condition that local authorities agree to send updates in line with government plans to be detailed in an imminent white paper.
However, this does not take into account transport costs from home to school. Last year councils transported 206,000 children and young people to school – a record high. It will increase to 311,000 by 2030-31 if current trends continue.
CCN’s Send spokesman Bill Ravens said school transport costs had become one of the biggest pressures on council budgets. “These numbers are becoming too much for many councils’ budgets. If nothing changes, they will transport more than 100,000 extra pupils over six years – a city’s worth of young people,” he said.
Tania Tirroro, founder and co-director of Special Needs Jungle, said: “This is standard fare for local authorities – blame families for exercising their rights, recommend reducing these rights for financial reasons. Without school transport, many young people with SEND cannot get an education. It is a necessity, not a luxury.”
Madeleine Cassidy, chief executive of IPSEA, which specializes in send law in England, said: “Long-distance journeys and rising transport costs are not the result of high ‘demand’ from parents, but of years of under-investment and an illegal decision to force children into settings away from home.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “Reforms to sending will transform the life chances of children with additional needs so that every child can thrive in a school that meets their needs, close to home”.
“Our forthcoming schools white paper sets out how we will build a more inclusive education system that delivers support first, restores financial stability and ends the postcode lottery once and for all,” they said.
