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Home-to-School Transport: Children with SEND
03 December 2024
Lead MP
Jennifer Craft
Thurrock
Lab
Responding Minister
Catherine McKinnell
Tags
Employment
Word Count: 9805
Other Contributors: 28
At a Glance
Jennifer Craft raised concerns about home-to-school transport: children with send in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.
Key Requests to Government:
The system should ensure that disabled children and their families are not penalised due to financial burdens faced by councils. The Government must work towards better inclusion of disabled children in mainstream education, while addressing the immediate needs of transport and support for these children.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Lead Contributor
Disabled children enter the education system with significant challenges due to underfunding and understaffing over 14 years, leaving a broken special educational needs and disabilities system. Parents struggle to secure their child's entitlements at every step of the way, impacting life chances compared to other children. The current statutory framework for home-to-school transport excludes disabled children from accessing education before age five and after age 16, despite local authorities' discretion in providing transport for early years settings being often met with flat refusal or unsuitable arrangements.
Hitchin
Families in Central Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire struggle with long travel times and insufficient transport support due to rural context and local authority failure to place-plan appropriately.
Anna Dixon
Lab
Shipley
Anna Dixon noted that local authorities spent £1.4 billion on home-to-school transport in 2022-23, a significant increase since 2015-16. She welcomed the Government's additional funding but emphasised the need to prioritise mainstream schools for better outcomes and reduced costs. Anna Dixon briefly intervened, asking Victoria Collins if she would give way to speak. Asked the Minister if she would give way to ask questions about local government funding and support for innovative solutions.
Anna Gelderd
Lab
South East Cornwall
Anna Gelderd highlighted the unique challenges in rural areas for SEND children, including longer distances to schools and lack of public transport. She urged the Minister to consult with SEND families to tailor services better.
Ben Coleman
Lab
Chelsea and Fulham
Acknowledging the Labour council's decision in Fulham to provide free educational transport for disabled children up to age 25, Ben Coleman highlighted that across other areas, disabled young people face denial or charges for school transport at 16. He noted that nearly half of families experience stress and financial difficulties due to these costs.
Calum Miller
Lib Dem
Bicester and Woodstock
Children in Bicester and Woodstock face long journeys of up to 1 hour and 45 minutes each way due to multiple children added to the same taxi ride, leading him to ask for more capital funding for special schools locally.
Clive Jones
Lib Dem
Wokingham
Both SEND free schools promised for Wokingham are waiting approval; he requests a meeting with the Minister, council executives, and director of children's services to discuss Government plans for reform.
Daniel Francis
Lab
Bexleyheath and Crayford
Jessica's son in Bexleyheath has been required to pay £400 towards transport costs, despite receiving universal credit and being on the highest mobility component rate for personal independence payment. Children in the same class with identical circumstances do not have to contribute because they live in a different borough.
Danny Beales
Lab
Uxbridge and South Ruislip
In his casework, Danny Beales pointed out the challenges faced by co-parenting families sharing custody across different boroughs who struggle with local authority disputes. He also highlighted issues for homeless families in temporary accommodation outside their traditional borough, making it hard to secure continuity in school transport.
Darren Paffey
Lab
Southampton Itchen
Costs have trebled in Southampton over the past few years, straining council resources. He welcomes the Education Secretary's commitment to a whole-system review and proposes collaboration between Departments for Transport and Education with bus companies.
Iqbal Mohamed
Ind
Dewsbury and Batley
In Dewsbury and Batley, the local council budget has been slashed by £1.6 million, leading families to cover transportation costs for 300 sixth-form pupils with SEND. The current funding system is unsustainable due to the crisis in local government funding.
Jo Platt
Lab Co-op
Leigh and Atherton
Since 2017, the number of children needing SEND transport in Wigan has increased by over 80% while costs have risen by 103%. This year alone, the council faces a £2 million overspend against a budget of £5.53 million.
Jodie Gosling
Lab
Nuneaton
Jodie Gosling, a special educational needs coordinator, highlighted the difficulties in securing EHCPs for children under five and the challenges in arranging transport and chaperones. She stressed the need to extend childcare and early years education offers with adequate support for SEND children from an early age.
John Whitby
Lab
Derbyshire Dales
Emphasising the importance of home-to-school transport for rural areas, John Whitby discussed the difficulties faced by a constituent with autism and other conditions who had to travel nearly three hours daily without transport support. He stressed the significant burden on families' time and finances due to post-16 system inadequacies.
Jonathan Davies
Lab
Mid Derbyshire
In Derbyshire, there are failings in the SEND system as highlighted by a recent Ofsted report. Suggested improvements include better integration between stakeholders and early planning for transport management to save money and benefit children.
Calder Valley
Josh Fenton-Glynn reported a significant increase in children with EHCPs in Calderdale from 1,068 to 1,761 between 2018-19 and the last year. He stressed that parents face stress due to late transport plans and highlighted cases of epilepsy triggered by school-related stress.
Aylesbury
Laura Kyrke-Smith suggested three improvements: timely information about transport provision, sufficient funding for personal transport budgets, and better regulation of transport providers to ensure safety and reliability. She cited an example where a parent faced an £84 daily taxi fare.
Laura Trott
Con
Sevenoaks
Under the Education Act 1996, local authorities are under a duty to provide free school transport to eligible children with special educational needs and disabilities. The national council spending on SEND transport increased from £728 million in 2019 to £1.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach £2.2 billion by 2027-28, an increase of 57%. Councils transported an average of 1,300 pupils in 2023-24, up from 911 in 2018-19, a growth of 43%.
Manuela Perteghella
Lib Dem
Stratford-on-Avon
In Stratford-on-Avon, many children were left without home-to-school transport at the beginning of the academic year, leading to unmet educational needs and complex networks of transport issues due to lack of local SEND provision.
Mark Hendrick
Lab Co-op
Preston
Expressed gratitude to all speakers and highlighted the record number of contributions in an hour, urging Guinness World Records to recognize this achievement.
Melanie Onn
Lab
Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes
She supports her friend's comments on free transportation but notes that it is not free for local authorities, with North East Lincolnshire spending £1.4 million last year alone to transport 114 children out of area. She advocates for more specialist provision within areas and combined support in mainstream schools.
Monica Harding
Lib Dem
Esher and Walton
In Surrey, a 16-year-old girl named Polly with special educational needs has been denied assistance for her sixth form education. Her parents appealed but were turned down because the council made a financial argument that it could not sustain providing travel assistance due to the parents' full-time jobs.
Birmingham Erdington
Parents and children in Birmingham Erdington are frustrated due to cuts to school transport, with over-16s no longer receiving support. A mother's son with Down's syndrome was forced to stay home because of lack of transportation support.
Peter Swallow
Lab
Bracknell
Congratulated the hon. Friend and highlighted cases where families face financial barriers to support their disabled children's education, emphasizing the need for a long-term goal of inclusive education and stable statutory framework.
Rachel Taylor
Lab
North Warwickshire and Bedworth
Highlighting reliability issues in transport for SEND pupils, Rachel Taylor shared a case where parents faced difficulties during the start of term with no transport arriving. She also mentioned challenges in her semi-rural constituency due to proximity to neighbouring counties, complicating school allocation based on travel distance.
Shockat Adam
Ind
Leicester South
Discussed the importance of proper travel services for SEND children, highlighting the social costs of inadequate provision and the impact on families' wellbeing.
Tim Farron
Lib Dem
Westmorland and Lonsdale
Asked the hon. Member to acknowledge that local authorities seek to do the right thing, noting that Cumbria councils have more than doubled spending on SEND transport in five years.
Tom Gordon
Lib Dem
Harrogate and Knaresborough
In North Yorkshire, children in taxis for up to two hours daily are impacting their ability to learn; the council projects a spend of £27 million on SEND transport next year despite being 148th out of 151 local authorities for high needs funding.
Victoria Collins
Lib Dem
Harpenden and Berkhamsted
Victoria Collins highlighted the growing need for SEND provision due to increased demand, citing a doubling of students with EHCPs from 105,000 eight years ago to 230,000 in 2023. She noted that councils are often left to fund transport themselves, leading to significant financial strain and charging families up to £933 per year for transport services. Collins emphasised the urgent need for additional funding and a fairer funding formula to reduce costs for schools and ensure children can access tailored learning and support closer to home.
Government Response
Catherine McKinnell
Government Response
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock on securing this incredibly important debate, highlighting the Government's commitment to creating opportunities for all children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Minister acknowledges the significant challenges in providing home-to-school transport due to fuel price inflation, driver shortages, and increased costs related to educating children with additional needs. She notes that more children are travelling longer distances to access appropriate education, leading to higher transportation expenses and reduced economies of scale. Local authorities face financial pressures, particularly for post-16 students, and the 16 to 19 bursary fund has allocated over £166 million for academic year 2024-25 to support travel and other educational needs. The Minister expresses a keen interest in reviewing eligibility criteria established since the 1940s to ensure they align with current contexts, aiming to reduce transport pressures by improving inclusivity within mainstream schools. She urges hon. Members to collaborate with local authorities for improvements while recognising the ongoing systemic challenges.
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About Westminster Hall Debates
Westminster Hall debates are a chance for MPs to raise important issues affecting their constituents and get a response from a government minister. Unlike Prime Minister's Questions, these debates are more in-depth and collaborative. The MP who secured the debate speaks first, other MPs can contribute, and a minister responds with the government's position.