Lancashire's staggering school transport bill - and what is being done to reduce it

The vehicles – believed to number around 50 – were purchased to try to stem the ballooning bill for ferrying children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to and from their school gates.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands the work needed to fit out the minibuses for their intended purpose has compounded what a cabinet report recently described as “long lead times for vehicle delivery” from the motor industry.

It comes as it emerged the county council’s broader budget for home-to-school transport in the current financial year was set at £55m.

The authority already has a sizeable in-house fleet of its own vehicles, but, as the LDRS revealed last year, it has become increasingly reliant on private taxis – largely because of the growth in the number of SEND children entitled to free school transport as part of their education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

As of December 2024, the SEND element of the home-to-school transport budget for 2024/25 had overspent by £3.1m, around half the level of overspend incurred at the equivalent point 12 months earlier.

The spending plans for this year had been based on an expected 14 percent increase in demand for SEND transport – but the actual growth is estimated to have been closer to 20 percent.

The money spent on the service includes grants paid to parents of children with special needs to take them to school themselves – even when they are eligible for council transport. Making such payments is considered less costly than having to stump up for private hire vehicles. More than 400 parents now take up that option – an increase of 138 so far during 2024/25 compared to the last financial year.

Deputy council leader Alan Vincent said at the cabinet meeting where the figures were presented that the authority was coping “as well as most” others with the pressure the school transport budget was under as a result of SEND demand, including by creating special needs units within mainstream schools to reduce travel requirements.

That budget also covers the cost of travel passes for non-SEND children who are entitled to be transported free of charge because of the distance they live from their nearest suitable school – more than a two-miles walk for under-eights and over three miles away for those aged eight and over.

The county council has not published the split between how much it spends on SEND and other school transport, but cabinet members were told this month that there had been an 11 percent increase in pupil transport numbers overall, just since the start of the academic year in September.