Hertfordshire County Council spends £30m on special education needs school transport as costs double

That is almost double the £15.39m that it cost the county council just five years ago, in 2018/19.

And on Wednesday (November 6) the increasing costs – and the measures being implemented to reduce them – were presented to a meeting of the council’s education, libraries and lifelong learning cabinet panel.

At the meeting it was reported that there are currently 3165 children and young people with SEN eligible for and accessing transport to and from school.

That’s reported to be 28 per cent more than the number of children accessing the council-funded transport 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, the average cost of that transport per pupil is reported to have almost doubled – from £4876 in 2014 to £9731 in April 2024.

And it’s the increasing number of children and young people requiring transport combined with the additional costs of providing that transport have seen council costs increase so dramatically.

In addition council officials point to factors that include the increase in the number of pupils requiring transport out of the county – and to the use of part-time timetables.

They highlight the increasing number of pupils with behavioural and communication needs requiring lone transport.

And they point to pupils’ increasingly complex needs, which may require specialist transport and additional passenger assistants.

At the meeting, the council’s deputy head of admissions Jayne Abery highlighted the “significant increase” in SEN transport.

She said the pressure on the budget had been identified “well before” the covid pandemic.

And she said work had been ongoing for a number of years to both decrease the number of children on contracted transport and to ensure that that transport worked as efficiently as possible.

She highlighted the council’s ongoing focus on the remaining discretionary transport, such as that offered for over-16s.

And she pointed to alternatives to the provision of home to transport – such as ‘personal transport budgets’ and travel training.

Parents and carers can opt to accept a ‘personal transport budget’ as an alternative to the contracted transport.

And travel training is designed to enable some young people to use public transport.

In addition the council is reported to have introduced chargeable seats for children with EHCPs not entitled to free transport who are travelling to special schools.

And they have made efficiencies by using route optimisation software, to review and amalgamate routes.

At the meeting, Liberal Democrat Councillor Lawrence Brass said this was a “huge huge” item in the council’s budget – suggesting that more emphasis must be put on the possibility of independent travel.

And he highlighted one pupil who had a taxi to school ‘paid for by me and all of us, we rate payers’ – but then would take a bus with friends to see ‘the Spurs’ at the weekend.

“He’s very happy to go on the bus and he goes around on the weekend using public transport,” he said.

“And it occurred to me, if he can go to Spurs on a Saturday why can't he go on the bus to school on the day before?

“Don’t you think we should be spending more time and thought in encouraging independent travel for young people, particularly those of secondary school age?”

Ms Abery acknowledged that this child may be going to a school that he could not access by public transport.

But she agreed that independent travel was something the council should be concentrating on.

And she suggested they should not be providing any small vehicle transport to a child that can access their education provision in a fairly straight-forward way on public transport.

Meanwhile executive member for education, libraries and lifelong learning Councillor Caroline Clapper pointed to the wider benefits of travel training to the young person.

“I think it's not even just about the financials,” she said.

“Because even though its a huge cost to the county council and to the tax payer it’s about creating independence, which actually in the long run is going to be really beneficial preparing for adulthood.”

The issue was raised at the council’s education, libraries ad lifelong learning cabinet panel, following a request from the audit committee.