SEN transport – What is it and what does  it cost?

In the past three years alone in London, there has been a 12% increase in using SEN transport and a 37% increase in SEN transport costs alone and these numbers are continuing to rise. With over 1.5 million pupils having special educational needs in England, a huge 80,000 rise since 2022, the need for specialist support and resources is growing rapidly.

The stretched budgets are making this more and more difficult for many local authorities across the UK and at Access Adam Transport we are aware of the challenges and want to make it as easy as possible to optimise routes so every child has access to the support and the education they need and deserve.

This article will summarise what SEN transport is, why it is important for children, young people, and their families, as well as local authorities themselves, to then offer methods on how best to optimise routes and make better use of the resources your local authority has to ensure every child and young person has access to the transport they need to get to and from school safely.

SEN transport services normally refer to the home-to-school transport services for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities so they can access educational institutions.

These services may include specially equipped vehicles, trained staff to assist passengers with disabilities, and routes designed to accommodate their needs. The specific details of SEN transport can vary depending on location and the specific requirements of the individuals involved.

Local authorities have specific duties to provide free home-to-school transport to these students, however, these duties differ depending on age and whether those who are deemed eligible are attending a qualifying school.

The law on school transport is defined within the Education Act 1996 under sections 508a and 508b and schedule 35b. The UK Government has also offered statutory guidance called home-to-school travel and transport 2014.

For a child or young person to be eligible for SEN transport they must fit specific criteria and be between the ages of 5 -16 in qualifying schools for their local area.

Typically, a child or young person can be eligible for home-to-school transport if they live more than 2 miles from the school if they are aged between 5 – 8 or 3 miles away between the ages of 8 – 16.  This distance is determined by walking. However, a child or young person is eligible for SEN transport if:

• A child or young person who has special educational needs or a disability that prevents them from walking safely to school even if they are within the statutory walking distance
• A child or young person has an EHC Plan (Education, Health, Care Plan) that specifies needing help to transport the child or young person to and from school because of their needs
• If the route to school is unsafe

SEN transport is important for many different reasons. As well as providing safe and secure home-to-school- transport for children and young people with SEND needs, it also offers many benefits for students, their families, schools, and local authorities.

Some of these benefits include promoting inclusivity, providing equal opportunities, and improving the wellbeing of individuals with SEND needs. The table below demonstrates why SEN transport is important by demonstrating the benefits it can provide to students and their families, schools, and local authorities when it is implemented correctly and safely.

The table above shows there are several reasons why SEN transport is important for students and their families as well as schools and local authorities.

When implemented correctly SEN transport can help schools and local authorities alike, to ensure they are following the legal obligations to deliver this service. Through doing this it provides families reassurance their child can easily get to and from school safely and have equal access to educational opportunities.

Providing SEN transport within local authorities can also encourage an increased student enrolment within mainstream schools by demonstrating they have the resources and staff trained needed to accommodate to the wide range of SEND needs, so no child or young person goes without the support they require. In turn, this can help promote better and more positive school images by promoting the importance of inclusivity to establish a more positive learning experience.

Using a co-production approach and collaboratively working with other neighbouring local authorities also can help optimise routes further to improve outcomes and have better resource allocation, without going over budget to ensure every child's needs are always met.

SEN transport is important therefore as it provides a safe and non-stressful way for children and young people to arrive to and from school in a fit state ready to learn through offering consistency and routine and ensuring every need is catered for.

The average cost of school transportation is roughly £1 billion every year. A study released in 2019 found that 69% of the budget is allocated to SEND provision with it only supporting 26% of children.

In general, the national average for a home-to-school transport service for a SEND child or young person costs around £11 each way each day. These costs are continuing to grow. Many factors have impacted costs rising. In the section below we will review the different factors which can impact the costs of SEN transport and what can happen to the quality of the service when this happens.

With budgets getting tighter and demand increasing there are many different factors which impact the cost of school transport. Children and young people with SEND needs present a unique challenge where often many will have complex needs that need accommodating. If children and young people are attending a specialist school these distances can also be a lot further and with that the costs can also be a lot higher.

Below is a list of just some of the factors that impact the transport costs for SEND children and young people:

1. Lack of flexibility

With demand increasing and budgets getting more restricted often local authorities have limited capacity and flexibility on the supply side. Often local authorities can be stuck between the needs of the children, young people, and their families, the growth in demand, and the limitations of the market.

With the limited choices often local authorities have to pay higher service prices, which can put local authorities at risk of going over budget and not being able to provide all the services needed.

2. Distance

One of the other key factors that impact the cost of SEN transport is the distance between a student's home and their school or college.

With students that live further distances from their school both more time and fuel will be needed leading to higher transportation costs to cover the cost of fuel and the driver's rates.

3. Mode of transport

Another factor that can impact the cost of SEN transport is the mode of transport. This can differ depending on the needs of the child or young person. Some specialised vehicles may be needed to be accessible for wheelchair users or to supply extra medical equipment. These specialised vehicles can then be both more expensive to operate and maintain than standard buses or school taxis.

4. Number of students

A factor that can impact all local authorities differently is the number of students in their local area being eligible for SEN transport. The higher the demand the more money it will cost a local authority to accommodate.

5. Geographical location

Equally, an additional factor that can impact the costs of SEN transport is the geographical location of where students live. For example, if a student lives in more hilly terrain or if it is more difficult to reach locations, these routes need more special arrangements.

6. Cost-of-living Crisis

The cost-of-living crisis in general has made things more expensive for everyone. Fuel costs have risen dramatically and therefore this can make organising SEN transport more expensive than ever before.

7. Staff training

The support each child or young person requires will depend upon their individual needs. Ensuring all staff and potential chaperons are fully trained is crucial to help maintain consistency, routines, and wellbeing so they can learn without any disruption. Ensuring staff have the necessary training can both take time and money.

8. Maintenance of vehicles

As well as fuel costs, maintenance costs are also another factor which can make costs of school transport more expensive.         

9. Administrative costs

Often for many local authorities, if a lot of children and young people are eligible for SEN transport the admin can be very technical and long-winded. Optimising routes that ensure all students get equal access to schools and education takes time.

This administrative overhead, including route planning, scheduling, and paperwork can affect the overall cost.

10. Contractual agreements

If local authorities are struggling to arrange SEN transport and they have to outsource to private providers the terms and conditions of contracts can be different and sometimes more expensive.

11. Technology solutions

The cost of implementing technological solutions to reduce the admin burden can be expensive and when it is not implemented correctly it can be costly.

12. Funding

Finally, and probably one of the most obvious factors that impacts SEN transport costs is funding. As funding is getting more and more limited the amount of funding offered to commission SEN transport costs can differ.

For example, if your local authority has a higher demand for SEN transport than another, some local authorities will spend more on SEN transport as well as be at a higher risk of overspending and delivering a poor quality service due to having to stretch their budgets further. This, in turn, can have a negative impact on social and academic outcomes for students.

To overcome the challenges of organising, commissioning, and funding SEN transport in your local area there are several different things your local authority can do.

Firstly, it is important to be aware of the factors that affect SEN transport and how costs can go both up and down year on year. Like we have discussed above there are several different factors to be aware of. What is also important to note is that often it is a combination of these factors that make the cost of SEN transport so expensive.

The list below demonstrates some of the best ways to optimise SEN transport routes to ensure your local authority delivers a high-quality service consistently, which meets every child's needs whilst ensuring you do not go over budget.

1. Collaborate with neighbouring local authorities

With demand increasing and budgets decreasing, the pressure to ensure every demand is met intensifies more and more each year. The risks of not delivering the services are rife as well as not having enough resources to reach the demand.

One of the best ways to overcome this is through collaborating with neighbouring local authorities to ensure that all children and young people entitled to SEN transport get accessibility to the resources they really need.

2. Understand the needs of the community

Another way to best optimise routes is through understanding the needs of your local community.

This may sound very obvious, however when doing so it can be much easier to group students who live locally going to either the same school or neighbouring schools, as well as grouping students with similar complex needs together too.

This way it can prevent separate school transport vehicles from going to each student when there could be an SEN transport bus which could take a group of students instead. This also limits the risk of going over budget, and not having enough staff to drive the students to and from schools, as well as ensure there is more consistency which can lead to better outcomes for students at school.

One of the best ways to understand the needs of the community is to set up regular assessments. Here regular assessments can not only identify if extra support is needed to accommodate students' needs but can also help reorganize routes if needed when students move away from the area or ease the transition from one school to the next, as well as help identify if they are no longer eligible for SEN transport. 

Without regular assessments, your local authority can put SEND students at risk of having needs unmet, which in turn could lower confidence, independence, and their academic performance at school.

3. Investing in energy-efficient vehicles

One of the massive factors which can make SEN transport more expensive is fuel costs, especially when routes aren't optimised and drivers are left driving around in circles with no real order.

Despite the implementation cost being expensive, investing in more energy-efficient vehicles can help reduce costs in the long run due to both reducing fuel costs and emissions.

4. Maintenance

Likewise keeping up with maintenance is always crucial, any disruption or change to routine can be detrimental to some students with SEND needs. It is vital therefore that vehicles are well looked after to have minimal disruption and maintain the consistency of the service.

Through keeping vehicles well maintained the likelihood of breakdowns and delays will also be reduced to ensure that all vehicles are operating at peak efficiency.

5. Use of technology

As with many services and departments in local authorities, digital transformation is often key in reducing costs.

Currently, many local authorities are swamped with increasing demand, and with the process of organising routes taking prolonged periods of time, this time could be used to complete more critical tasks instead.

Investing in digital technology therefore helps to centralise, streamline, and automate all this information for you and make it even easier to optimise routes to ensure you improve outcomes and not go over budget.

Technology is also an easier way to onboard new providers and help local authorities increase their competition, which in turn can help providers improve the quality of their services. This also helps local authorities to work with providers to offer a better quality service at the best value for money.

Sutton Council found through investing in our travel management platform, Access Adam Transport their provider base went from 17 to 32 providers. This enabled them to be able to deliver their service to more children and young people across Sutton.

They also found that the competition per route increased dramatically, where now they could obtain up to 14.4 bids per route compared to 4.5 previously. These benefits of our travel management platform have allowed Sutton Council to generate over £683,000 of savings which have then been used across other children's services.

The video below shows more benefits that Sutton Council experienced, contact us today to see how we can help your routes be optimised to create the same results.

6. Flexible Scheduling

Another way routes can be optimised is through flexible scheduling. This is getting more and more common in more traditional methods of home-to-school transport, where staggered school starts and end times allow the same vehicles to serve multiple routes all in one morning and the afternoon. SEN transport is no different.

This therefore ensures all students’ needs are supported and addressed every single day without fail. Also, it reduces the amount of staff and resources you will need at any given time, further reducing the risk of going over budget.

In this guide, I have reviewed what SEN transport is and why it is important for both students and their families, as well as schools, and local authorities.

We have addressed how implementing SEN transport correctly can significantly help students progress at school as the consistency in their routines can help them be able to thrive. Additionally, through being able to organise SEN transport effectively schools and local authorities can deliver all their legal obligations to ensure every child and young person has equal access and opportunities to their education.

This guide has also reviewed the average costs of home-to-school transport and how much of that budget goes towards SEN transport roughly each year. Through discussing the average costs I have discussed the different factors that can impact the cost of SEN transport to explain how it can then be challenging to accommodate all the necessary needs.

I have then reviewed some of the best ways to overcome these challenging factors to ensure routes can be better optimised, improve outcomes and reduce costs without putting any students at risk.

I also gave an overview of how Sutton Council has benefitted massively through using our Access Adam Transport solution which offers them procurement and ongoing management of their transport routes and providers within one single platform.

At Access Adam Transport we know and understand how challenging arranging SEN transport can be especially with both restricted budgets and resources, our transport management cloud-based system can provide your local authority with full visibility of your marketplace and bespoke services to assign dedicated routes and providers for any SEN transport needs.

You can ensure all your transport providers are 100% compliant all of the time, even when SEN needs change, to actively engage with your transport market to save time, keep prices sustainable, and most importantly provide better access and opportunities to education for children and young people with SEND needs.

For more information on how our transport management solution can help your local authority improve its SEN transport contact us today.

Find out first-hand how we helped, and let's get the conversation started on how we can help your local authority in the same way.