£2.5 billion spent on special needs school transport in 2024
£2.5 billion spent on special needs school transport in 2024
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gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,353 posts

208 months

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15243719/...

Had to read the article 3 times.... not quite sure how we are at this point?
Article states that the average is about £8k per child per year.

How exactly are we justifying this and where is the money going to come from over a fairly short time we are talking 10s of billions of pounds.
If a child goes to school for the full 11 years thats nearly £100k.

The mind boggles.

Badda

3,406 posts

101 months

What’s your solution?

Al Gorithum

4,731 posts

227 months

Welcome to the world that the Tories created.

Bill

56,457 posts

274 months

The 2.5 billion is the total spent school transport, not just SEND children.

Mammasaid

5,043 posts

116 months

Bill said:
The 2.5 billion is the total spent school transport, not just SEND children.
Correct, as per hidden in the article (includes pupils who can t walk to their nearest suitable school due to distance.)

Our local primary is less than a mile away, however as there are no pavements a bus is provided.

Also the local secondaries are over 3 miles away, therefore a bus is provided.

Very common in ruralshire.

Less frothing, more reading.

JoshSm

2,206 posts

56 months

Badda said:
What s your solution?
Could start by looking why the numbers diagnosed with SEND have rocketed in absolute & proportional terms, and look at why so many kids need school transport provided.

Could also look at some of the expensive cases and query if better solutions exist.

Like a lot of things eg PIP, spending has massively increased for no obvious reason, and rather than look the other way because it's all too hard maybe it would be better to understand why and if maybe the thresholds need to be adjusted or better enforced.

Bill

56,457 posts

274 months

Mammasaid said:
Less frothing, more reading.
More than he did?? biggrin

gotoPzero said:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15243719/...

Had to read the article 3 times.... not quite sure how we are at this point?
Article states that the average is about £8k per child per year.

How exactly are we justifying this and where is the money going to come from over a fairly short time we are talking 10s of billions of pounds.
If a child goes to school for the full 11 years thats nearly £100k.

The mind boggles.

JoshSm

2,206 posts

56 months

Al Gorithum said:
Welcome to the world that the Tories created.
Is that being too generous with the spending or some devilish experiment on kids to leave them needing care?

Interested to hear the logic.

Mr Penguin

3,703 posts

58 months

Not surprising because many go to schools in different counties or otherwise far away and councils pay for taxis to collect and drop off rather than buses.

captain_cynic

15,770 posts

114 months

Bill said:
The 2.5 billion is the total spent school transport, not just SEND children.
That bastion of journalistic integrity known as the Daily Mail lying to get page views and make the hard of thinking angry, surely you jest sir.

butchstewie

61,384 posts

229 months

Angry at getting special needs kids to school now.

Remarkable.

valiant

12,745 posts

179 months

Always punching down.

Drumroll

4,267 posts

139 months

Of course no mention of the number of village schools that have closed. The ever changing catchment areas etc. A family we know moved to a local village mainly because of the local Primary School, whist the eldest got to Year 5 before the school was closed the youngest had only started Year 1 fast forward to now and there are 2 taxis coming into the village one to take the eldest to Senior School the other to take the youngest to junior school.

Why can't mum take them well she has MS and dad works shifts and his shift time just don't work

Randy Winkman

19,718 posts

208 months

The headline of the article says:

"Councils spent £2.5bn transporting children with special needs to school last year."

In the text of the article it says:

"Council spending on transport for school children with SEND has increased by 106 per cent in a decade, costing local authorities £1.52billion last year."

confused


pheonix478

3,523 posts

57 months

butchstewie said:
Angry at getting special needs kids to school now.

Remarkable.
"the NAO found one local authority reported transport costs of about £145,000 per year for one pupil."

Nothing to see here! How dare anyone mention it. Remarkable indeed.

butchstewie

61,384 posts

229 months

pheonix478 said:
"the NAO found one local authority reported transport costs of about £145,000 per year for one pupil."

Nothing to see here! How dare anyone mention it. Remarkable indeed.
I wouldn't claim to know much about this subject but do you think it's possible there might be the odd child who has severe challenges that might mean special vehicles are needed and/or perhaps multiple staff members?

It sounds an extraordinary sum but if you do the maths it could be £500/day.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,353 posts

208 months

butchstewie said:
Angry at getting special needs kids to school now.

Remarkable.
You talking about me or the DM? Because no where in my post did I say I was angry.

2.5 billion. Its serious, serious money. I was shocked that its that much, if you asked me to guess I would have said maybe 100-200 million.





pheonix478

3,523 posts

57 months

butchstewie said:
pheonix478 said:
"the NAO found one local authority reported transport costs of about £145,000 per year for one pupil."

Nothing to see here! How dare anyone mention it. Remarkable indeed.
I wouldn't claim to know much about this subject but do you think it's possible there might be the odd child who has severe challenges that might mean special vehicles are needed and/or perhaps multiple staff members?

It sounds an extraordinary sum but if you do the maths it could be £500/day.
More like 800 quid a day. If you think 145k is reasonable for tax payers to pay to get a kid to school, where do you draw the line? 250k, 500k a year? 1m?

butchstewie

61,384 posts

229 months

pheonix478 said:
More like 800 quid a day. If you think 145k is reasonable for tax payers to pay to get a kid to school, where do you draw the line? 250k, 500k a year? 1m?
Yeah it's probably more than 500 to be fair.

I wouldn't say reasonable so much as I can understand how in the odd case it could happen.

borcy

8,716 posts

75 months

Councils don't have a choice in many cases its the law or judge ordered after their parents have been denied it previously.

If you think those figures are high, have a look at secure accommodation for under 21s with mental health/send/complex issues. 5 figures a week for some.