£2.3 Billion Funds Distant School Taxis

England spends £2.3 billion each year transporting 470,000 schoolchildren to classes. Local authorities attribute the surge to 180,000 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who travel farther to specialist schools, often alone in taxis. Councils now urge MPs to rename the service “assisted travel to school” to reset parental expectations away from door-to-door rides.

The National Audit Office documented this cost explosion. Previously lower figures ballooned as SEND diagnoses multiplied and suitable local placements shrank. Of the total pupils helped, 40% are SEND cases, yet they consume five times the transport budget due to distance and isolation requirements.

Councils reject full taxi service as standard. Witnesses told MPs that children could walk to bus stops or share commercial routes. They point to untapped bus franchising and better transport-education coordination as fixes.

Covid habits entrenched single taxis. During lockdowns, isolation became routine for health reasons, and families resist group options now. This legacy adds pressure amid rising demand.

Parents report endless battles for access. Labour MP Sarah Hall cited constituents describing a demoralising fight through complex rules and unclear entitlements. Discretionary cuts hit 16- to 19-year-olds hardest, stranding some despite needs.

Root Cause: No Local Schools

Distant travel stems from absent local SEND provision. Councils place children far because nearby schools lack capacity or expertise. The system funnels pupils to oversubscribed specialists, inflating miles logged and taxi bills.

SEND referrals have quadrupled since 2015, overwhelming fragmented services. Mainstream schools offload complex cases; dedicated units wait years to open. Result: predictable cost escalation without matching infrastructure.

Cross-Party Inertia

Governments since 2010 pledged SEND reforms. Academies expanded choice but diluted local planning duties. Labour councils now inherit backlogs, yet national funding shortfalls persist across administrations.

No party reversed the placement mismatch. Costs rose steadily under Conservatives, Labour, and coalitions alike. Officials rotate roles; failures accumulate.

Taxpayers cover the £2.3 billion tab. Each UK household contributes over £80 yearly to these runs. Funds diverted from pothole repairs or police divert to isolated taxis for one in eight helped children.

Commercial buses sit underused. Franchising laws inch forward, but integration lags. Councils admit over-provision baked into expectations and contracts.

Linguistic tweaks signal deeper defeat. Renaming dodges redesign; it signals surrender to expectations councils themselves fostered. Real redesign would mandate local SEND capacity and enforce shared travel.

This episode exposes education’s structural rot. £2.3 billion signals provision collapse, not transport inefficiency alone. Ordinary families bear rising bills for systemic planning voids that span governments, eroding public services one taxi ride at a time.