Recommendations & Conclusions
31 items
2
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Department does not understand how access to transport is affecting attendance, nor how difficult it is for parents to navigate the system, particularly post-16. While acknowledging that transport is critical to accessing education and training, the Department does not 2 know how annual spending—£2.3 billion in 2023–24 and £2.6 …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. opportunity. Departmental analysis shows a link between absence and distance from school, but this is a relatively modest factor compared with wider drivers of absence. The department has developed real-time attendance data tools …
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Department does not yet have the data it needs to oversee home to school transport effectively. Though local authorities have submitted spending data on home to school transport for many years, the Department has only recently started to collect data on the number of children and young people receiving …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented Alongside the publication of this Treasury Minute, the Department for Education has sent a separate letter setting out its plans for improving data quality and making the data collection mandatory.
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has now set out the detail of its new funding formula for home to school transport but not yet set out its plans for monitoring whether it proves to be successful in aligning funding with local need. In 2023–24, home to school …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented Through the Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-27 to 2028-29, the government is updating the needs formulas used to calculate local authority funding allocations, following four consultations. Using more up-to-date data will …
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
While the Government has now announced plans to write off 90% of the historic deficit from SEND overspending, the plan for deficits arising from now until March 2028 remains unclear. Funding for SEND- related high-needs spending has not kept pace with demand over the past decade, and local authority cumulative …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Override in March 2028 At the Local Government Finance Settlement, the government confirmed the first phase of support for SEND deficits. This phase addresses historic High Needs-related deficits accrued up to the end …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Better local transport options and an integrated approach to education and transport planning, would reduce home to school transport costs, particularly in the most rural settings. The ongoing decline of bus services, particularly in rural areas, is a long-standing concern for this Committee. It has reduced travel options and increased …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The Bus Services Act 2025 puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders, enabling them to shape services that best meet the needs of their …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Education (the Department) and from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on home to school transport in England.1 We also took evidence from the Association of Directors of …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The reforms set out in SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First aim to create a more inclusive school system, enabling more children to succeed in local mainstream settings. As …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Following our evidence session in December 2025, on 23 February 2026 the Government announced the reforms intended “to transform outcomes for children with SEND and end one size fits all approach”, and published its schools white paper detailing reforms to the school and SEND systems in England.9 Reducing the cost …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Following the introduction of the Children and Families Act (CFA), local authority spending on school transport for children and young people with SEND increased by 106% in real terms over the period 2015–16 to 2023–24— from £0.85 billion to £1.76 billion—compared to 9% for ‘mainstream’ transport.10 Data for 2024–25, published …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
When we asked what local authorities were doing to try to reduce the cost of home to school transport, ADEPT told us that local authorities had spent four years going through every conceivable way to bring down the cost. Approaches taken included route optimisation and independent travel training, personal budgets, …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Contact told us that, in its experience, the main way that local authorities had cut costs was by removing discretionary transport provision for young people aged 16–19.15 ADEPT acknowledged that a lack of money meant that many local authorities had had to cut all non-statutory transport provision.16 It explained that …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We questioned the Department about local authority approaches to cost savings and whether all were learning lessons. The Department noted the wide range of approaches that local authorities were taking and assured us it was working with ADEPT and others in the local authority sector to share best practice.20 It …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Department told us that the biggest driver of cost was SEND provision and described successful SEND reform as the single thing that would make the biggest difference. It told us that children and young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans or in special schools travel further to …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
In the academic year 2023/24, around one in five children of compulsory school age in England missed a day or more of school per fortnight – and around one in three at sixth form age.28 Government data from November 2025 showed that almost one million young people aged 16–24 in …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Given that home to school transport policy aims to facilitate attendance, we asked the Department if the current system was doing all it could to promote it. The Department told us that it saw transport as critical to ensuring access to education but explained that it only measures the number …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Contact explained that the changes in entitlement to transport after age 16 could feel like a “cliff edge” for those that would no longer receive it and that it had huge impacts on the whole family.34 The charity told us that 40% of families it had consulted said they had …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
When we asked how hard it was for parents to navigate the legislation, Contact told us that it was a regular top topic on its helpline and that parents did not really know their rights. It explained that the system was particularly unclear post-16 and that it changed by local …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Local authorities have submitted spending data on home to school transport for many years through the section 251 returns. The Department has not routinely collected information on how many children and young people receive transport, how they travel or why they are eligible.41 It acknowledged this limited its ability to …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
When we asked whether the Department’s data would enable it to capture best practice by local authorities and help them to benchmark and negotiate better value contracts, ADEPT told us that the Department was making a very good start and that better data of any kind would help.44 The Department …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We suggested that the Department make the data collection mandatory for all local authorities and that they should provide data on a more granular and consistent basis. ADEPT told us the Department had been working with them to understand and improve the data collected without overwhelming local authorities, but said …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Given its reliance on SEND reform to deliver significant change, we asked the Department if it had sufficient data on the current situation to enable it to evaluate the impact of the new reforms. The Department told us that it had spending data but had not had enough detailed data …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
In its June 2025 Fair Funding Review, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said that home to school transport for children up to 16 accounted for approximately 3.7% of total local government spending in 2023–24.52 It is one of the fastest growing areas of local authority spending.53 …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We asked whether the new formula would take account of the higher costs faced by rural authorities in respect of home to school transport. MHCLG told us that, across the local government finance settlement and in its revision of funding formulae, it was confident it was capturing the needs of …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Department and MHCLG explained that there were different calculations for SEND and mainstream funding to account for the additional costs associated with SEND transport, but that both were based on pupil populations and adjusted distances to school. For both mainstream and SEND transport, the formula uses pupil populations for …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
In December 2025, shortly after our oral evidence session, MHCLG published the provisional local government finance settlement for the period 2026–27 to 2028–29 along with a technical note on the new funding formula for home to school transport.59 MHCLG published the final versions in February 2026.60 Addressing SEND deficits
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We have previously highlighted how SEND-related funding—the high-needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant—has not kept pace with demand over the past decade, and that local authorities have built up substantial deficits.61 Cumulative deficits are projected to exceed £5 billion by the end of March 2026.62 Since 2020, the impact …
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We asked about plans for helping local authorities with historic and accruing deficits from now to March 2028. The Department and MHCLG told us that government recognised that local authorities could not deal with these deficits on their own and that they would be a shared responsibility. They were clear …
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
In written evidence, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) raised its concerns about the unsustainable pressure that the costs of SEND transport were placing on local authority general budgets, noting that these transport costs are not covered by the Dedicated Schools Grant. ADCS explained that the current legislative …
HM Treasury
28
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We have previously raised concerns about the long-term decline of buses, particularly in rural areas.68 On home to school transport, the NAO reported that reductions in public transport services have increased reliance on local-authority-provided transport.69
HM Treasury
29
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
We asked about the role of local bus franchising, under which local authorities decide the routes, timetables and fares, in reducing reliance on local-authority-provided home to school transport. ADEPT explained that better working relationships between local transport and education authorities would encourage whole system conversations including better use of commercial …
HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
Several witnesses stressed developing independence as an important part of home to school transport provision, while acknowledging that independent travel was not always suitable.73 The LGA told us that good practice for local authorities was not just about getting a young person from A to B but also about developing …
HM Treasury
31
Conclusion
70th Report - Home-to-school transport
The Department told us it was working with DfT on sustainable travel and that supporting active travel, such as walking and cycling, could improve accessibility for children but also offer benefits to the community 68 Committee of Public Accounts, Local bus services in England, Fiftieth report of session 2024–26, HC …
HM Treasury