Recommendation 9

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, bringing fleet in-house, more sharing of transport, and other ways to bring contract costs down, for example, through reverse auctions.13 In written evidence, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) told us that local authorities’ efforts to improve efficiency were consistently outpaced by inflationary pressures and 9 DfE, Specialist SEND support in every school and community, 23 February 2026 10 C&AG’s Report, paras 10 and 1.9 11 Section 251 data: 2024 to 2025, Local authority expenditure on schools, other education and community 12 County Councils Network (HTS0004); The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (HTS0011); Cornwall County Council (HTS0014); Devon County Council (HTS0021); Durham County Council (HTS0022), Association of Transport Coordinating Officers (HTS0023); Oxfordshire County Council (HTS0034); Suffolk County Council (HTS0026); Medway Council (HTS0029) 13 Qq 17-20 9 rising demand. It described the cost of home to school transport for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as having “reached crisis point”.14