Recommendation 15

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 had to give up work as a result.35 In written evidence, Natspec, which represents 140 specialist further education colleges for students aged 16–19 with SEND, said that a lack of suitable transport was affecting learner attendance at college. In a survey of its members, 65% of respondents said that transport issues had resulted in learners being unable to attend college or attending intermittently, with one college seeing 30 students failing to start courses because transport had yet to be agreed.36 When we asked the Department how changes to transport could reduce the NEET rate, the Department told us that while transport improves access to the labour market, it did not think that a lack of transport was driving the current NEET rate increases. We pressed the Department to do more to understand the relationship between transport and the NEET rate in different areas, particularly rural locations.37