A new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that school transport costs in England have soared by 70% since 2015, placing a significant strain on council budgets. The report warns that local authorities are struggling to meet their legal duty to provide transport for eligible pupils while managing escalating costs and budget pressures.
The NAO found that councils in England spent £2.3 billion on home-to-school transport in 2023-24, serving around 520,000 children, with spending rising £415 million above budget last year alone.
A major driver of rising costs is the growth in pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The number of pupils with statutory plans increased 166% between 2015 and 2025, meaning more children require specialist and often more expensive transport. On average, transport for a child with SEND costs over five times more than mainstream school transport.
Reductions in public bus services, increased fuel and staffing costs, and a shortage of drivers have also contributed to growing financial pressures.
How This Relates to Wales and RCT
Although the NAO report covers England only, the issues it raises are highly relevant to Wales, where councils face similar legal duties and escalating costs.
Welsh local authorities — including Rhondda Cynon Taf — are legally required to provide free transport for pupils who cannot reasonably walk to school due to distance, safety, or additional learning needs. RCT Council has already cut some discretionary transport routes, including several mainstream school services, citing financial pressures.
With increasing numbers of children requiring specialist support, and public transport services continuing to decline across the South Wales Valleys, the financial burden on councils like RCT is likely to continue rising.
Potential Impact
Without sustained funding support, experts warn that:
- More families may lose access to discretionary school transport
- Parents could be forced to reduce work hours or give up employment to transport children
- Vulnerable pupils — particularly those with additional learning needs — could struggle to access education
The NAO recommends that the UK Government aligns funding more closely with local needs and considers school transport as part of its wider SEND reforms. Welsh Government has not yet announced a review of school transport funding — but campaigners say one is urgently needed to prevent further cuts in Wales.
For more information on RCT School Transport, go to the link: Save the school transport RCT group
SEND reforms need to address home-to-school transport pressures
- For the children and young people who receive it, home to school transport is a valued service that helps to ensure transport is not a barrier to accessing education
- An estimated 520,000 children and young people in England get home to school transport, costing local authorities £2.3 billion in 2023-24
- An increase in the number of children and young people assessed as having special educational needs has significant implications for home to school transport
- The National Audit Office (NAO) recommends the upcoming reforms to the SEND system should consider implications for transport, so the whole system works better for children and their families
Local authorities are struggling to balance their legal duty to provide transport for eligible pupils and the duty to balance their budget, says the NAO.
The NAO’s latest report examines the reasons why home to school transport is one of the fastest growing areas of spending for local authorities in England.
Between 2015–16 and 2023–24, spending by councils in England on home to school transport rose by 70%, leading them to spend £415 million more than they had budgeted in 2023-24.
Local authorities must provide free transport for school-age children who cannot walk to their nearest suitable school due to distance, special educational needs or disabilities, or safety concerns, with extra support for low-income families.1
But councils are facing a range of pressures, which have implications for demand and costs of home to school transport, including:
- More children travelling further to schools that can meet their medical, behavioural or safeguarding needs, as the number of education, health and care plans increased by 166% between January 2015 and January 2025, from 240,000 to 639,000.
- As children and young people travel further, the number of unique journeys and the use of smaller and single occupancy vehicles is increasing.
- Councils spend around five times more on transport per child with SEND than on other children. In 2023-24, on average, transport for a child with SEND cost £8,116 compared with £1,526 for ‘mainstream transport’.
- Provider markets have not yet recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic as driver recruitment was affected by competition from other sectors.
- Transport operators facing higher costs, from fuel and wages.
- A reduction in public transport services, particularly in rural areas, increasing reliance on local authority transport.
Responding to these pressures, many councils are reducing the provision of discretionary transport. The NAO spoke to ten local authorities who had all withdrawn or restricted free or subsidised transport for young people of sixth form age, children below compulsory school age, or those not attending their nearest suitable school.
In some cases, losing this transport can impact on pupils who may miss out on school, or their parents may have to adjust working patterns or give up work altogether to take their children to school.
Local authorities are using a range of approaches to manage rising school transport costs, including independent travel training to boost pupil independence; route-optimisation software; in-house transport; and tighter contract management.
As DfE seeks to improve its data on home to school transport, the NAO also recommends they:
- Work with councils to understand the overall effectiveness of its home to school transport policy and the impact of changes in policy or discretionary transport, e.g. on attendance.
- Track how changes to the funding formula affect different types of local authorities, and ensure funding aligns more closely with actual local needs.
“For the children and young people that rely on local authority-provided transport to get them to school and college each day, it is an invaluable service. Without it, many may struggle to continue with their education.
“Local authorities are making savings to meet their statutory duties, but they are looking to DfE’s upcoming SEND reforms to ensure the long-term sustainability of home to school transport.”Gareth Davies, head of the NAO
Read the full report
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