Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant UIN 82150 what assessment her Department has made of the availability of discretionary transport support for children with special educational needs and disabilities who are not yet of compulsory school age, what guidance is provided to local authorities on exercising this discretion, and what potential impact variations in local authority budgets have on access to such support.

The department’s ‘Home-to-school travel’ statutory guidance makes clear that discretionary travel need not be limited to children of compulsory school age. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.