Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps they are taking to support local councils to be able to provide young people with Special Educational Needs with school transport.

The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home-to-school travel for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or mobility problem

Local authorities must also ensure that transport arrangements do not prevent young people, including those with SEND, from accessing post-16 education and have a duty to set out available support in their annual Transport Policy Statement and Local Offer.

The department knows challenges in the SEND system are creating pressures on home-to-school travel. The department will reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. This will mean fewer children needing to travel long distances to access education.