Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department made available for school transport for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in the academic years (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.

The government does not provide a specific amount to local authorities for spending on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) transport. Funding for children’s services, including SEND transport, is part of the wider local government finance settlement, administered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The department does hold Section 251 data which covers both national and local authority special educational needs transport expenditure. This is published on GOV.UK at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure/2020-21.

The gross national expenditure for the 2017/18 financial year to the 2020/21 financial year can be found in the below table. Data for the 2021/22 financial year is not yet available.

National Gross SEN Home to School Transport Expenditure, 2017-18 FY to 2020-21 FY (based on Section 251 outturn data)