School Transport for 470,000 Pupils: Why We're Asking the Wrong Question

The headlines report that councils are paying school transport costs for 470,000 pupils in England. The focus is on the rising expense.

But we're asking the wrong question.

The question isn't "why are transport costs so high?" The question is "why do so many children have to travel miles from their homes to access education?"

The Real Story: Systematic Closure of Local Provision

SEND schools have been systematically closed across the country over the past decades.

The policy was framed as progress towards inclusion. But the reality has been different.

While some SEN units and resourced provisions have been created within mainstream schools, they're typically small - 6 to 10 places for an entire school. This isn't sufficient to meet the needs of most communities.

Crucially, funding has been cut that would have enabled mainstream schools to develop the capacity to genuinely support children with complex needs close to home.

The result? Children travelling miles each day to access specialist provision that no longer exists locally.

This Isn't New

In 2006, David Cameron made an observation that remains relevant today:

"Last year, special schools in the UK were six times less likely than secondary schools to be inadequate, but three times more likely to be closed."

Nearly 20 years later, the pattern continues; children are being sent further from their communities.

The Problem with Focusing on Cost

When articles focus on how much councils are spending on transport, they frame SEND children as the problem.

Look at how much they cost. Look at the burden on council budgets. Look at the rising expenses.

But SEND children aren't the problem.

The problem is the policy choices that have systematically removed local provision. The problem is that we've created a system where families have no choice but to send their children miles away. The problem is that we've prioritised a particular vision of inclusion without providing the resources to make it work.

What This Means for Children and Families

Behind the statistics are real children:

Children as young as four or five spending hours in transport each day. Children who can't attend after-school activities because they live too far from school. Children who can't build friendships in their local community because they're educated miles away.

And families dealing with the stress of being entirely reliant on transport services, unable to drop their children at school or pick them up, separated from their child's daily school life.

The Choice We've Made

This situation didn't happen by accident. It's the result of deliberate policy choices:

• Closing special schools

• Under-resourcing mainstream inclusion

• Creating SEN units that can't meet local demand

• Cutting the funding that would enable genuine local provision

We've created a system where children must be transported miles away, and then we focus on the cost of that transport as if it's inevitable.

It's not inevitable. It's a choice. And we could make different choices.

What Needs to Change

We need to stop framing this as a transport cost issue and recognise it for what it is: a provision crisis.

The question isn't how to make transport cheaper. The question is how to ensure children can access appropriate education close to home.

That means:

• Genuinely resourcing mainstream inclusion, not creating token provision

• Planning specialist provision based on local need

• Giving families real choice about where their children are educated

The Real Cost

The financial cost of transport is significant. But it's not the real cost.

The real cost is children spending their childhood travelling instead of being part of their local community. The real cost is families unable to access local schools. The real cost is a generation of children for whom "inclusion" has meant exclusion from their own neighbourhoods.

When we focus on transport expenses, we're asking the wrong question. We should be asking: why have we created a system where this transport is necessary in the first place?

Has your child been forced to travel long distances because local provision doesn't exist?

What impact has this had on your family?

Article from The BBC