Hertfordshire in top 10 for SEND transport costs

A council has been named as one of the authorities that spend the most money on transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Hertfordshire County Council spent £33m on getting pupils with SEND to and from school in 2024-25 year, which is the eighth highest amount in the country by local education authority.

The Taxpayers' Alliance, which released the figures, said the average cost paid by councils was double the figure from 2019-20.

The council said it had a number of initiatives to lower the costs and increase choice.

The Taxpayers' Alliance said the number of children aged 4-10 who had Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) had more than doubled in many council areas since 2019-20.

The cost of transporting them falls on local councils, which are spending an average of £11.1m each year on it.

The alliance said the main reason for the increase was a rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism, with 3% of those aged 4-10 now classed as autistic.

The figure in 2019-20 was 1.8%.

The highest spend on SEND transport is in Kent, where the annual bill is about £70m.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "We have a legal duty to provide home-to-school transport for eligible pupils with EHCPs, and as we are one of the larger counties, with a population of around 1.2 milion people, we inevitably have one of the larger home-to-school transport budgets.

"To help lower these costs, and to promote independence and freedom of choice, we have a number of initiatives, including personal travel budgets, that we are promoting, and we have seen take up of these increase by 300% since 2021, allowing us to make savings in our transport budget that we can invest in wider support for children with SEND."

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.