Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what advice, support and guidelines are given to local authorities regarding home to school transport, and whether they are given guidance on the restrictions they can impose in cutting transport costs.

The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. My hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards is keen to understand how well home-to-school transport supports all children to access educational opportunity and she is working with departmental officials on this. The department is aware of the challenges currently faced by local authorities in arranging home-to-school travel for all eligible children, and knows that the cost of doing so has increased in recent years. We are grateful for their considerable efforts in ensuring eligible children can continue to get to school.

Local authorities are required to arrange free home-to-school travel for all eligible children, but it is for them to decide what travel arrangements to make, for example, providing a bus pass, a school bus or a taxi.

The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their home-to-school travel duties, which is attached and is also accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance. Departmental officials also host bi-monthly online meetings, to which all local authority school travel officers are invited to share good practice and seek advice from one another and the department.

Most of the increase in the cost of home-to-school travel can be attributed to transport for children with special educational needs. This is largely due to an increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans, and the number of those children who travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools so fewer children need to travel long distances to schools that meet their needs. This will reduce home-to-school travel costs for local authorities over time.

Most central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the local government finance settlement, which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The government recognises the challenges local authorities are facing. At the Autumn Budget 2024, we announced £1.3 billion of new grant funding in the 2025/26 financial year for local government to deliver core services. Together with local income from council tax and business rates, this will provide a real-terms increase in core spending power of around 3.2%.