Council spending on home-to-school transport has moved from a line item in education budgets to a strategic financial risk. Research published by the Local Government Association on 30 June 2025—undertaken by Isos Partnership and titled “The future of home to school transport”—updates earlier LGA and County Councils Network work with fresh survey data through 2023–24 and projections into 2025–26. For SEND transport commissioners and software suppliers serving local authorities, the report quantifies why digitisation, route optimisation, and policy reform are no longer optional.
The headline numbers
Published data cited in the report shows local authorities spent £2.25 billion in 2023–24 on transporting children and young people to school and college—a £1.23 billion increase over the decade, or 122 per cent growth. Average annual growth accelerated from about 7 per cent per year between 2015–16 and 2019–20 to roughly 20 per cent per year from 2020–21 to 2023–24. SEND dominates the curve: pre-16 SEND transport accounted for about £1.5 billion in 2023–24, roughly 67 per cent of total home-to-school transport spend and about 75 per cent of growth since 2015–16.
Total SEND transport expenditure (all ages) reached £1.73 billion in 2023–24, up from £645 million in 2015–16—an increase of 169 per cent. Survey returns project further growth to around £1.97 billion for SEND transport in 2025–26, with national all-age home-to-school spend potentially approaching £2.5 billion in the same year if an projected 11 per cent uplift materialises.
What is driving cost inflation
The LGA analysis links rising spend to more children with EHCPs travelling further to specialist placements, inflation in contractor prices, and the complexity of escorted routes. Mainstream pre-16 transport, at about £479 million in 2023–24, shows a more stable profile—around 21 per cent of spend and 11 per cent of growth—highlighting that policy debate often focuses on SEND not because mainstream is unimportant, but because that is where volatility lives.
Post-16 mainstream spend remains a small slice (about 1 per cent), while 16–18 and 19–25 SEND categories grew quickly but from a lower base. The report notes a possible plateau in 2024–25 among responding authorities, yet warns this may be temporary before another rise in 2025–26—masking wide variation between individual councils.
Methodology and stakeholder voices
Isos combined a national local authority survey, interviews with Department for Education officials, ADCS and ADEPT representatives, parent carer forums, and a workshop with urban and rural councils. That mix grounds the statistics in operational reality: late changes to pupil numbers, price rises just before the academic year, and misalignment between financial and academic years—all themes also raised by the National Audit Office in parallel work on home-to-school transport.
Parents’ groups emphasised distance to suitable provision when local special school places are full, forcing out-of-area placements with long taxi journeys. Council leaders quoted in wider media coverage have described weekly multi-hour trips and seven-figure overspends, illustrating how aggregate billions translate into individual routes.
Policy directions suggested in the research
While the LGA publication is analytical rather than prescriptive law, it explores efficiencies such as shared procurement, clearer eligibility documentation aligned with Department for Education guidance, travel training to build independence, and better data on mode and distance. Any national SEND system reform creates a window to revisit whether transport assumptions baked into placements remain affordable.
The report also situates transport within environmental benefits—fewer single-occupancy car trips when shared routes work—and social benefits of reliable attendance. Those co-benefits matter politically when councils must justify spend to electorates who see only the bottom line.
Regional and rural variation
The workshop component of the LGA research deliberately mixed urban and rural authorities because mileage and escort need differ sharply. A single taxi carrying one pupil long distances can exceed the annual cost of a shared minibus route in a town catchment. Software that models consolidation scenarios before contracts are let gives finance officers defensible options during cabinet reports.
Implications for technology and operations
When 67 per cent of spend sits in pre-16 SEND, small percentage improvements in route density or escort deployment yield large savings. Councils already using transport management systems report gains from consolidating passenger records, automating parent notifications, and integrating with school census updates—capabilities that reduce manual re-keying when a child’s school day changes.
Overspends against budget—highlighted in NAO summaries for 2023–24—mean transport software ROI is measured against prevented taxi miles, not just administrative time. Providers should expect evidence requests tying platform metrics to LGA and NAO indicators: cost per pupil, mode mix, and out-of-area placement counts.
Comparison with national audit findings
The National Audit Office has similarly reported that local authorities overspent home-to-school transport budgets by hundreds of millions in 2023–24, with late pupil number changes and provider price rises cited as drivers. Together with the LGA figures, the picture is consistent: financial planning cycles and academic year planning cycles are misaligned, and SEND growth is structural rather than a one-off spike.
Conclusion
The LGA’s June 2025 report makes plain that home-to-school transport is one of the fastest-growing pressures on local government finances, with SEND journeys as the engine of growth. Without legislative or placement policy change, projected 2025–26 spending near £2.5 billion nationally will force more councils into service reductions elsewhere. Commissioners who combine updated statutory guidance with robust data, shared contracts, and modern route planning tools stand the best chance of protecting vulnerable pupils’ journeys while bending the cost curve. Benchmarking cost per mile and escorted hours against peer authorities helps build cases for shared procurement across neighbouring councils.
