368-Mile Commute: SEND Crisis Bankrupting Councils and Betraying Children

A systemic failure in Britain’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is forcing some of the country’s most vulnerable children into gruelling, cross-county school commutes, with one reported round trip reaching an astonishing 368 miles. This broken provision, highlighted by spiralling transport costs and a post-pandemic surge in demand, is pushing local councils across England to the brink of financial collapse, despite record funding increases.

Disclosures from over 100 English councils reveal a grim picture: a fragmented, adversarial, and costly system where the promise of support—enshrined in law since the 1944 Education Act—is now being delivered at an unsustainable cost, often to the detriment of the children it is meant to serve.

The Financial and Human Cost

The core of the crisis lies in home-to-school transport for pupils with special needs. Official figures show the overall cost of school transport for children has doubled in the past decade to over £2.3 billion, with spending on SEND pupils alone nearly trebling to £1.8 billion in 2023-24.

This explosion in expenditure is driven by a number of factors:

• The Unprecedented Rise in Need: Since the 2014 reforms, the number of children identified with SEND has surged from 1.3 million to over 1.7 million in the 2024/25 academic year. The number of children with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) has reached nearly half a million, a 140% increase since 2015. This exponential rise is largely due to increased recognition of complex needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), ADHD, and Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). Gloucestershire County Council, for example, saw its EHCP numbers jump from around 3,000 in 2017 to over 7,000 today.
• Specialist Provision Distant from Home: The shortage of local, suitable specialist school places means children are frequently being placed in schools far outside their local borough or even county. "By its nature, specialist provision is not necessarily based in the communities where they are growing up," notes Philip Haslett, Head of Education Strategy and Development at Gloucestershire County Council. This directly results in the need for long-distance transport.
• Reliance on Individual Taxis and Ambulances: The FOI data reveals a systemic pattern of pupils being transported individually in taxis, as opposed to shared minibuses or bus passes, dramatically increasing costs. Disturbingly, some pupils with the highest medical needs are even being transported via ambulances.

The financial strain is immense. Councils have consistently underestimated SEND transport costs, with actual expenditure in 2023-24 running 25% higher than planned. Across England, almost 5% of all council tax revenues are now spent on SEND home-to-school transport. Some local authorities are dedicating £1 in every £10 of their education budgets to ferrying pupils.

In Westmorland and Furness, the council spent an average of £17,500 per eligible SEND student last year, with the highest-cost case being over £120,000 a year for an 86-mile daily round trip. This average spending often dwarfs the £8,000 the government spends annually to educate a state school pupil.

System at 'Crisis Point' Despite Record Funding

Despite the government's High Needs funding rising by 58% in real terms over the past decade to £10.7 billion for 2024-25, the system is deemed "financially unsustainable" by the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO projects that the cumulative deficit faced by local authorities in their Dedicated Schools Grants (DSG) could reach over £4.6 billion by March 2026. A 'statutory override' allows councils to separate this deficit from their main budgets, but this mechanism has only been extended to 2028, pending reform, highlighting the temporary nature of the fix.

The Human Cost: Children Clocking Up 'Eye-Watering' Miles

The human cost for children is the relentless daily commute. The 368-mile round trip is an extreme example, but many others are clocking up 'eye-watering' distances:

• A pupil in Slough has made a 320-mile round trip weekly for at least three years—the equivalent of driving from London to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and back over the school year.
• One pupil in Blackpool undertakes a 165-mile journey every single day, accumulating over 30,000 miles across the school year.
• A pupil in Greenwich faces an 80-mile daily round trip at a cost of over £215 per day.

These punishing journeys undermine the "spiritual, mental and physical well-being" the 1944 Education Act was designed to promote, stealing hours from children that could be spent on therapy, hobbies, or simply resting.

Political Pressure and the Path to Reform

The current situation is "broken," according to the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who plans to unveil a white paper on major changes this autumn. However, the political landscape is fraught, with a recent cross-party Education Committee report, 'Solving the SEND Crisis', delivering a stark warning: statutory entitlements for children must not be withdrawn. The report insists that the solution to unsustainable EHCP numbers lies in dramatically improving everyday support in mainstream schools, not by removing rights.

Key solutions urgently called for by Parliament and campaigners include:

• Mandatory SEND Training: Making Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on SEND mandatory for all teachers in mainstream education to embed an 'inclusive' culture.
• Early Intervention: Developing a standardised, national framework for support before an EHCP is required, with a focus on upskilling staff like Speech and Language Therapists to deliver therapeutic support rather than just assessments.
• Accountability and Consistency: Addressing the "postcode lottery" of provision and giving Local Authorities the power to hold health services and mainstream schools accountable for the level of support they provide.
• Workforce Capacity: Tackling critical shortages in educational psychologists, specialist teachers, and health professionals, with a severe vacancy rate of 19% reported for Speech and Language Therapists.

While the government has committed £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to create over 60,000 new places and launched a pilot for assistive technology in up to 4,000 schools, the central message from local government remains stark: the SEND system, still built on a legal framework from the 1940s, is no longer fit for purpose. Without fundamental, rights-preserving reform that prioritises early, local, and quality support, the spiral of rising costs and long, taxing journeys for vulnerable children will continue—a failure that is "not working for anybody," least of all the pupils it is meant to serve.