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# Newham Council scraps SEND travel scheme as demand hits record
- URL: https://www.newhamcitizen.co.uk/newham-council-scraps-send-travel-scheme/
- Published: 2026-09-12T16:28:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-12T16:28:54.000Z
- Description: Use of the scheme rose from two children in its first year to 39 this year before the local authority pulled it
- Author: Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
- Tags: send, school transport, council budgets, children’s services, newham, newham council

Newham Council has scrapped a scheme that helped children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) learn to travel to school on their own, in the year demand for it reached a record high.

The council ended its “travel buddy” scheme before the start of the new school year this month, as part of efforts to rein in a £5.1m overspend in its children and young people’s department.

![Photograph of Lakmini Shah, cabinet member for children, education and communities](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1a/0b/1a0bbdc5-3104-4b69-8f0a-e4bea2090efe/content/images/2026/09/Cllr_Lakmini_Shah-1.webp)

Lakmini Shah, cabinet member for children, education and communities. Photograph: Newham Council

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) show use of the scheme grew every year it ran. Just two children used it when it launched in 2022, rising to 15 in 2023, 26 in 2024 and 39 in 2025.

Lakmini Shah, Newham’s Labour cabinet member for children, education and communities, said eligible children were now using “alternative” transport, and that none “will be left without appropriate travel assistance”.

**Rising demand**

The travel buddy scheme was intended to help children and young people with SEND build the confidence to travel independently. It formed part of the council’s home-to-school transport service, which the town hall is required by law to provide to eligible SEND children.

The council said children used the scheme for an average of just under two years, at a cost of £17,500 per child.

In a statement to the LDRS in July, a council spokesperson said the scheme had “historically been used as a short-term intervention to help children and young people develop confidence and independence in travelling, rather than as a long-term transport arrangement”.

**Transport overspend**

The children and young people’s department is on course to overspend by £5.1m by the end of this financial year. Of that, £3m is linked to home-to-school transport, which covers travel passes, minibuses for children unable to use public transport, and — until now — travel buddies.

Council financial papers attribute much of the predicted overspend to “an increase in pupil numbers requesting and/or requiring transport”.

An update to council leaders next week says that, in place of the scheme, the council will expand its own fleet of vehicles “to ensure those children can go to school on the bus”. The two measures together are expected to offset the overspend by £250,000.

Other savings include cutting the council’s use of private taxis for SEND children, worth £50,000, and reducing the number of SEND school placements outside the borough, worth £100,000, “as this generates highest transport costs”.

**‘Alternative’ transport**

Cllr Shah told the LDRS that eligible SEND children would still receive support getting to school. The council did not say whether the new arrangements would aim to help them travel independently.

Cllr Shah said: “The travel buddy scheme has ended, and all eligible children and young people are using alternative statutory transport.

“Any changes to transport arrangements can only be made following an individual assessment of pupil needs through the council’s established home-to-school transport process.”

She added: “Eligible children and young people will continue to receive appropriate travel assistance based on their assessed needs.

“No eligible child will be left without appropriate travel assistance as a result of this review.”