A scheme helping children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) travel to school could be halted to save money, Newham Council has confirmed.
The travel buddy scheme helps children gain confidence travelling to school by themselves. However, the council is considering scrapping it to rein in a £5m overspend on its children and young people’s service.
A council spokesperson said that no child would be “left without appropriate travel assistance as a result of this review”.
The travel buddy scheme is part of the council’s home-to-school transport service, which by law it has to provide to children with SEND who need help getting to school.
However, a council report to cabinet said “efficiencies” were being explored “such as withdrawal of the travel buddy scheme”, adding that “parents are being notified ahead of the new academic year”.
‘Short-term intervention’
A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “As part of the council’s ongoing review of home to school transport, we are reviewing travel buddy arrangements alongside wider service improvements.
“The travel buddy scheme has 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.”
The spokesperson added that any changes to individual transport arrangements would only be made after an assessment.
They said the council’s legal duties would “continue to be met” and that “eligible children and young people will continue to receive appropriate travel assistance based on their assessed needs”.
£3m transport pressure
The council’s children and young people’s service is forecast to overspend by £5.1m this financial year, according to the Month 2 budget monitoring report presented to cabinet on 21 July. The directorate says it is working to bring the pressure back within budget.
Of this, £3m is linked to home-to-school transport, which provides support including travel passes, minibuses for children unable to use public transport, and travel buddies. Around £1.6m of that figure relates to charges that can no longer be met by the Dedicated Schools Grant.
The report attributed the pressure to growth in demand for education, health and care plans – which set out what support a council must give to children with SEND – and to rising transport costs.
It said 548 children were supported between September 2025 and April 2026. In the same period, 286 new applications were received, of which 168 have been approved.
The report said there had been “an increase in pupil numbers requesting and/or requiring transport that requires new additional capacity”, and that the council’s “internal fleets are operating at full capacity”, leaving the service reliant on private taxi operators “around 50% more costly compared to in-house operations”.
The fleet is hired out to adult social care during off-peak periods to generate additional income when it is not being used for children.
Review and tender
Operational management of home-to-school transport has moved from children’s services to the council’s environment and sustainable transport directorate, and a full review of the service is under way.
Market testing of external contractors has concluded and procurement staff are working on a tender release. Route optimisation, digital and staffing changes are also in progress, according to the report.
‘Exponential’ growth in demand
The Department for Education updated its statutory home-to-school travel guidance on 26 May, and the report said the changes mean more pupils are eligible. It said the growth in applications was “likely to increase exponentially”.
Nationally, the County Councils Network estimates the cost of home-to-school transport will rise from £2.3bn in 2024 to £3.6bn by 2030.
Wider SEND pressures
SEND provision is under strain elsewhere in the same directorate. The Disabled Children and Young People’s Service is forecast to overspend by £1m, driven by a 25 per cent rise in the number of care packages and a 28 per cent rise in the average cost of a package, which the report attributes to the complexity of disabled children’s needs.
The report said the number of support hours had also increased during the school day for children not in full-time education, and that all high-cost packages were being reviewed.
‘Three lines of defence’
Under the council’s “Three Lines of Defence” framework, directorates facing pressures must first take mitigating actions within their own budgets before drawing on a corporate contingency or earmarked reserves, with the General Fund reserve used “strictly as a last resort”.
Labour councillor Zulfiqar Ali, cabinet member for finance, presented the report to cabinet on 21 July.
Cllr Ali said that “councils across the country continue to face unprecedented financial pressures”.
However, he said the council’s spending controls had helped “rebuild our financial resilience” and that this “helps to protect the services that matter most to people”.
