SCHOOL TRANSPORT
CASH-STRAPPED KIRKLEES COUNCIL SPENDING £54,000 A DAY ON SCHOOL TAXIS
Cash-strapped Kirklees Council has spent almost £5.5m on taxi fares for school children between April and October this year. Around 3,000 Kirklees pupils qualify for free school transport. Between the start of the financial year in April and October 31, there have been 101 days of school term. A total of £5.45m was spent on school taxis in this time, a FoI request has shown. This works out at an average cost to the council of just over £54k each day of term. Fifty taxi firms are on the council’s books for the same period, with some earning as much as £10,500 a day during term-time to take children to and from school. In the last five years, the local authority’s
total bill for school taxi fares has exceeded £36.9m. In addition to this, 300 pupils of sixth-form age are eligible to have their costs covered by the council, resulting in a further £2.6m being spent on transport costs in the previous financial year.
This
equates to an average of £8.6k per student, and with costs rapidly rising, the council says this will eventually become unsustainable. The council also stated that the cost of school transport has seen a significant increase on a national scale, with councils up and down the country facing the same pressures. They also wanted to assure the public that they use a competitive tendering process to
seek the best value for money. A spokesperson said: “We’re look- ing to make savings across all school transport options. One change we’re considering is the way young people of sixth-form age are helped to access educa- tion if they
assistance. “All councils have to produce a ‘Transport Statement’ setting out these arrangements for eligible pupils. Other councils have changed their Transport Statement and we have sought views on a similar process for Kirklees. The results will be collated and any changes made as a result of the consultation will be presented to elected members in March 2024.
FORMER KENT COUNTY COUNCIL HIGHWAYS BOSS CALLS FOR AUDIT OF TAXI TRIPS FOR SEN CHILDREN
Kent County Council’s former highways boss has called for an internal audit of costly taxi journeys provided to SEN children”. This transport will cost the council £60m in 2023/24. More than 6,000 SEN children in the county are given free taxis to classes. Cllr David Brazier (Con) spoke at the council’s scrutiny committee meeting on 6 December, in a debate about home to school transport (HST). Cllr Brazier hoped an audit would identify savings to help KCC find tens of millions of pounds of efficiencies in the face of soaring prices and squeezed budgets. He told members: “It is common parlance outside this authority
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that we overpay for transport market services because there is very little capacity that we have not already taken up. So when further journeys are required, they are provided at a cost well above the market rate. “I’m not truly satisfied that we are paying market rates and that we are not being taken for a ride.” He suggested an internal audit could make “selective samples” of journeys and how the costs are arrived at and if they’re “fair and in accordance with the market rates”. Last year a review into KCC’s handling of school transport for SEN children identified a number of “serious flaws”. Earlier this year Cllr Antony Hook
called on the authority to introduce an in-house school taxi service to save cash. At the time, KCC reported HST costs for SEN pupils between July 2022-23 soared by £15m and that spend was driven by a near 11% (668) rise in the number of SEN children being carried by cab. Cllr Rory Love said: “We know the answer on HST. It’s the number of children who have in the past been identified as meeting the threshold of additional, very costly transport support.” He said the KCC costs were also driven by the “extraordinarily and unexpectedly high” number of children with educational health care plans (EHCP).
JANUARY 2024 PHTM
qualify for travel
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