Decision to scrap post-16 SEND transport delayed

The local authority pushed back a decision over the scheme

A decision over the future of school transport for post-16 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been pushed back.

Councillors at Newcastle City Council had been due to discuss a proposal to scrap free home-to-school transport for older students on Monday.

But the local authority deferred the agenda item so "additional financial modelling" could be carried out.

Emma Davies, whose 15-year-old daughter Ruby is poised to lose the free travel next year if the plans are approved, said the proposals were "worrying".

The local authority said it currently cost about £131,000 a month to fund the travel of 189 post-16 SEND students.

It said it needed to cut £24m in the upcoming financial year and it was not under a "legal obligation" to provide free SEND travel for those over 16.

Councillor Lesley Storey said: "The pressures on the SEND transport budget have since increased again, meaning the money simply isn't there to offer provision above and beyond our statutory duty."

She said pushing back the meeting on the issue would also allow councillors to review the government's expected policy statement on local government funding in late November.

"If there is no clear scope for additional funding specifically for SEND transport in that statement, then we will likely have to move forward with this proposal," she said.

'Equal access to education'

Ms Davies said her daughter Ruby, who has Down's syndrome, would struggle to travel independently to school.

Under the council's proposals, new post-16 learners would lose access to scheme from next September.

Ruby is partially sighted and has hearing loss, and would find it difficult to use the two buses she needed to get to school, Ms Davies said.

She said the free transport made life "less difficult" for Ruby, as well as the families and caregivers of SEND learners.

"I think if we're hoping to provide equality to children as much as possible... providing a good, fair and accessible education is a part of that," she said.

Storey said it was the council's responsibility to "deliver a balanced budget".

She said "regardless of any decision", the local authority would continue to expand its "independent travel training programme" for young people with additional needs.