Overall costs could hit £17m in four years
Wirral Council has spent £11.1m on transporting children to school this year with costs expected to rise another £3.3m next year. A new report said it is now costing more than £5,300 a year per child in some cases and overall costs could be £17m in four years.
A report before the council’s children, young people and education committee on November 27 said the council currently provides transport for 1,853 children from door to school mainly for those with Education, Health, and Care Plans or EHCPs. 666 children are given bus passes because their school routes are considered hazardous.
The high costs relating to EHCPs is because the local authority is required to provide school transport if it is outlined in plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The EHCPs outline a child’s needs to help them go to school and the funding to go along with that and Wirral has seen a significant increase in the number of plans approved.
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School transport has cost the council £11.1m this year with bus passes costing £145,000 with figures expected to be even higher for the next financial year which runs from April 2025 to March 2026. The council is planning its budget with £3.3m built in to help cover this increase.
The Wirral Council report said the current policy for children and young people had not been reviewed for several years with plans to change the application form to get more evidence transport is needed. A review will also be carried out to look whether to reduce escorts and see if more children can use the bus, a cheaper option.
The council report said the costs were in line with the national picture as well as fewer providers being available. Wirral Council said it needs to find a new strategy or it could be paying £17m or more by 2028.
Since 2020, contracts have significantly increased in cost rising by 82% from £3.6m to £6.7m. This has been in part due to the number of children needing transport rising by 38% but the cost per passenger has also risen from £4,684 to £5,369.
These transport costs are adding to an overspend of nearly £10m in the local authority’s education and children’s services. A majority of this is being driven by residential care placements for children
Wirral Council was issued with an improvement notice in 2024 from the Department for Education. This notice was because the council had failed to make progress following an OFSTED inspection in 2021 and could face government intervention in October 2025 if it fails to make progress.
Some parents and staff within the council’s SEND team have questioned whether progress is being made, arguing things are actually getting worse. However a council report before the committee argues it is making significant progress.
The report said 83% of targets in ten areas had been achieved with three areas now considered “business as usual.” However two areas revolving around EHCPs and school support have not made progress which the council argues “require time for new structures and approaches to be fully embedded.”
The council has a target of three quarters of EHCPs being completed in 20 weeks but the latest figures for October show this is 15% with no significant progress since April. These figures are potentially impacted by ongoing strike action by the National Education Union over pay and working conditions.
Numbers of complaints have risen with 20 in October, compared to nine in April. Quality assurance reviews are also still below target though things have improved here while 1,017 children with an EHCP are regularly out of school, 167 above target.
The council is also trying to increase the number of children with EHCPs in mainstream schools which will lower costs for the local authority. For example, the Proactis contract portal said the local authority spent £5.5m this year on education at West Kirby School and College, a special independent school.
While the council has increased the number of children in mainstream schools from 20% to 33%, this is still below target.
