Transporting Wiltshire SEND schoolchildren 10 times more costly than mainstream
The average annual cost is over £8,000
The average annual cost of transporting Wiltshire SEND students is more than ten times more than mainstream students, according to a recent council report.
Around 1,800 SEND students in Wiltshire are currently being transported to their education placements on a daily basis, and the demand for this transport is still rising.
A report set to be presented to a Wiltshire Council committee shows that the average annual cost to transport an SEND student is £8,146, compared to £810 for a mainstream student.
Facilitating SEND transport remains a significant issue for Wiltshire Council due to these high costs as well as driver shortages.
The council has noted there is a “considerable duty to ensure that workers in this field are checked and trained” due to the nature of their work.
New educational establishments have also recently opened, such as Silverwood School in Rowde, with 100 more students requiring transportation.
According to the report prepared for the licensing committee meeting, this demand is likely to continue growing with Exeter House in Salisbury opening a second site from September 2025, as well as a provision in Tidworth, which would mean that an additional 130 students would require transport.
By law, councils must provide transport to SEND pupils if they live more than a set distance from their nearest suitable school.
In England, the number of these pupils has risen by a quarter since 2019, with 31,000 using taxis, according to the County Councils Network.
A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “The SEND system we’ve inherited has been failing to meet the needs of children and families for far too long, with a lack of early intervention and support in mainstream schools and unsustainable strain on local government finances.”
The government has plans for £740m in capital funding this year to improve inclusivity in mainstream schools.
In January, it was revealed that the earliest that Wiltshire Council would be able to balance a portion of its SEND funding was likely to be 2031.
The Q2 budget monitoring position forecast a £17.49m overspend, on top of the £28.25m overspend included in a plan agreed with the DfE which offered the council additional funds.
This came after the number of children needing SEND support was significantly greater than expected – with 6,354 Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP) in the system at the end of 2024, 660 more than predicated.
At the time, the leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Richard Clewer, described the current approach to SEND as “increasingly complex and increasingly expensive” whilst “drifting away from inclusion”.