School taxis service for SEND children costing £98M a year according KCC leader
Cllr Linden Kemkaran has described the cost as “absolutely enormous”
The bill for providing taxis to ferry children to school is nearing £100m a year in Kent, the county council leader said today.
Cllr Linden Kemkaran, who described the £98m annual cost as “absolutely enormous”, pledged to look at contracts with cab companies and seek best value for money.
Cllr Kemkaran, who took charge of the Reform UK-led council on May 22, claimed firms are charging sums “way above” the market rate.
She has now put her DOLGE (department for local government efficiency) team onto the task of finding savings.
Kent County Council (KCC) has to provide home-to-school transport (HST) for children with special educational needs and disabilities, or where a child cannot be found a school place near their home.
The bill has soared partly because of the way education health care plans (ECHPs), which entitles many children to door-to-door transport, have been changed in recent years.
Cllr Kemkaran told Times Radio she recognises the law requires the authority to provide transport to children with special needs.
She added: “I’m led to believe that a lot of taxi companies quote KCC a rate that is way above the market rate.
“So I have tasked my DOLGE team to look at that specifically. Who is awarding these contracts? Does anyone do a market comparison? Are we getting value for money?
“That’s what were voted in on – to get the residents of Kent the best value for money.”
It is understood around 20,000 children and young people have EHCPs in Kent but not all are entitled to, receive or take free transport.
Earlier this year, it was reported cab firms were caught trying to claim nearly £30,000 for home-to-school trips they did not make.
Between April and August 2024, Kent County Council (KCC) officials spotted 15 cases of invoicing “irregularities”.
They were warned further breaches could result in a written warning or the termination of their contracts.
Cllr Rory Love, the ousted Conservative education portfolio holder who lost his Folkestone seat on May 1, did not dispute Cllr Kemkaran’s £98m figure.
He conceded KCC had “taken its eye off the ball” in lowering the requirements for EHCPs, effectively doubling the numbers in a decade.
It was revealed in 2023 that Kent was issuing 20% more EHCPs than the national average.
Mr Love said that he had identified a raft of measures to cut the cost of the HST bill to the tax-payer, including the refreshing of contracts with cab firms and sharing routes to maximise efficiency.
But he was more critical of some of Reform’s recent declarations about KCC.
He added: “The truth is the first casualty of their soundbites. Some of what they claim to have revealed was already in the public domain and some of the stuff is complete and utter nonsense.”
Reform UK won a landslide victory on May 1, taking 57 of the 81 seats at County Hall.
Few of the newly-elected members have any direct experience of local government.
Cllr Kemkaran will also have to work with all the other 13 councils in Kent to come up with a plan by November to abolish themselves and be replaced by three or four new, larger unitary authorities.