Town hall insists no child will be “left without appropriate travel assistance as a result of this review”, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

A scheme helping children with special educational needs or disabilities (Send) travel to school could be halted to save money, Newham Council has confirmed.

The ‘travel buddy’ scheme helps children gain confidence travelling to school by themselves. However, the council is considering scrapping it to rein in a £5million overspend on its children and young people’s service.

A council spokesperson said that no child would be “left without appropriate travel assistance as a result of this review”.

The travel buddy scheme is part of the council’s home-to-school transport service, which by law it has to provide to children with Send who need help getting to school.

It is intended to help children gain confidence travelling independently, according to the town hall.

However, a council financial report suggested the scheme could be “withdrawn”, with parents “being notified ahead of the new academic year”.

It said town hall staff were looking at making “efficiencies” to the service to stem rising costs.

A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “As part of the council’s ongoing review of home to school transport, we are reviewing travel buddy arrangements alongside wider service improvements.

“The travel buddy scheme has historically been used as a short-term intervention to help children and young people develop confidence and independence in travelling, rather than as a long-term transport arrangement.”

The spokesperson added that any changes to individual transport arrangements would only be made after an assessment.

They said the council’s legal duties would “continue to be met” and that “eligible children and young people will continue to receive appropriate travel assistance based on their assessed needs.”

The council’s children and young people department is on course to overspend by £5.116m by the end of this financial year.

Of this, £3m is linked to home-to-school transport, provides a variety of different forms of support including passes, minibuses for children unable to use public transport, or travel buddies.

A monthly report on spending said this was down to a growth in demand for education health and care plans – which set out what support a council must give to children with Send – and increased transport costs.

It said there had been “an increase in pupil numbers requesting and/or requiring transport that requires new additional capacity”.

The report added that the council’s own vehicles “are operating at full capacity” leaving it to “rely on private taxi operators that are around 50% more costly”.

Meanwhile, the report added, recent changes to government guidance mean more pupils are eligible for home to school transport.

It said this meant “the growth in the applications is likely to increase exponentially”.

As a result, it said the department was looking at “efficiencies” including “the withdrawal of the travel buddy scheme”.

New rules introduced at the council last year mean that departments facing extra costs have to take “mitigating actions” before being given access to contingency funding or financial reserves.

Labour councillor Zulfiqar Ali – responsible for finance – presented the report to council leaders last Tuesday (21st).

Cllr Ali said that “councils across the country continue to face unprecedented financial pressures”.

However, he said the council’s new spending rules had helped “rebuild our financial resilience” and that this “helps to protect the services that matter most to people”.

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