The council ended its ‘travel buddy’ scheme for children with special needs before the start of the new school year this month, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Newham Town Hall and (inset) cabinet member for education Lakmini Shah

Demand for a scheme helping special needs children get to school grew sharply before Newham Council scrapped it, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal.

The council ended its ‘travel buddy’ scheme – helping children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) get to school independently – before the start of the new school year this month.

Figures obtained by the LDRS show use of the scheme rose significantly every year it was in place, starting from 2022.

Senior Labour councillor Lakmini Shah, responsible for education, said eligible children were now using “alternative” means of transport, and that none “will be left without appropriate travel assistance”.

The council’s travel buddy scheme was intended to help children and young people with Send gain confidence to travel independently. It was part of the council’s home-to-school transport service, which by law it has to provide to eligible Send children.

However, the council has now ended the scheme as part of efforts to rein in a £5million overspend by its children and young people’s department this year.

Council financial papers say home-to-school transport accounts for much of the predicted overspend, with “an increase in pupil numbers requesting and/or requiring transport”.

Figures obtained by the LDRS using the Freedom of Information Act show just two children used the travel buddy scheme when it began in 2022/23. This increased to 15 in 23/24, 26 in 24/25 and 39 in 25/26.

The council said children used the scheme for an average of just under two years, and that the scheme cost £17,500 per child.

In a statement in July, a council spokesperson told the LDRS the scheme had “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 council’s children and young people department is on course to overspend by £5.1m by the end of this financial year.

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

The town hall has confirmed it has now ended the travel buddy scheme.

An update to council leaders next week says the council will instead increase its own fleet of vehicles “to ensure those children can go to school on the bus”.

It says these two measures together will offset the overspend by £250,000.

Other measures include reducing the council’s use of private taxis for Send children, saving £50,000, and reducing Send school placements out of the borough, saving £100,000, “as this generates highest transport costs”.

Cllr Shah told the LDRS that eligible Send children would still receive support to get to school.

However, the council did not say whether the new arrangements would aim to help them to travel independently.

Cllr Shah said: “The travel buddy scheme has ended, and all eligible children and young people are using alternative statutory transport.

“Any changes to transport arrangements can only be made following an individual assessment of pupil needs through the council’s established home-to-school-transport process.”

She added: “Eligible children and young people will continue to receive appropriate travel assistance based on their assessed needs.

“No eligible child will be left without appropriate travel assistance as a result of this review.”

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