Nottinghamshire County Council “committed” to supporting SEND school transport
A senior Nottinghamshire councillor has said the new Reform County Council is “committed” to supporting school transportation for children with special educational needs – but it will look for ways to save money.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children and Families Select Committee met on Monday, July 14, to discuss a progress update for the authority’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) service.
The committee saw some positive figures for SEND pupils and the issuing of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in the most recent update.
An EHCP is a legal document detailing a young person’s needs, the support they require and the progress they want to make – the target issuing time for one is 20 weeks after assessment.
Between January 2025 and April 2025, just under 50 per cent of EHCPs were issued within 20 weeks, marking a solid increase from 32.7 per cent for the same period in 2024.
This is a solid improvement for the county, with just 4.5 per cent of new EHCPs issued within 20 weeks during 2022.
But there were concerns shared by an opposition member during the meeting regarding the Reform authority’s stance on school transport for SEND pupils.
Reform’s national leader, Nigel Farage, recently visited Kent County Council where he spoke of cuts to some school transport funding – he did say exceptions would be made for SEND pupils.
But Reform’s stance on transport funding has raised concerns that SEND pupils will be negatively impacted.
Posing her question to Coun Hana John (Ref), cabinet Member for Education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Coun Sue Saddington (Con) said: “Prior to the [local election in May] it was mentioned by Reform UK that you were going to look at cutting the transport for SEND children.
“There are the most vulnerable children in our society and I am asking you today to give me an answer as to whether [the current administration] will continue to provide further schools for SEND children and the transport for the SEND children?”
Coun John responded: “I know [the previous Conservative administration] made significant strides in helping to provide parents and carers a system of transport for children and young people.
“This administration is committed to the ongoing support for parents and carers for EHCPs, any resources those children and young people need but also for transportation – we are committed to continuing to support them in that area.”
The approved budget for SEND transport was £21.1 million in the 2024/25 financial year – this has risen to £24.3 million for 2025/26.
Coun John echoed Reform UK’s mantra of finding efficiencies and ways to save money.
She added: “We’ll be looking at innovative ways in how we can help to reduce areas within that transportation, by looking at travel buddies… for young people so they can be more independent and integrate into mainstream ways fo transportation making them more ready for life when they leave school.”
Coun Saddington replied: “I assume you’ve been around some of the care homes and seen some of the children who are in those care homes – it would be completely impossible for them to get on regular transport and these are the people I’m actually speaking about.”
Coun Saddington requested a written answer to her original question from Coun John as she felt it had not been answered to which Coun John agreed.
Requests for EHC assessments have also risen this year, with 1,708 requests between April 2024 and March 2025 – 15.1 per cent higher than the same period the year prior.