Contact CEO gives school transport evidence in parliament

3 mins read

Tuesday 9 December 2025

This applies in England only.

Contact’s Chief Executive Anna Bird has given evidence to the Public Accounts Committee about families’ experiences of school transport.

The Committee is carrying out an inquiry into home to school transport, looking at rising costs, increased need and support available to young people. 

Anna spoke about what Contact hears on our helpline and through our school transport campaign and research. This includes that:

  • The increase in cost and need for school transport is largely due to the failure in special educational needs provision.
  • Transport is not a luxury for families with disabled children and young people – it is an essential part of education.
  • Transport supports improved outcomes in disabled young people’s participation in education or training. And it supports employment in parent carers with reduced welfare costs.
  • Fewer disabled children are travelling by council-run school buses, and councils are relying more on taxis. However – it is still a small proportion of children getting taxis.

Home-to-school transport is an essential service

Anna Bird said:

“More children with special educational needs and disabilities are travelling further to school to get a suitable education, because there is not enough support locally. One of the consequences of that is increased costs for school transport. So getting the SEND system right for disabled children is crucial.

“Transport is not a luxury for families with disabled children. It’s essential to ensure children can go to school and parents, who have enormous day and night caring pressures, are able to work.

“Inefficiencies in how councils plan, and an overreliance on private contracts, are contributing to the bigger transport bill. So there are savings to be made without jeopardising children’s ability to get to school.”

MPs also heard suggestions that home-to-school transport could in some cases be home-to-bus stop, or partial in other ways. Contact’s view is there will always be a need for a door-to-door school transport service.

Key findings from our school transport survey

Contact submitted written evidence to the inquiry, including the results from two surveys we conducted to gather families’ experiences of school transport.

Key findings include:

  • 81% of those receiving local authority-provided transport are satisfied/extremely satisfied.
  • 58% of parents say school transport helps their child’s independence. 41% said it enables them to get other children to school, and 50% said it helps them to work.
  • The average journey time is 43 minutes one way for those travelling on council provided transport 
  • The average journey time is 51 minutes one way for those getting a lift from parents. 
  • 60% experience a change to their school transport arrangements when their child turns 16 due to a loophole in the law.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey, which helped us to speak out about the loophole in the law for disabled learners.

The Public Accounts Committee launched its inquiry into home to school transport following its report on support for SEND earlier this year and the National Audit Office report on Home to School transport published in October, which featured Contact’s survey findings throughout.