Cuts to post-16 school transport putting education at risk
3 mins read
Friday 6 March 2026
This advice applies in England only.
Attempts to address rising home-to-school transport costs with cuts to post-16 provision is putting access to education at risk for children and young people with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found.
In the PAC’s report published today, the committee describes the £2.3 billion school transport service as “vital”, but financially unsustainable. Councils have responded with cost-saving measures, including restricting non-statutory provision, particularly for 16–19-year-olds. But the committee says these are likely to affect attendance and participation and could contribute to rising NEET levels. (NEET stands for not in education, employment or training).
Contact welcomes the committee’s scrutiny, but urge against solutions that remove door-to-door transport for those children who need it.
Post-16 “cliff edge” keeping parents out of work
The report highlights a sharp “cliff edge” at 16, when changes to entitlement mean local authorities have discretion over what support, if any, they provide.
Parents and colleges gave evidence to the committee of young people missing learning or failing to start courses because of a lack of suitable transport . The report also notes specific concerns about the impact of the cliff edge on children and young people with SEND.
Parents help shape PAC report
We’d like to thank everyone who replied to our transport for 16-19 year olds survey. Your replies helped us produce robust and up-to-date evidence on school and college transport which we then fed back to the PAC.
The report contains evidence from Contact throughout. We highlighted the importance of transport to disabled students and their families and the impact of cuts to post-16 transport. 40% of families report an impact on their ability to work due to a lack of transport.
We described confusion around post-16 rights and entitlements, a regular top issue on our helpline. Our CEO Anna Bird gave evidence to the committee in December.
What does the PAC recommend?
Among its key recommendations, the committee asks the Department for Education (DfE) to:
- Set out how planned SEND reforms will reduce transport costs and when savings will materialise.
- Improve its understanding of the relationship between transport, attendance and NEET,
- Make transport data collection mandatory and standardised to establish a clear baseline for reform.
The committee calls on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure its new funding formula properly aligns resources with need and to address SEND deficits without forcing further service cuts.
Urgent need to stabilise funding without harming disabled students
Contact welcomes the committee’s scrutiny of school and college transport and the impact it has on disabled students and their families.
We share the ambition that the proposed SEND reforms will improve inclusive education for SEND children and young people, which should, in turn, relieve some of the pressure on home to school transport. In the meantime, efforts to contain costs must not have a negative impact on disabled students.
The committee’s report recognises that a shift in expectation from door-to-door school transport to broader “travel assistance” may work for some children, but will not suit all. Those with the most significant needs may always require bespoke home-to-education transport.
For SEND students and their families, there remains an urgent need to stabilise funding, protect services and improve post-16 provision. Transport must be a bridge to education, not a barrier.
Thanks to funding from the Motability Foundation, Contact is campaigning to improve transport to school or college. Read more about our school transport campaign.