Wokingham Spends Millions on School Transport

Wokingham Borough Council spends millions on home-to-school transport, mainly for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The council must provide transport for pupils aged 5 to 16. Non-SEND children can qualify if they live beyond the statutory walking distance to their nearest school, if the walking route is unsafe even with accompaniment, or if the family gets free school meals or the maximum level of Working Tax Credit.

Transport methods include free public transport passes, seats on dedicated school buses or minibuses, shared taxis where a pupils needs require it, or a Personal Travel Budget so families can arrange travel themselves.

For 2025/26 the council spent A35.621 million on home-to-school transport, down by about A31.287 million from A36.908 million in 2023/24.

Emma Cockerell, the council's director for children's services, noted that while expenditure has reduced by more than half for mainstream pupils, it remains high for SEND pupils who are reliant on home-to-school transport.

Her report states: "Demand for home-to-school travel assistance is at peak levels in Wokingham. Although mainstream pupil numbers have started to decline, this is offset by a continuing rise in travel assistance requests for pupils with SEND. As the SEND component of travel assistance is the highest intensity, in terms of resourced needs, this results in continued pressure on this area of expenditure. The fact that specialist SEND placements often have to be made out of borough places an additional financial strain on this budget area. The SEND Transport Team and the Community Transport Unit are jointly delivering a number of initiatives to shift the emphasis of the service from being provision-led to user-led. Together, these measures have more than offset the aforementioned pressures in cost terms and, ultimately, resulted in better outcomes for children, young people and their families."

The children's services overview and scrutiny committee will receive a presentation on the report at its meeting on Wednesday, September 2.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter