Greater Manchester councils spending over £500k a WEEK on taxis for schoolchildren
Hard-up town halls in Greater Manchester are spending more than half a million pounds every week on taxis to take children to and from school amid fears transport services for pupils are at "breaking point".
Town hall leaders say free school transport is a "lifeline" for many pupils but that funding pressures, rising demand and costs "are pushing the home-to-school transport scheme to breaking point". And a leading charity says it fears councils are looking at ways to cut SEND school transport, which is "an integral part of a child’s education".
"Stockport has experienced increased demand for travel assistance as a direct result of an increase in both the number of children in Stockport with SEND but also the complexity of the needs they present. Lancashire County Council has the highest total at 3,061 but its weekly cost was lower at £338,000. And North Yorkshire County Council - which has now been replaced by a unitary authority - was last year spending £458,000 a week sending 2,170 children to school by taxi.And Middlesbrough council routinely pays for a taxi to take a child 89 miles to school – equivalent to sending them all the way to Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
Also, students from low-income families, or whose parents are in receipt of their maximum level of Working Tax Credit are also potentially eligible for transport help for their education. Una Summerson, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the charity Contact, says school transport is one of the top issues its helpline gets calls about.
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