Hard-up town halls in the North East are spending more than £1.4m every week on taxis to take children to and from school amid fears transport services for pupils are at "breaking point".
Across the region nearly 10,000 pupils have taxis to school paid for by their local authorities, who have a legal duty to help children who cannot walk or use public transport to get there, analysis by The Northern Agenda politics newsletter reveals.
The sky-high costs are in part caused by an increase in the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who need to go to a specialist school, often outside the local council's boundaries. Rising fuel prices, wages and inflation are also adding to the cost.
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And the councils with the highest bills were those with large rural patches, where public transport options are more limited than in big cities or towns, meaning the weekly spend on taxis is nearly £500,000 in County Durham and £300,000 in Northumberland. See how your local authority fares with this interactive graphic.
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".
Families have told of children eligible for school transport being refused or offered an unsuitable means of getting to school, like a bus pass for a disabled child who needs close supervision.
More than 40 local authorities across the region of 15 million people were asked about how they spend on taxis for pupils who go to school both locally and further afield.
Durham County Council is spending more money sending children to school by taxi than other Northern authority - a total of 2,299 at the time of our request in 2022 at a cost of £469,000 each week.
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 And North Yorkshire County Council - which has now been replaced by a unitary authority - was last year spending £458,000 a week sending 2,170 children to school by taxi.
The other biggest spenders were the now-defunct Cumbria council (£319,000 a week for 1,167 pupils) and Northumberland (£284,680 a week for 1,974 pupils).
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.
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In the North East, County Durham and Teesside the total weekly bill for taxis was £1.417m a week for 9,927 children, including 1,091 who go to school outside their local authority area.
Other than Durham and Northumberland the highest spend was in Newcastle at £166,976, while North Tyneside's was £81,540, Gateshead's £77,270, South Tyneside's £75,000 and Sunderland's £63,066 a week.
Tees Valley councils spent less, with taxis costing Stockton £55,778 a week, Middlesbrough £32,091, Hartlepool £20,950, Darlington £35,220 and Redcar and Cleveland £54,704.
Jim Murray, Durham County Council’s head of education and skills, said its home to school transport provision was "a huge and complex daily operation that involves over 1,000 transport routes and 300 contracted suppliers and is a service we know is highly valued by parents, carers, children and young people".
He added: “Unfortunately, we’ve seen costs increase in recent years due to rising fuel prices, wages, inflation, and growing demand, with more rises forecasted in future.”
Councils have a legal duty to assist with travel arrangements for children aged five to 16 who have conditions that mean they could not be reasonably expected to walk to school. This would be either by providing funding, a public transport permit, or putting on a mini-bus, people carrier or taxi service depending on the pupil’s needs.
Children are eligible for this service if they fulfil certain criteria, such as students who are unable to walk to school by reason of their special educational needs, disability or temporary medical condition.
The service also helps children or students who are unable to walk in safety to school because of the nature of the route and students living outside statutory walking distances, attending their available nearest school, where no suitable alternative arrangements have been made.
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.
The body which represents local councils says the Government's recent strategy for children with special educational needs would fix some of the problems with the current system.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: "Free school transport is a lifeline for many pupils and their families but it must be adequately funded if councils are to meet their legal duties to all children and young people.
“Improving levels of mainstream inclusion will also be crucial in addressing this, reducing the reliance on costly special schools and other settings. Powers to intervene in schools not supporting children with SEND should be brought forward at the earliest opportunity, but should sit with councils, not the Department for 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.
And she said failing to provide a way for children to get to school - meaning they were unable to get the education they are legally entitled to - would leave taxpayers facing much higher costs.
She said: "School transport is an integral part of a child’s education. If a child can’t get to school or has such a stressful experience getting to school then they are not able to learn and take part in the school day like other children.
"A taxi to school is often the most suitable type of transport for a child that might struggle on a school bus due to their disabilities.
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"The law says that a child with special educational needs, a disability or mobility problems that would prevent them walking to their nearest suitable school must get free transport help regardless of distance. However some local authorities are trying to cut corners to save money and applying the distance criteria which is for all children rather than assessing each child’s needs individually."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “It is for local authorities to decide how they arrange free travel for eligible children, for example, school bus, minibus, bus pass or taxi but no child should be prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport.
“Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel for compulsory school age children who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk to school because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so.”
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