Post-16 Parental Contribution: SEN Home to School Transport

Background
Sheffield City Council believes that every child and young person should be supported to travel to their place of learning as independently as possible – safely, confidently, and ready to learn. This becomes increasingly important as young people prepare for adulthood.

To support this, the Council provides home-to-school transport for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), where necessary. Demand for this vital service continues to rise, driven by increasing numbers of children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and the growing need for specialist provision.

For young people aged 16 and over, SEN home to school transport support is discretionary – this means that the Council is not legally required to provide it but chooses to do so to support access to education and help families.

For Post-16 learners, this can cost an average of £35 – £50 per day, or £6,800 – £9,500 per year per student (in full time education). Families currently contribute up to £540 per year (£180/term), and the Council covers the remaining amount. This contribution has not increased since 2017.

Given the increasing demand and rising costs, we are now consulting on a proposed increase to the parental contribution.

What is being proposed?
We are proposing to increase the annual parental contribution for Post-16 SEN Home to School transport from £540 to £1,000 per year. Although the Council continues to fund the majority of a young person’s transport costs, to ensure that eligible Post-16 students with SEND can access their place of learning, rising demand means we must consider how to manage the increasing financial pressures on the service. Increasing the parental contribution would help towards keeping the service running in a financially sustainable way. Even with the proposed increase, the Council would still contribute most of the cost per year per student.

The current contribution of £180/term (pro-rata for 3 days or less per week) remains in place for the new term in September 2025. Any changes could be implemented from January 2026 or a later date.

This proposal follows feedback from the January 2025 consultation on SEN Home to School travel support. Personal Travel Budgets and Independent Travel Training continue to be available as other forms of travel support.

We would like to understand how this proposed change could affect your family. Your feedback will help shape how we might implement and communicate any change. 

This survey is anonymous. Our reporting will not identify individuals. If we use any comments you provide as examples within our reporting, we will make sure they are anonymised and cannot be used to identify you and your child.