Cheshire East Council is paying £3,000 more per pupil than most equivalent councils to transport some children to school each year, writes Belinda Ryan.
This includes paying on average £71 for a 10-mile taxi journey or £118 for a 20-mile journey – way above the expected £21 or £41 costs respectively.
The council provides daily travel support for 3,557 children and young people, with 2,609 attending mainstream schools, 925 attending specialist provision and 23 in other settings.
Consultants commissioned to look into ways to reduce school travel costs revealed around £11 million a year is spent on contracted suppliers but said “it is challenging to prove that this expenditure is good value”.
Their report states: “The average cost per SEN (Special Educational Needs) passenger is £9,108 per annum, which is more than £3,000 per annum more than the average of the benchmark group of county councils.”
It adds Cheshire East also pays for a larger proportion of mainstream passengers on more costly contracted transport because of the rural geography and a lack of public transport.
The council had budgeted for £15.29 million this year for school transport but the cost is forecast to be £17.98m.
Richard Hall, from Edge Public Solutions, told this week’s meeting of the children and families committee: “You have a budget gap of at least £2.5m this year.
“You have passengers increasing, and they’ve increased by 49% since 2020, which is significant.
“You have a dwindling supply – 22% decrease in licensed drivers.
“So these things, coming together, do mean that you are going to continue to have increased costs unless you do something about it.”
He listed a number of options, including moving from a traditional door-to-door service for some people and “offering personal budgets and more effective ways and independent travel training in a much more robust and effective way”.
He said there would need to be a protocol to introduce safe walking routes.
With regard to the service operation, Mr Hall told the committee: “There are lots of opportunities to more effectively route, more effectively develop the competition and the supply.”
He said the council was paying well above what he would expect for taxis on school contracts saying that, under the usual licensed rates, a 10-mile journey would cost £22 and a 20-mile would cost £41.
“But the average contracted rates Cheshire East Council currently contract with home-to-school children is £71 for a 10 mile journey and £118 for a 20,” he said.
“Now we would normally expect a premium for SEN children… but we would normally only expect to see a 50% premium, not a 300% premium.”
Crewe councillor Laura Smith (Lab) said: “We need to ensure that, by introducing a competitive marketplace, we’re not actually just driving down standards of what is acceptable.”
Wilmslow councillor Lata Anderson (Ind) asked for a complete breakdown of figures to see what was being spent on all forms of transport.
“I do like a lot of the findings, especially around the efficiencies of route-saving, and the better use of technology to get those efficiencies in, and also to talk with public bus services to try and get them to maybe alter their routes or work with our children to get them in on time,” she said.
The council is now considering its options.
The committee agreed a number of recommendations including to delegate authority to the executive director of children and families to make decisions in relation to the roll out of a three-year transformation and modernisation programme.
This would include consultation with stakeholders, and to look at how to improve the effectiveness of routes, encourage and support new suppliers to Cheshire East, improve value-for-money and the experiences for families.
Another damming article about CEC ‘s capabilities. Why delegate authority to an existing Executive Director who has been responsible for this service and allowed it to happen. We need to make sure these pupils have good and safe transport to school. This is not their fault, but it is one of Officer failings to manage and monitor the system properly. They drive desks rather than get out and see what is going on in the real world.