Changes to the school transport service for children and young people with SEND

Last updated: 20 May 2025

Why we're making changes this year

We provide home to school transport for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities to and from school. Transport is provided from private transport operators through contracts that run for a certain amount of time.

The contracts to three special schools and their satellite units (listed below) will end on 31 July 2025 and we need to arrange new contracts ready for the start of the new school year in September 2025.

Schools in Kent affected

Read the full list of schools where contracts are due to end in July 2025.

What might change for your child

The changes to your child's transport could mean that they:

• have a different driver (and passenger assistant if your child needs one)
• take a new route to and from school
• travel with different pupils if they have not previously been assessed as needing to travel alone
• have new drop-off and pick-up times.

We understand that changes to routines can be unsettling for some pupils and their families. Unfortunately, we are unable to guarantee your child has the same driver (or passenger assistant if they have one) or have the same drop-off and pick-up times. However, by giving you as much notice as possible of the potential changes coming in September, we hope you can prepare your child for the changes.

When you will find out about your child’s transport

We will write to you before the start of the new academic year in September 2025 to let you know details of your child’s new transport provider.

Email ClientTransport@kent.gov.uk if you have not heard from us by then.

Considering your child's needs

We use the information we have about the needs of your child for the purposes of getting them safely to and from school. This information comes from several sources including your child's:

• education, health and care (EHC) plan
• SEN caseworker
• transport eligibility assessment.

If your child needs additional support while travelling, has a specific medical requirement or has been assessed as needing to travel alone then this will be included as part of our transport planning.

We also work closely with schools as their in-depth knowledge of pupils’ needs also informs transport plans. They will advise whether pupils sharing services are able to do so.

Travel times

The number of pupils requiring transport to and from school, where they live, the school or college they attend and the transport operators available all impact travel times.

We try to plan the most efficient routes to and from schools as possible and consider the statutory guidance for travel times issued by the Department for Education. They acknowledge journey times may be longer for SEN students because of the greater distances they may need to travel.

• For primary school students, the guidelines recommend journey times are no more than 45 minutes.
• For secondary school students it is 1 hour and 15 minutes.

While we try to meet these guidelines, some journeys may be a bit longer where more students are collected on routes to and from school.

Choosing new transport providers

We buy transport services from many different transport providers across Kent.

We have a legal requirement to follow a tendering process, which all councils must follow to buy services.

This is how it works.

1. We release details of routes with students assigned to them (which we refer to as ‘opportunities’).
2. Potential transport providers who are on a list of approved suppliers will then bid on these ‘opportunities’. We have to allow them between 7 to 10 days to do this.
3. We assess these bids against a set of criteria and then award contracts to the winning bids. This means that the successful transport provider will be the first to know the students they will be transporting to and from school.
4. We then let parents know who their transport provider is and how to contact them so that they can discuss their child’s travel details.
5. We then tell schools.

Sometimes we don’t get any responses to a particular route or 'opportunity', and so we must repeat the tendering process until we have a transport provider. Situations like this unfortunately cause unavoidable delays in arranging transport.

The contracts we have with new transport providers will last for 3 years, which we hope will give you and your children a consistent and stable service. The contracts will also give transport providers greater stability which in turn should help them attract and retain drivers.

What you need to do next

You don’t need to do anything.

We have spoken to your child’s school about our plans and to make sure all pupils’ needs are considered, for example where pupils can travel with other pupils and which pupils have a passenger assistant.

We will also use the information about your child’s travel needs already provided to us.

We will contact you again before the start of the new academic year in September 2025 to let you know details of your child’s new transport provider.

You might want to consider completing a Travel Passport for your child if you haven’t already. It’s a personalised document that helps drivers understand your child’s needs and preferences for a smoother journey to school.

You may also wish to consider a Personal Transport Budget (PTB). A PTB is a payment that allows you to make your own travel arrangements for your child, such as driving them to school yourself. PTBs offer flexibility and can be a good option for some families.