Oct 27, 2022, Yorkshire Post: Yorkshire council spending £22,000 [$25K] a week on taxi journeys to schools outside the city https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/education/yorkshire-council-spending-ps22000-a-week-on-taxi-journeys-to-schools-outside-the-city-3896551
Leeds City Council paid out over £1.1m [$1.3M] for private hires for vulnerable pupils between April 2021 and March 2022, according to numbers obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
By law, the council is obliged to offer free home-to-school transport for some disabled pupils. Those with special educational needs (SEND) or certain medical conditions which restrict their mobility are among those entitled to free journeys.
But of the 2,392 children the council took to school in taxis last year, around 100 receive their education outside of the city, the local authority said.
Because of the extra miles involved, the average annual transport bill for a pupil going to school elsewhere was £11,400 [$13K], compared to roughly £5,100 for a child who attends school in Leeds….
More than £2.7m [$3.1M] of the overall bill went towards paying passenger attendants to accompany the children on the journeys.
Leeds City Council are spending nearly £22,000 a week on taxi journeys for children who go to school outside of the city.