(UK) Sheffield: $9.3M overspend transporting 2,520 SPED students
- The end of childhood
- Oct 11
- 2 min read
Oct 10, 2025, BBC News: SEND pupils face up to 50-mile school round trip
Central England
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Sheffield are doing round trips of up to 50 miles to attend schools in different areas, according to council data.
The furthest distance a child travels is 117 miles to a residential school where a taxi drops them off on Monday and collects them on Friday.
Warren Carratt, CEO of Nexus Multi-Academy Trust which runs 16 SEND schools in South Yorkshire, said parents were "wrestling with a wicked issue" as some children need to travel for up to an hour-and-a-half.
Sheffield City Council said it was "consistently" looking at ways to minimise journeys, while the government said it was investing £740m [$990K] nationwide to create more places.
There are 2,520 children with special needs and disabilities entitled to school transport funded by Sheffield City Council.
Of these, 114 are travelling to schools outside the city by parents who are reimbursed for taking them, or in taxis or minibuses.
Mr Carratt said there was a "constant trend" of children going to schools over the border.
"It is something we've seen a significant change in and that's really down to an insufficient supply of places which is restricting parental choice," he said.
"There isn't going to be a special school in every family's postcode but if parents are placed between a choice of waiting forever or looking over the border, I completely understand." . . .
Sheffield City Council is facing a £7m [$9.3M] budget overspend with SEND transport and has described it as "an unsustainable expenditure needing urgent and sustained action".
Mr Carratt said there was a "perfect storm" as successive governments had failed to invest in the increased demand for SEND places and councils had no additional funding to cover the costs of transport.
Sheffield City Council, which had responded to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC, said demand was high, as with most areas of the country. . . .
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "This government inherited a SEND system on its knees. . . .
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