East Sussex County Council spent almost £20million transporting children to and from school last year – including more than £115,000 on one child.
The figures emerged after a row over an FOI request and how the figures were interpreted and reported. Last week, several media outlets reported how ESCC had spent £159,881.20 on providing home-to-school transport to a single child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
But the council disputed this saying the figures had been wrongly extrapolated. Instead, the accurate figure was actually £115,737.40 for an individual with “complex needs”. That means the council spent £841.48 for each day the child attended school.
East Sussex County Council’s own figure is still the highest amount reported by any of the councils who responded to the FOI request.
Correcting the reports, ESCC said it had spent an average of £11,566.57 per child during 2024. The total bill for the 1,677 children who receive the transport support was £19,397,137.
The study also reported the council’s overall annual spending on SEND home-to-school transport in both 2023 and 2024. It says the council had spent a total of £15,575,886 in 2023 and £19,397,137 in 2024 – a 24.53 per cent increase.
A spokesman for East Sussex County Council confirmed the 2024 figure to be accurate, while the response contained in the disclosure log also includes both figures.
The spokesman said: “We have a statutory duty to provide appropriate free transport to the nearest suitable school that can meet an eligible child’s SEND needs.
“We have seen an increase in costs due to the rate of inflation, as well as an increase in the number of children eligible to receive home to school transport. We have a robust bidding process in place for home to school transport contracts and regularly review existing contracts to ensure we are getting the best value for money.
“The highest cost of home to school transport for one individual child is due to the child’s complex needs.”