Minibus delivery delay explained

Delays in kitting out dozens of new minibuses bought by Lancashire County Council to help cut the costs of transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities mean only half of them will be ready to come into service at the start of the new school year.

Twenty-five of the specially-modified vehicles will take to the roads from September – 18 months after they were ordered.

As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has been previously revealed, all 50 had been due to be delivered in October – meaning what is now the first tranche will be available slightly earlier than expected.   However, the authority says the remainder will only now be brought into use “in the coming months”.

The hope is the new vehicles will drive down the rocketing bill for the ‘home-to-school’ transport service, which is expected to hit £61m by the end of the current financial year.

The LDRS understands that nationwide supply chain issues affecting the conversion of the minibuses to make them suitable for their intended use is the reason for the latest hold up – the same problem that accounted for the already lengthy delivery process. Two different firms have now been commissioned to carry out the work in an attempt to speed up its completion.

Changes to the existing routes that will be enabled by the additional vehicles – to make journeys more efficient – mean the outstanding minibuses will probably be deployed to coincide with the start of new terms later in the academic year, regardless of when they actually arrive, in order to minimise disruption for families.

The full complement of new vehicles – a purchase made by the previous Conservative administration – will take the total in-house fleet at the now Reform UK-run authority to 208.

The move came amid spiralling demand for a service that caters predominantly for children who are entitled to be ferried to and from class as a result of stipulations in their education, health and care plans [EHCPs].

There are now around 5,200 SEND youngsters in the county council area who receive school transport support, along with 900 vulnerable adults who attend day centres and are supported by the same minibus vehicles – a total increase of more than 15 percent in the last financial year alone.

According to a report presented to cabinet members last month, home-to-school transport cost the authority – whose patch excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – £4.3m more than it had budgeted for during 2024/25.   That made it the most overspent element of the highways and transport department – from whose coffers the service is funded – although that was down by almost half on 2023/24, when school transport spending overshot its target by £8.1m.

It is hoped the expanded in-house minibus fleet will reduce the county council’s use of expensive, privately-hired taxis – often for individual children – and allow young people to travel in larger groups.   Each of the new and existing vehicles is staffed by a passenger assistant, as well as the driver, to ensure the safety of the pupils being transported.

In addition to the challenge of ballooning passenger numbers, the limited availability of suitable SEND school places close to where the children who need them actually live has piled further pressure on the home-to-school transport service.

That strain has been compounded by statutory guidance specifying the ideal maximum daily travelling time for a child – 45 minutes each way for primary pupils and 75 minutes for secondary school children.

The county council has rolled out a programme that has seen several new SEND units created within mainstream schools in order to better spread specialist capacity across the county.

Cabinet members were told last month that the authority was also continuing to focus on offering “personal transport grants” to parents whose children would otherwise be reliant on local authority-funded minibuses or taxis.    More than 400 families took up that option during 2024/25.

Commenting on the new minuses, cabinet member for education and skills, Matthew Salter, said they reflected the authority’s commitment “to securing real improvements in our SEND provision, while also ensuring value for money for the people of Lancashire”.

He added:  “We plan to significantly increase maintained special school provision through our capital programme and to improve the home-to-school transport service thanks to the arrival of the new vehicles.

“There has been significant investment in the SEND service and there are signs of progress across several critical areas for the first time this year, with the number of overdue education and health and care plan (EHCP) assessments beginning to drop.

“This will ensure an efficient and well run service which meets the needs of the children who use it and place the voices of children and families at the heart of what we do.

“We will continue to build on the SEND improvement journey, by enabling the needs of vulnerable children to be met without putting local councils under unsustainable pressure.”