THE number of children recorded as having additional educational needs has more than doubled in the past five years, leading to a surge in spending on taxis and private car transfers to more than £100,000 per year.
Education officials have clarified that the rise in the proportion of pupils classed with extra needs was the primary factor behind a total of £216,327 being spent on taxis over the past two years.
The figure was published following a freedom of information request, with the response clarifying that Children Young People Education and Skills was the biggest-spending department.
An Education spokesperson said the majority of the total spend on taxis related to the transportation of pupils with a Record of Need, which describes a student’s special-educational requirements and the arrangements that will be made in order for them to make progress at school.
Departmental data showed that the number of RoNs across government schools increased from 271 to 559 over the last five years (2.3% to 4.8%).
The spokesperson explained that while some pupils were provided with funded bus passes or took part in a “buddy system” for bus transport aimed at older primary and secondary pupils, others whose physical condition prevented the use of mainstream buses were offered taxis or specialist bus transport.
Pupils were assessed and for those placed outside their catchment area, and with no other means of transporting them to school, transportation via specialist bus or taxi was arranged.
The spokesperson added that “the majority of other contributions to the overall amount are from supporting children who are in receipt of services from Children’s Services”.
The total cost of spending on taxis could be even higher, with the freedom of information response noting that: “Any taxi journeys purchased using a purchase card or claimed back through the expenses process are not included in these figures, due to the need to extract relevant data from a large number of records that would need to be searched manually.
“To retrieve and extract that additional information would take in excess of the 12.5 hours prescribed in freedom of information regulations.”
