Enfield Council struggling to cover cost of special needs transport, report reveals

Costs for providing transport to school for special needs pupils could rise to £11.7m this year, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Council fears it could face a £1.7million overspend on its transport service for children and young adults with special needs.

The spending projections, published in a recent council report, found that the cost of providing the service could rise to £11.1m this financial year – far beyond the £9.4m budgeted for 2026/27 by the local authority.

The local authority has a statutory obligation to deliver its Passenger Transport Service (PTS) so children and young people “can get to and from their places of education on a daily basis”.

But with costs rising by an average of 8% a year, council officers have also projected that total spending could reach up to £36.1m over the next three years.

The figures come from a report published ahead of a proposal for the council to extend its ‘dynamic purchasing system’ (DPS) contract for these services until February 2029.

Brett Leahy, the council’s executive director of environment and communities, officially approved an extension earlier this month. It is set to come into force from tomorrow (Wednesday 20th) provided no councillor puts forward any ‘call-in’ challenges before this time.

In the report, the local authority describes its PTS as a “highly visible statutory service looking after the needs of children with educational health and care plans and special needs, delivering a cost-effective transport solution”.

Currently, the council provides this service to more than 1,400 children and young adults.

Part of this is done through personal travel budgets. However, around 950 of these children and young people use transport services provided by the local authority.

Demand for this service, facilitated “through a combination of an in-house transport provision backed up by subcontractors”, has doubled in the past eight years.

The report revealed the rising cost is “mainly due to more students, additional complex routes, and higher contract overheads such as fuel”.

Given this – and its legal responsibilities – the council needs to find ways of being able to afford its transport service. Currently, this is paid for through the local authority’s general fund, with no grants available.

According to the report, proposed money-saving measures include “route optimisation, education policy changes for post-16 transport, and maximising in-house transport efficiency”.

The council’s current “dynamic” system for procuring these services sees it use nine separate providers to reach its delivery requirements.

The dynamic contract system has been used by the local authority since 2017 “as a means of procuring a cost-effective service”. The current iteration of the DPS expired on 17th April and needs to be replaced so the council isn’t in breach of procurement law.

The council report explained: “Allowing the extension of this DPS will ensure that both procurement officers and the transport service have sufficient time to properly look at and assess the options and routes for procurement of new contracts in compliance with procurement legislation.”

It also warned that “failing to deliver this dynamic purchasing agreement could put significant pressure on an already challenging budget”.

Local news needs your support

We are proud that we were at the forefront of reporting on the recent local elections. We can’t do this without the support of our readers.

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

ACT NOW!

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.