Cuts to Warwickshire County Council's home-to-school transport are set to be approved this week – but the expected savings are limited to £608,000.

A review of the assistance offered outside of legal requirements was launched in October 2025 to tackle soaring demand that saw the bill more than treble from £17.2 million in 2018-19 to an expected £58.4 million this financial year.

It has been a hot topic since Reform UK took control at Shire Hall in May 2025 with the public consulted on measures that would have seen provision stripped back very close to the statutory minimum.

That in itself would still make it tricky to control costs with growing numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) having specific transport needs and sometimes far longer journeys to access a setting that meets their educational needs. The impact of inflation from taxi companies and travel providers has also been a headache.

If passed by the cabinet – the Reform UK panel of councillors in charge of major service areas – on Thursday, the new rules will remove eligibility for help for some families.

Transport for children who would have to travel more than three miles come what may but don't take a place at their nearest school if one is available will no longer get help, creating a saving of £250,000 per year.

Post-16 SEND pupils who do not use public transport will automatically be assessed for independent travel training. Those who are deemed capable of using public transport will not have alternatives funded, saving £340,000 per year from 2027-28.

Travel assistance will not be adjusted for alternative settings or the timing of exams, while safe walking routes will now be reassessed annually instead of every three years. Pupils will have assistance withdrawn at four weeks' notice in cases where walking is judged to be viable.

Door-to-door provision will be scaled back with the use of drop-off and pick-up points "for all pupils" unless the route is unsafe or SEND means that a pupil cannot access the points.

Not every cutback was implemented, though, with "parental health or disability needs" to be considered as part of applications where pupils are within statutory walking distances and attending their nearest school.

Plans to remove specialist SEND transport for nursery-age children, travel to respite settings for SEND children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and asking parents and carers to unlock all other funding sources and mobility vehicles for post-16 pupils with SEND before being eligible have been scrapped.

Children subject to a managed move – temporarily sending them to a different setting for behavioural reasons – or those placed in alternative provision will continue to have council support rather than placing the travel burden on schools, a switch that could have saved the council £600,000 per year if had been kept in/

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that "streetlighting will be required to consider a route safe" in relation to children who walk.

New permanent and temporary staffing posts to help implement the policy are expected to cost the council £334,000 over the next five years, £56,000 of which is a recurring cost into future years.

That eats into the £942,000 expected to be saved through a combination of these new measures and existing savings that are on track to be delivered this financial year.

The report to cabinet states: "While the changes are not being progressed solely as a savings measure, they are expected to support delivery of savings within the Home to School Transport Change Programme.

"These savings will be partially offset by the short-term additional resource required to implement the revised policy effectively, manage the anticipated impact on workloads and support appeals handling and communication with affected families."

It leaves an overall saving of £608,000 over the five-year period, 1.04 per cent of Warwickshire County Council's expected spend on home-to-school transport spend for 2026-27 alone.