SEND school transport delays 'affecting hundreds'

Delays to organising transport for children with special educational needs (SEND) to-and-from school are "affecting hundreds of families", a campaigner has said.

Claire Brenner, from the Oxfordshire SEND Parent Action Group, said the situation was "worse than ever" for parents applying for transport in time for the new school year.

Local authorities are often legally required to arrange funded transport for many SEND children under education, health and care plans.

Oxfordshire County Council said there were some delays to applications that were lodged after its deadline, adding that it was aware of an "issue that needs to be resolved".

"It is affecting hundreds of families - there are parents who are having to give up work so they can drive their young person to school," Brenner said.

"Many children weren't able to start school on time because they had no transport, and the council were completely in a panic."

Danielle White, from Arncott near Bicester, said she had repeatedly contacted the council for an updated transport arrangement for her son after the family recently moved house.

"We need to sort this because we've only got a week left until school," she said of the situation.

"I've got either an option of trying to get him to the old address and sitting outside someone else's house with my son, which isn't ideal.

"Or he doesn't go to school, which would obviously have a massive effect on him and his routine."

This year marks the third that parents have reported delays with the council's process.

"This is so much worse, the scale of it has been absolutely incredible," Brenner said, comparing 2026 to previous years.

"So many children weren't able to start school on time because they had no transport."

"The council were completely in a panic - it was an absolute chaos," Brenner added.

Responding to the criticism, Sean Gaul, Oxfordshire County Council's education chief, said it had received more than 8,000 travel applications on time.

Of those, Gaul said, "less than 1%" were still waiting for travel arrangements to be organised.

"Separate to that, we have more than 500 travel applications that came through after the published deadline," he said.

This was "an issue that needs to be resolved", he said.

"I'm really interested in trying to find out why those applications are late and how we found ourselves in this situation, but that's what's at the crux of this."

"This isn't a SEND specific issue, this is an issue that's affecting eligible children for home-school transport and we need to work at it at pace, which is currently what we're doing."