The Isle of Wight Council has spent more than £6million in the last 6 years providing taxis to get pupils to and from school.
The spend on home-to-school taxis has increased year-on-year since April 2017, when only 148 pupils required transport, costing £659,534. It meant, in that year, the Council spent £4,456.31 per pupil.
The number of pupils needing home-to-school taxi transport has increased each year, with the cost now more than doubled.
At the latest count, a freedom of information request to the Council revealed that in 2022-23 it has spent £1,837,793 — nearly triple the cost of 2017 — for 319 pupils. It equates to a cost of £5,761.11 per pupil this year— an increase of £1,304 per pupil.
Between April 2017 and March 2023, the Isle of Wight Council provided 1,382 pupils with taxi transport to school costing £6,773,587.
Each year, the Council provides home-to-school transport — by bus, train or taxi — to around 4,000 students. The majority of students get a bus or coach service but taxis are available for some due to their needs or where they live.
At the moment, the council holds 138 contracts with taxi operators to provide the transport needed for students.
It is a legal requirement for the Council to make sure suitable travel arrangements are in place so children who are eligible can go to school.
By law, if a pupil lives more than the minimum number of miles from their home to the nearest school, they are entitled to free school transport. That is 2 miles for Reception to Year 3 and 3 miles for Years 4 to 11.
The rise in students needing taxis to and from school has been put down to a range of factors by the cabinet member for children’s education, Councillor Debbie Andre. She said there were inflationary operator costs and increased demand for transport provision for children with special educational needs.
With the increase in pupil numbers and costs, Cllr Andre said the Council is focusing on several initiatives to reduce the cost of school transport. They include a review of the contracted taxi routes, trying to consolidate them to make fewer journeys and vehicle provisions.
Cllr Andre also said they were exploring opportunities for children with special education needs to access more local school provision which meets their learning needs while reducing the need for transport or decreasing travel time.
She said they would also be providing eligible parents with options for parental mileage allowances or personal budgets, so they could take their children to school, replacing the need for more expensive taxi transportation.
The Council will also be investigating opportunities for schools to take advantage of a ‘Spend to Save’ leased minibus scheme. It would allow schools to undertake home transport duties while using the vehicles during the day for school trips, with the option to replace the minibus every 3 to 4 years.
I know someone who uses this service for their child yet they have a car and she doesn’t work why are the council allowing this?
£6million. So all the parents work full time.have kids and pass on responsibilities. I don’t think so.
I will never vote again, all are a load of useless B’stards
You and me.plus many more. We are all fools.we take it on the chin and always will.
What a surprise – the council pandering to the parents of kids that can and should be transported to school by the parents. Freeloading parasites.
if they hadn’t spent £6m on taxi’s for these sponging parents kids, then we could have had £41 off our council tax this year, as they should have had an additional £6m built up in the kitty, over the same period.
Ah yes, the tory way, let the world go to rack and ruin so you can save a few pennies on tax. Next time you are out and about and need the loo, remember the reason you can not find one is because you wanted a tax cut.
Correct fready – don’t see why I should be working and having money taken from me by force in the form of taxation, just to see it handed to a bunch of useless layabouts, that do nothing and expect everything.
if it means they go without, to ensure that I keep more of the money I make through my efforts – then all good with me.
It would be a lot worse under Labour.
Yeah Labour would have made a bus company or something ridiculous. At least the Toris are giving that many to private companies
They provide taxis for even the mildest forms of disability, autism, adhd, etc, just because your child shouts a bit doesn’t mean they need a taxi, really in a lot of cases I’d say they’re just used for the parents to absolve themselves from the responsibility of raising their own children, very similar to all the other free stuff a lot of these parents get, courtesy of the taxpayer. Of course I’m not saying this is everyone
Maybe go and learn what ASD is first before being an idiot on social media. First, not all with ASD get this help, many walk to school. The ones that do get it because having a break down on a school bus is a very bad idea and unfair on the other children. ASD is real and for the ones with a severe affliction it is very hard to live with. Last thing they need is zealots like you spouting hate on social media.
years ago Attention deficit and hyperactivity were cured in less than two minutes, with a swift slap across the face or backside by a good teacher or parent. Once you felt that short, sharp pain, it definitely focused your attention and there was no more hyperactivity. The mere thought of that pain again, kept you in check as a child and ensured that you learnt the boundaries, that other kids naturally adhered to.
stop pandering to these weaklings and get a bit of discipline in.
and stop justifying these kids poor behaviour and parents lack of parenting skills by calling it a “condition” that needs medication.
You’re a foul person. Your comments are typical Twitter vitriol. I wish your life would improve so you don’t feel the need to hit out at the poor and needy so much.
ASD is autism spectrum disorder not ADHD and I am certain it is not cured by physical violence you horrible idiot.
I work for a local authority – worth checking what the taxi firms are charging ‘because it’s the council’ – we found we were being charged more than double the going rate for children’s taxi journeys!
I have also heard that some of these trips probably did not occur and parents are sharing the costs claimed with taxi drivers. Milking a weak system dry.
More likely the cause is poor parenting due to free range kids who don’t know right from wrong.
The old school way always used to work years ago if they were shouting because they could get their own way. Nothing to do with mental health issues more like being a spoilt brat.
Or kids getting battered by their parents who are only learning violence and hate. There’s a few or that type in this comments section.
ha, look at all the hand wringing, do gooding mugs on these comments sections, pandering and making excuses for the kids
If teachers didn’t have the right to slap me, when I was a a kid, I would have made their lives hell, even more than I did. If I knew that the only consequence was some soppy, hand ringing, mealy mouthed teacher talking to me about my behaviour, I would have seen it as a free run to do whatever I wanted.
I only curtailed my behaviour as a kid to avoid as much physical punishment as possible. If it didn’t involve getting slapped as a consequence, I did whatever I wanted, if it suited me, regardless of what they said
i have worked throughout since leaving school and have travelled the world and am not skint.
Why let the costs get out of control so much, it’s really poor management. Solo taxi journeys for school kids are so inefficient. At the very least they should facilitate shared journeys. So very poor from the council.
How dare you imply public transport is the solution. That’s socialism, we don’t do that here!
I meant sharing a large taxi (four or five kids) rather than one kid one taxi. It’s socially beneficial for kids as well.
Bring back the Banana buses. Those in the ’70s will remember them. The Council owned and operated them, not outsourced to overzealous money-grabbing taxi firms.
Yes, many children with conditions such as autism find standard transport, buses etc, challenging to cope with. The Banana buses were grand for them. They were reliable and on time. However, what I struggle with, and I’m sure many other readers feel the same, is why taxpayers should be financing children to get to school who don’t have a disability.
I’m sure many readers question why taxpayers should pay for other people’s children. Shouldn’t the parent be responsible for getting their children to school and paying any associated costs?
Tory privatisation fixed this country!
Remember the council is not run by business people as a business.Just a load of local yokels whom are in it for their own gain .Spending tax payers money freely on things they think are a good idea and not sensibly on what tax payers really want.You could probably go to the circus and kidnap all the clowns they would run it better.
and they have scrutiny committees which are supposed to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen. retired circus performers.
So (eligible) kids that live 1.99 miles from school have to walk, but kids that live 2.01 miles from school get a free taxi all the way there? Why not taxi them to the 1.99 mile spot and let them walk the rest?
And £5,761 per year PER KID is outrageous!
I lease a new, mid-range family sized car on a 3 year rolling basis and it costs under £3,000 a year, insurance of about £200 and then fuel on top. I drive about 12,000 miles a year with fuel around £1,400. That’s not just school runs but EVERYTHING I use a car for, including holidays. Total £4,600.
If this were an average it would therefore represent a near 20% saving to pay for the ENTIRE cost of a car for these people to ferry their own kids to school!
Unreal…
Well it never happened in my day.
We had to walk, catch a bus or rarely taken by a parent in a car.
If you CHOOSE to live somewhere that is inaccessible to a school then its your problem.
I had to get to school by walking a long way.
If your child kicks off and cant travel to school on public transport then its your problem.
My three children all got to school on time and were at three different schools I took them myself and I worked full time.
Its a cant do, need help, free of charge, society now.
Get off your phone, get out of bed and take care of your offspring’s yourself.
Council you need to grow a pair and stop pandering to these people.
“Your day” when kids with autism were institutionalized in mental health hospitals. Lucky you for having three problem-free kids too. Well done.
Don’t think they were. We just grew up with it. Life is harder for some than others, but these kids aren’t going to be pondered to in the real world, so what are we setting them up for? They’ve got to go out, get a job and sort themselves eventually… Haven’t they?
If you choose to bring kids into the world then you should provide for them not expect everyone else too
Council employ someone yourselves and use your pool cars to take them. Save loads.
Or buy the parents a car, oh and insure it and maintain it and provide petrol, that would be cheaper.
This Council is a Joke
£76 a DAY for a 18 mile round trip journey. That’s what the taxi firms charge. Crazy. Yet if the parent is offered the option do drive themselves, they get £18 for the same journey.
These figures are just to demonstrate the rip off occurring here. But they are accurate.
About time council brought back it’s own mini busses as used to – blue/yellow
When you get older son what do you want?Either a taxi or a printing press for printing brand new£50 notes.Sorry son all the taxis have gone it will have to be a press after all.Taxis a license to print money.
Now I know why our council tax goes up every year.
We are supplementing parents who cannot afford to look after their children
If you cannot afford to have children, don’t have them.
Whatever happened to Contraception, that would solve the
cannot afford to have children problem.
Why the fcuk should we be paying £6,000,000.00
to take children to school.
Open more schools closer to where children live would help.
Why don’t the council AND/OR Southern Vectis buy some smaller buses or minibuses and employ actual staff as school bus drivers, would cost less than £6 million quid.
Great idea, this Council is good at spending our hard earned cash.
More children need travel assistance but at the same time we are told child school placement numbers are falling requiring the closure of local schools – something dousn’t seem to be adding up here ???
I will do it for 5 million, Who wants to come work for me driving taxis?