Consultation on school transport policies from September 2026

Overview

We want your views on proposed changes to our Home to School Transport Policy (0 to 25 year olds) and our Post-16 Transport Policy Statement for 2026 to 2027.

Home to school travel assistance for eligible children is a statutory service that we must deliver, and the council’s school transport policies provide the framework for the services we provide. Like other local authorities across the country, the council continues to face increasing demand for school transport and significant related financial pressures. Find out more in our corporate plan and budget consultation (closes 11:59pm on Thursday 9 October).

We have proposed some changes to our Home to School Transport Policy (0-25 years) and some of our proposed changes are also relevant to our Post-16 Transport Policy Statement. The changes we have proposed are intended to make our school transport policies clearer and easier to understand.

Any agreed changes will apply for the 2026 to 2027 academic year onwards and will apply to both new and existing customers.

Proposed changes to school transport policy

The Home to School Transport Policy sets out our approach to providing transport to schools / educational settings for students up to 19 years old (up to 25 years for students with special educational needs and disabilities).

The Post-16 Transport Policy Statement sets out transport arrangements for students aged 16 and over. It specifies the transport arrangements we consider necessary for sixth form students to attend education or training.

We have made some changes to our school transport policies to make them clearer and easier to understand.

More information on proposed changes More information on proposed changes

clarification provided
- on travel assistance eligibility and offer for children aged 0-4 years and young people aged 16 years and over
- on extended rights eligibility for pupils from low income families
- on circumstances where travel assistance will not be provided
- that post-16 council arranged SEND transport for a fee will not be put in place until payment arrangements are made
- on the reasons and notice periods that apply where travel assistance is withdrawn
- by reducing the detail for the Spare Seats scheme in the policy, and including a link to the scheme’s terms and conditions webpages instead
- by reducing the level of detail on other topics e.g. public buses and trains and including links to the relevant webpages instead
more information on
- Personal Transport Budgets for pupils without an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- Post-16 Council arranged SEND transport for a fee
- eligibility assessments for pupils and students with EHCPs moving into Buckinghamshire
- transport eligibility for students with EHCPs who are following a supported internship

All the proposed updates are highlighted in yellow in the draft policy documents below. There are also clean versions of the draft policy documents with no tracked changes or yellow highlighting.

We want to hear your views on these updates and whether they have made our policies easier to understand.

How to have your say

You can tell us your views in one of the following ways:

complete the online survey using the link at the end of the page
complete, and return, a printed version of the survey (PDF 0.28MB)
email us at H2STpolicyconsultation@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
write to us at Home to school transport consultation 2025, Client Transport, Buckinghamshire Council, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UA

If you have any questions about this consultation, please email us at H2STpolicyconsultation@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or phone us on 01296 387439.

Please tell us your views by 11:59pm on Sunday 16 November 2025.

What happens next

We will consider all the feedback we receive before deciding on the proposed changes to Home to School Transport Policy and Post-16 Transport Policy Statement. The council's key decision will be made in April 2026.

Once the decision has been made, we will publish the new Home to School Transport Policy and Post-16 Transport Policy Statement.

They will apply to school transport from September 2026. We will update this page with the outcome of the consultation.

Privacy

We will use the information you provide here only for this activity. We will store the information securely in line with data protection laws and will not share or publish any personal details. Survey responses will be analysed using Microsoft products including Copilot, Excel and Word. For more information about data and privacy, please see our Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about data and privacy, please email us on dataprotection@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or write to our Data Protection Officer at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF.

Give us your views

Online Survey

Areas

All Areas

Interests

Children & young people
Schools & education
Transport

Contact