Written evidence submitted by The Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford (HTS0025)
Brief overview
We are responding to this call for evidence as a research team based in the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford. We are currently working on a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) entitled ‘Care on the Move’. Our ongoing research aims at better understanding the challenges and barriers faced by children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), focusing particularly on the physical, emotional, and logistical work that parents and carers perform to navigate transport systems that are not designed with their families’ needs in mind - (including for example, the work required to manage sensory sensitivities, social unpredictability, and the lack of flexible, affordable, and inclusive transport options).
Through this ongoing qualitive research involving parents and carers in the cities of Oxford and Swindon, we have started to gather preliminary insights that speak to the role of transport in shaping the lives of children with SEND and their families. Our submission focuses on the topic of Available support for young people where our research findings are most directly relevant. Along with insights and direct quotes from parents and carers detailing the experiences of navigating available support provisions, we also include a summary of emerging implications. It is important to note that the list of available support in this submission is not exhaustive, but rather is reflective of the ones that came up in our research with families thus far. We hope that the detailed insights included in in our submission will inform understandings of how Home-to-school transport can better support the needs and rights of children with SEND and their families.
Experiences of available support
While some children with SEND are eligible for free travel assistance, such as a place on a taxi or minibus, this assistance often comes with significant challenges. Many parents report that their children experience unsafe, stressful, and sometimes long and logistically complex journeys, particularly when attending specialist schools located far from their homes. Families describe issues such as inconsistent staffing, undertrained support workers, overcrowded vehicles that group children with differing sensory needs, and a limited flexibility in accommodating individual needs. These experiences have cumulative effects that extend beyond the journey itself, disrupting school participation and emotional regulation. We include below a direct quote from a parent sharing her 8-year-old child’s experience on a council-provided taxi service:
“…he got given a taxi but he really struggled. It was a taxi full of other children with additional needs. Very close together with sensory processing, that was awful. He regulates through food as well. So, for a little while, the school had an agreement that he could have a snack on the way home. Basically, it was like a carrot to get him home, otherwise he became quite dysregulated and it’s a long journey. But after about a month, I had a phone call and the Council wouldn’t allow it, which I understand because it’s somebody’s car and they don’t want eating in there. However, it’s a specialist transport provider, you would think that might have been okay, but after that, it just went downhill with getting there and then, of course, he was dysregulated once he was there and it started the day off awful for him. And then I would just get a phone call because he’d been dysregulated. He might have thrown equipment.”
Parents also described concerns regarding the training of escort support on council provided-transport. In one instance, an escort who lacked relevant training repeatedly called the parent during the school journey to help regulate the child. These cases highlight how absence in adequate training places additional emotional labour on families.
Ongoing reductions in personal travel budgets and the expectations of partial financial contributions are placing financial burdens on families, many of whom already face reduced work capacities due to their caring responsibilities. In addition, families frequently encounter barriers when navigating the administrative processes required to access this assistance, often needing guidance and support to complete institutional forms and advice on evidencing their child’s eligibility. For families whose children have non-typical school provisions, the rigidity of the eligibility requirements often lead to lengthy appeal processes before appropriate support is provided. We include below a direct quote from a parent sharing her experience in trying to secure necessary travel arrangements for her 11-year-old child with SEND
“[The councils] were only covering the return journey because he's on a transitional timetable, they don't have to provide transport. I appealed that and they have just said that they will provide the transport there. It's ridiculous! because school is in a place which you can't get to except for by car. There's no public transport there.”
Many families also express anxieties and stress about the potential withdrawal of free travel assistance once their children reach non-statutory school age, creating further uncertainty and pressure during an important transitional period.
Families have shared that current independent travel training provisions rarely meet their children’s needs and, in some cases, add to the compounded risks that children and families navigate in public spaces. During a conversation with a parent-representative, she expressed frustration with some of the new training programs introduced in Swindon
“They think they know what’s best for us without knowing anything about our lives”
Public transport options are frequently limited, unpredictable, and not responsive to sensory sensitivities. Children with SEND may experience stigma, impatience, or judgement when their behaviours diverge from neurotypical norms. These experiences lead to understandable anxieties among families, particularly when enrolling their children in these programs may trigger the withdrawal of other travel support provisions under assumed independence and not needing further assistance.
Emerging implications
Our ongoing research suggest that school journeys involve a complex set of logistical, emotional, and physical preparation, coordination, and navigation that extend well beyond the journey itself to include morning routines, transitions between home and school, and after-school care and activities. These intersect with children’s wellbeing and learning, as well as their carers wellbeing’s and wider routines and responsibilities. In this context, home-to-school transport support provisions are essential in enabling access to educational settings and supporting children’s and family’s wellbeing. However, navigating them remains a source of challenge, anxiety, and exclusion for many children and their families, which inadvertently exacerbate existing inequalities and place additional labour and burdens on these families. These transport-related challenges can lead to school anxiety, refusal, reduced attendance, and in some cases school exclusions.
Who we are
Dr Jennie Middleton (Principal Investigator, ‘Care on the Move’ Project) is an Associate Professor in Human Geography in the Transport Studies Unit and School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. She is also the Tutorial Fellow in Geography at St Anne’s College. Dr Anna Plyushteva (Co-Investigator of the project) is Titular Associate Professor in Human Geography at the Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford. Dr Haifa AlArasi is postdoctoral researcher on the ‘Care on the Move’ project, based in the Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford.
The Transport Studies Unit (TSU) is a centre of global excellence in research, engagement and education in transport and mobilities. The TSU hopes to inspire and inform change towards more sustainable and just transport systems through better understanding of how people and goods move. Based within the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, the TSU approaches global transport and mobility challenges from interdisciplinary perspectives with a strong grounding in geography and the social sciences. Its research is organised within four broad themes: energy, climate and environment; health and wellbeing; everyday life and justice; and politics, power and governance.
November 2025
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