EA Continues Push for Taxi Savings

We have provided the update below to the Assembly Education Committee on ongoing work to secure taxi bill savings.

Update to Assembly Education Committee

25 February 2026

I would like to provide further detail to the Education Committee on our work to reduce expenditure on taxis. 

It is important to note that other jurisdictions have also been experiencing rapidly increasing school transport costs. For example, the National Audit Office reported in October 2025 that there had been a £415 million total overspend by local authorities in England against planned home to school transport budgets in 2023-24. It also described home to school transport as “one of the fastest-growing areas of spending” for English local authorities. Home to school transport - NAO report

As is the case elsewhere, EA’s rising taxi costs are inextricably linked to the sustained increase in children in our community with special educational needs. In addition, there has been a significant reduction in the number of registered taxi drivers in NI over the last 5 years, with numbers reducing by almost 22% since 2020, and currently the lowest on record since 2013. 

A child’s statutory SEN assessment can specify a requirement for home to school transport provision. In some cases, a recommendation is made for a child to travel alone. For some children with disabilities, modified transport for wheelchair users may also be required. 

As Committee members know only too well, the SEN school placement process for many children has been prolonged and fraught over a number of years. In too many cases, places have only been confirmed weeks or even days before the start of a new school year. This has created obvious time pressures for confirming transport arrangements and has inevitably limited the potential for negotiation and competition for home- to- school taxi runs. (Competition has also been hindered by the overall reduction in taxi operators.) 

A shortage of SEN places in many local communities has led to long journeys for many pupils to schools outside their communities, further increasing taxi expenditure. 

Some taxi costs that may have been necessary at a particular point in time to confirm school placement are simply not sustainable in the current budgetary climate. We also cannot maintain growth of this expenditure at the levels seen in recent years. Crucially, reducing spend in this area can free up funding for SEN services and wider educational provision. 

With regard to the procurement process, contracts are, as a rule, awarded to the lowest bids, provided operators meet all compliance requirements. This, in itself, raises questions about the pricing of school taxi work. 

To cite one high profile example, the £83 per mile pro rata taxi rate featured in recent media reports was the lowest of no fewer than six bids received from taxi operators. For clarity, this case relates to a short journey of less than a mile, costing some £50 a day. 

Before outlining the steps we are taking to directly bear down on taxi costs, a more fundamental point should be emphasised. 

The most significant contribution we can make to reducing taxi bills is to expand SEN school places, not least through significantly increasing the number of mainstream schools offering specialist SEN provision. This would help end the annual cycle of delay and pressure on placements and reduce, if not remove, the need for long home-to-school journeys that take children away from their friends and siblings. 

EA is fully committed to expanding specialist SEN provision, however this cannot be achieved unilaterally. We need more schools to work in partnership with us to make it a reality. 

In terms of specific actions on taxi costs, Committee members will be aware that we wrote to operators before Christmas asking for a voluntary 10% reduction in rates. In addition, meetings were held with the five taxi companies holding the largest values of contracts. There companies were asked for plans for reducing costs. 

To date, this engagement with the industry has yielded agreement for savings worth £918,000. Further savings are being targeted for the current financial year and beyond. Operators have also been informed that contracts will be monitored and reviewed ahead of the 2026/27 academic year. 

We have now initiated a further round of engagement with operators who are charging prices that we believe are significantly above reasonable levels. 

Engagement with the industry to date has proved useful, and I sense both acknowledgement and willingness across operators to work with us to implement in more efficient arrangements. 

Nonetheless, should we not be able to make the progress required, other options - including increasing the use of parental grants - will need to be considered further. 

Yours sincerely 

Dale Hanna 

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER