SEND Travel Assistance 2025/26 update

Statutory School Age (5-16) Transport

• We have 214 additional or “new” pupils (of statutory school age) requiring SEND transport to be organised from September. In addition to this, we have over a 100 pupils currently on transport moving schools, e.g. Year 11 pupils moving to Post 16 provision.
• We always strive to keep routes the same each year to be as consistent as we can for our pupils but sometimes this is not always possible.  With the addition of new pupils and some operators handing back routes to ourselves it means there will be changes to some routes.
• On Monday 11 August, we will be sending out transport confirmation letters to parents where routes are not changing.
• For pupils who are new to transport or routes have changed the team will be emailing or telephoning to confirm route information, with letters subsequently following. This will be happening over the next two weeks.
• We understand that parents like to know as early as possible about routes and we are working hard to ensure you will have this information.
• In June, we asked the parents of Statutory School Age pupils to reapply for transport using our new Capital Citizen Portal. 87% of parents have completed this and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for your support in completing these. We will be chasing those outstanding in the oncoming weeks.

Post 16 / 19 Transport

• We are working hard to sort routes and are trying desperately to obtain timetables from parents and colleges.
• For those parents that have been able to provide us timetables, we have begun to prepare routes and will be in touch over the next two weeks with further information.
• We cannot prepare routes for young people if we do not have timetables. If you do receive your young person’s timetable, please forward this as a matter of urgency to tracs.sp@stoke.gov.uk
• 89% of those pupils on Post 16/19 transport last year have reapplied through the Citizen Portal. This is absolutely brilliant – thank you so much to the parents and carers who have completed this. It has made a huge difference to us.

We are currently receiving around 5 new applications for transport every day. We may be unable to organise transport for any new applications received after the 11 August 2025 for the start of the academic year. Please note that it can take up to 20 days to organise transport to ensure the appropriate provision for your child/young person.

Unfortunately, we are sad to report that we have had some instances of parents shouting and swearing at our transport officers. I would like to ask parents to be courteous to team members. We do understand that it is frustrating if you have not heard from us, but the team are doing their best to help and support.

Should you need any information, please do contact the team on 01782 233737 or email transportrequests@stoke.gov.uk or tracs.sp@stoke.gov.uk.

Kind regards,

Lee Nicholls

All-Age Transport Team