Short Term Temporary Cancellation of Home to School Transport 25/26
Case reference FOI2026/01884
Received 7 August 2026
Published 4 September 2026
Request
For the following FOI request, I request information for the following period
1. September 2025 (start of school term) to 20th July 2026 (or end of term)
I request information about short-notice temporary cancellations of home-to-school transport for children and young adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Please provide:
a. How many pupils are provided with SEND home to school transport each day, on average, including non-statutory post-16 provision.
b. The number of days when at least one SEND home to school transport route did not operate, due to staff shortages
c. For the date with the highest number of routes cancelled at short notice, please advise
1. what number of routes were cancelled on this date?
2. how many passengers were impacted?
3. What was the total number of passengers scheduled to travel on that date?
d. The number of days where a route has operated as normal, but at least one passenger from that route has been asked to make alternative arrangements, due to a lack of available staff with appropriate training (eg passengers requiring suction being asked to make alternative transport arrangements when a travel assistant temporarily covering that route isn’t suction trained)
e. Discounting weekends and INSET days, what is the longest number of consecutive days that a particular route has been cancelled at short notice?
f. What, on average, is the mileage rate offered under a Personal Travel Budget to parents/carers/guardians when their child’s home to school transport is cancelled at short notice by the local authority – if any?
g. For home to school transport provided by private contractor, is there a KPI or monitoring regime for short notice cancellations? Is there something similar for services operated in-house by council staff and vehicles?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For this purpose, please use “short notice” as to mean any time within seven days of the transport due to operate. Please include routes provided “in house” by the council, and also by contractors if possible.
Please include instances where the route didn’t operate in the morning, but did operate in the afternoon (and vice-versa).
Please do not include cancellations if they were a result of poor weather or an unforeseen school closure (eg central heating boiler failure etc).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Response
For the following FOI request, I request information for the following period
1. September 2025 (start of school term) to 20th July 2026 (or end of term)
I request information about short-notice temporary cancellations of home-to-school transport for children and young adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Please provide:
a. How many pupils are provided with SEND home to school transport each day, on average, including non-statutory post-16 provision.
Answer: 682.
b. The number of days when at least one SEND home to school transport route did not operate, due to staff shortages
Answer: This information is not held.
c. For the date with the highest number of routes cancelled at short notice, please advise
1. what number of routes were cancelled on this date?
Answer: 2.
2. how many passengers were impacted?
Answer: This information is not held.
3. What was the total number of passengers scheduled to travel on that date?
Answer: N/A.
d. The number of days where a route has operated as normal, but at least one passenger from that route has been asked to make alternative arrangements, due to a lack of available staff with appropriate training (eg passengers requiring suction being asked to make alternative transport arrangements when a travel assistant temporarily covering that route isn’t suction trained)
Answer: This information is not held.
e. Discounting weekends and INSET days, what is the longest number of consecutive days that a particular route has been cancelled at short notice?
Answer: 2 days.
f. What, on average, is the mileage rate offered under a Personal Travel Budget to parents/carers/guardians when their child’s home to school transport is cancelled at short notice by the local authority – if any?
Answer: This information is publically available on the Gov.uk website and can be viewed via the following link:
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
g. For home to school transport provided by private contractor, is there a KPI or monitoring regime for short notice cancellations? Is there something similar for services operated in-house by council staff and vehicles?
Answer: The requested information is currently not held however the Service Area have advised a new system is being implemented to officially record cancelations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For this purpose, please use “short notice” as to mean any time within seven days of the transport due to operate. Please include routes provided “in house” by the council, and also by contractors if possible.
Please include instances where the route didn’t operate in the morning, but did operate in the afternoon (and vice-versa).
Please do not include cancellations if they were a result of poor weather or an unforeseen school closure (eg central heating boiler failure etc).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.