Judge of Its Own Refusals: SEND school transport refusals and appeals in England, 2024/25

This report examines how councils in England reconsider refusals of school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND): who reviews a refusal, who decides the final appeal, and what is counted nationally. It draws on Freedom of Information requests to all 153 English councils with education responsibilities, with replies received to 21 October 2026, and on published decisions of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

In 2024/25 councils refused school transport in full to children with SEND an estimated 17,000 times (likely range 14,000 to 20,000), about one decision in six, and around two in three refusals never reached a formal review. There is no independent tribunal appeal against a transport refusal: of 121 councils that said who decides final appeals, 65 named their own councillors or officers, and three said one person decides. The Department for Education collects no figures on refusals or appeals, and the questions it published on 30 October 2026 for its 2027 and 2028 collections do not ask about them.

The record contains the report and its technical appendix, which sets out the method, every exclusion and each council's figures.