SEND Travel Support
We provide support with travel to and from school for eligible children and young people with a special educational need or disability.
The type of support is based on your child’s individual needs with a view to supporting their independence and getting them to school happy and ready to learn. Support can include a travel pass, independent travel training, personal travel budget or a place on commissioned transport.
You will be able to make a choice alongside us about which method works best for your child to meet their individual needs.
You can find more information on how to apply, who is eligible and more on our dedicated webpage.
Travel Support Review 2025
There is currently a review taking place of the Travel Support Service for eligible children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
The review is not looking to change the Travel Support Policy or the current entitlement to Travel Support.
The purpose of the review is:
- to provide more options for families to fit around their individual circumstances;
- to provide better support for eligible students, especially those making the transition into adulthood;
- to ensure we are getting the most from our resources and best value for money.
We remain fully committed to always provide quality travel support that meets the needs of eligible SEND children and young people. We have recognised that we need to improve how we work to make sure we can continue to best meet student’s needs and aspirations, especially in the light of the challenges all councils face with rising demand and costs for travel support.
Consultation Now Live
Our final set of ideas are now out for formal consultation and you can have your say here.
If you need a paper copy, please visit our Town Halls, Libraries or one of our face to face engagement sessions
Southport Library, 11th June, 10:30am-12:30pm
Crosby Library, 16th June, 2pm-4pm
Bootle Library, 1st July 10:30am-12:30pm
If you would like to complete this survey in an Easy Read format, please click here
Working With You
We know that if improvements are to work well, we need the views of those who use the service day to day. We are keen to get from parents, carers and children and young people themselves, feedback, and input to further develop improvement plans.
The review is being co-produced with the Sefton Parent Carer Forum (SPCF) and working in partnership with them a number of ‘Early Ideas’ for improvements have already been developed and we ran engagement sessions in person and online to get your views.
We have worked with the Sefton Parent Carer Forum to host in person sessions and meet the team and we have sent out feedback forms for parents/carers to fill in.
You can read about our engagement journey so far here.
We Want Your Feedback On Our Quick Wins
The next stage is to ask you what you think of some of our ideas so far, we have called these our 'Quick Wins' as they are things we can quickly put in place that will make a big difference. For example:
- Introducing Independent Travel Training for young people
- Enhancing the Personal Travel Budget offer to increase flexibility for families
- Improving communication and engagement
- Streamlining application processes and journey planning with improved systems
If you want to know more about Personal Travel Budgets, watch this video
If you want to know more about Independent Travel Training, watch this video