Stuart Gallimore, who is due to take over as president of the organisation in April 2018, said that owing to the statutory nature of home-to-school transport requirements, other than ensuring it is provided as efficiently as possible, it is an area of saving that is not open to children's services leaders.
He said that, in light of the ongoing squeeze on finances, and the fact that the Local Government Association estimates that councils will face a £2bn funding gap to support vulnerable children by 2020, home-to-school transport is "an area ripe for review".
"If for the sake of argument, we accept the £2bn deficit by 2020 it is interesting to consider that in 2015/16 local authorities spent nearly £1bn transporting children to and from educational settings," Gallimore, director of children's services in East Sussex, wrote in a blog on the issue.
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