Oxfordshire County Council: apologise and hold an independent inquiry into SEND transport
The Issue
At the start of this September, hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) had no council-funded transport to school or college. Children missed education. Parents took leave or gave up work to drive them. Specialist school places paid for with public money went unused. Parents were implicitly blamed as the council repeatedly focussed on late applications as the cause.
This is the third September in a row. Since 2024 the Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum has run listening events, surveys and advisory groups, and given the council detailed feedback every year. Every year the council promised improvements. Every September the same failures returned.
On ITV News (22nd Sep), the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said "no" to an independent inquiry and that he does not recognise failings by the council, saying: "I don't recognise we are dealing with failings from the council, I am looking at a system that has not gone to plan this month and that needs to be understood."
He proposed to lead a lessons-learned exercise so that the council can understand what happened, relying again on the volunteer-led Parent Carers Forum.
Families already know what happened, and the Parent Carers Forum's reports already set it out. They have been telling the council for years. What is missing is not information. It is accountability.
We, the undersigned, call on Oxfordshire County Council to:
Apologise publicly. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Tim Bearder, and the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Sean Gaul, should apologise at full council to every family affected by failures in SEND school transport.
Commission a fully independent investigation, led by someone with no past or present connection to the council, with terms of reference agreed with affected families. It must examine:
- what went wrong this year;
- why years of feedback and recommendations from the Parent Carers Forum did not prevent it;
- the cost of specialist school places children could not reach;
- the impact of the failures on children, young people and families with SEND.
And publish the full findings and respond publicly to every recommendation within 8 weeks, with named leads and deadlines.
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The Issue
At the start of this September, hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) had no council-funded transport to school or college. Children missed education. Parents took leave or gave up work to drive them. Specialist school places paid for with public money went unused. Parents were implicitly blamed as the council repeatedly focussed on late applications as the cause.
This is the third September in a row. Since 2024 the Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum has run listening events, surveys and advisory groups, and given the council detailed feedback every year. Every year the council promised improvements. Every September the same failures returned.
On ITV News (22nd Sep), the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said "no" to an independent inquiry and that he does not recognise failings by the council, saying: "I don't recognise we are dealing with failings from the council, I am looking at a system that has not gone to plan this month and that needs to be understood."
He proposed to lead a lessons-learned exercise so that the council can understand what happened, relying again on the volunteer-led Parent Carers Forum.
Families already know what happened, and the Parent Carers Forum's reports already set it out. They have been telling the council for years. What is missing is not information. It is accountability.
We, the undersigned, call on Oxfordshire County Council to:
Apologise publicly. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Tim Bearder, and the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Sean Gaul, should apologise at full council to every family affected by failures in SEND school transport.
Commission a fully independent investigation, led by someone with no past or present connection to the council, with terms of reference agreed with affected families. It must examine:
- what went wrong this year;
- why years of feedback and recommendations from the Parent Carers Forum did not prevent it;
- the cost of specialist school places children could not reach;
- the impact of the failures on children, young people and families with SEND.
And publish the full findings and respond publicly to every recommendation within 8 weeks, with named leads and deadlines.
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Petition created on 23 September 2026