New specialist school minibuses to hit the roads from September
An investment in 50 specialist school minibuses will help cut Lancashire County Council costs and improve Home to School transport for pupils with Special Education Needs.
These 50 minibuses bring the council's total fleet to 208, with half being brought into operation from September and the remainder being delivered in the coming months.
The move will reduce the council's costs for transporting pupils with Special Needs and Disabilities travelling to and from schools. It will go towards reducing the reliance on the use of single occupancy vehicles and will help with the significant increase in the number of passengers needing the service.
Currently, the council's Home to School transport service, one of the biggest in the country, has 158 minibuses and supports around 5200 children with Special Needs and 900 vulnerable adults travelling to and from schools and day centres across Lancashire every day.
With costs expected to reach over £61million this year, the move is expected to save money and improve journeys for the children being taken to and from their schools and allow them, in many cases, to travel in slightly larger groups.
Each minibus is specially designed for the purpose and has a driver and a Passenger Assistant responsible for transporting the children directly to their schools.
The contract for manufacture of the 50 new minibuses has been awarded to Ford Motor Company who supply the base vehicles, and two specialist conversion companies supply the finished vehicle.
County Councillor Matthew Salter, cabinet member for Education and Skills, welcomed the new arrivals. He said:
"We are committed to securing real improvements in our SEND provision, while also ensuring value for money for the people of Lancashire.
"We plan to significantly increase maintained special school provision through our capital programme, and to improve the home to school transport service thanks to the arrival of the new vehicles.
"There has been significant investment in the SEND service and there are signs of progress across several critical areas for the first time this year, with the number of overdue Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) assessments beginning to drop.
"This will ensure an efficient and well run service which meets the needs of the children who use it and place the voices of children and families at the heart of what we do.
"We will continue to build on the SEND improvement journey, by enabling the needs of vulnerable children to be met without putting local councils under unsustainable pressure."
County Councillor Warren Goldsworthy, cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said:
"We are very pleased to see the arrival of the first batch of new minibuses for our home to school transport service.
"These bespoke, specialist vehicles will help the County Council to provide more good quality home to school transport for many passengers.
"They will also ensure value for money for the people of Lancashire by allowing us to curb costs of home to school transport as demand continues to grow."