The Department does not understand how access to transport is affecting attendance, nor how difficult it is for parents to navigate the system, particularly post-16. While acknowledging that transport is critical to accessing education and training, the Department does not 2 know how annual spending—£2.3 billion in 2023–24 and £2.6 billion in 2024–25—on home to school transport is impacting overall attendance and participation levels. Instead, it only considers how many sessions children who are already receiving local-authority-provided transport might fail to attend due to problems on a particular day. That is surprising when nearly one in five children misses a day or more of school per fortnight—around one in three at sixth form age—and almost 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Entitlement to transport differs markedly by age, with parents often experiencing a cliff edge post-16. For ages 16–19 local authorities have discretion to decide what support, if any, is necessary to facilitate attendance in education. Despite the weight of evidence that parents find the system hard to navigate, the Department appears unconcerned about the clarity of the offering for this age group or the impact that losing transport at 16 may have. Parents and colleges report young people missing learning or failing to start courses after age 16 because transport is no longer provided or is not suitable. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response the Department should provide an update on action it is taking to: a. improve its understanding of the relationship between home to school transport, attendance and those not in education, employment or training; and b. work with local authorities to ensure parents understand entitlement post 16.