Lambeth is due to approve a £5.675m SEND bus extension that began on 1 July

Lambeth Council is due to approve a 25-month, £5.675m extension of its SEND school bus contract on 20 August. The extension period began on 1 July.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People is due to take the decision. It would extend the council's contract with London Hire to 31 July 2028.

SEND stands for special educational needs and disabilities. The issue record describes the extension as letting London Hire "continue to deliver the SEND Bus Contract to meet Lambeth's statutory duties".

The extension works out at about £227,000 a month, or about £2.72m a year.

Lambeth's approved provider list for passenger transport for vulnerable adults and children is valued at £4.4m a year across 23 providers. The council awarded that list in August 2024, to run from 1 July 2024 to 31 July 2026. The record does not say whether the London Hire contract is called off from it.

Cabinet has logged this kind of transport as a cost pressure. Its performance report of 22 July 2024 recorded "significant increases for operating Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) transport".

The record does not show what the contract being extended originally cost, or when it began. Lambeth's published decisions register carries no award decision for it in any year from 2021 to July 2026.

The register does carry two awards of the passenger transport provider list, in July 2021 and August 2024. Cabinet's own agenda for 22 July 2024 carries no award of the London Hire contract.

The council published notice of this decision on 29 June, saying it would come no earlier than 15 July. The decision is now due on 20 August, about seven weeks after the extension period began.

The two published records disagree on the length. The issue record describes "a two year extension", while the decision text sets the period at 25 months.

The decision record gives the council's reason for extending rather than retendering now. It says the extension allows time to "review and recommission the service in line with the upcoming Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Reforms", and provides "a transition period if a new provider is selected through the tendering process".

Neither record says how many children the buses carry. The council's children's services scrutiny sub-committee took a report on SEND and alternative provision in July 2025, and its agenda publishes no transport figures.

The issue record lists the decision as affecting all wards, and classes it as key on financial grounds.

One of the papers is a restricted enclosure. The decision page states no reason for restricting it.

The decision is subject to call-in, meaning councillors can refer it to a scrutiny committee for review before it takes effect. The register records no call-ins and shows it taking effect on 28 August.