THE hidden extra costs of transporting children with disabilities and special educational needs will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to a headteacher.

Teachers and support staff started the school year helping children in after changes were made to transport arrangements in Brighton and Hove. Drivers and escorts were barred from entering school buildings for insurance purposes, resulting in the increased hidden cost.

The problems started when a new “dynamic purchasing system” was introduced in an effort to reduce the £300,000 overspend on the £2.4 million a year budget.

The panel of six Brighton and Hove city councillors, who met at the Brighthelm Centre last week, heard uninvoiced extra time from taxi firms and schools staff on car park patrol is expected to reach at least £140,000.

This year’s overspend by the council has been forecast to reach £840,000.

Adrian Carver, executive head of Downs View School in Woodingdean, told members of the council’s home to school transport panel the cost of his staff escorting children would run to £100,000 a year.

Mr Carver: “I have never spent in my entire career as head, and I’m now in my 25th year, so much time on transport.

“It is unbelievable how much time is being consumed dealing with issues which have come out from this.

“More than I have ever experienced.”

The school, in Warren Road, had employed a car park supervisor for two hours a day to make sure that taxis and minibuses dropping off students could flow through the school car park.

Mr Carver said that he was also working in the car park with a member of the administrative team to make sure that larger vehicles carrying young people in wheelchairs were able to get to the front and offload.

Without the traffic management, he said, the backlog can block the flow of traffic along Warren Road in Woodingdean. Mr Carver had repeatedly asked for money spent on the car park supervisor to be refunded as he was spending funds on transport that were meant for education.

He said: “I’m not going to invoice you for the lost time from senior leaders but I will and have requested that money. Equally we’ve had to buy walkie-talkies and high-vis. These are all things we would not have done if this was not such a mess.

“Employing someone for two hours a day, who still needs back up from a senior leader, is a cost that is hidden in these broad estimates. It’s money that should be spent on children.”

Conservative councillor Lee Wares asked to have more information on the hidden costs and said parents, carers and teachers were concerned the loss of school time was effectively discrimination against children with disabilities. He said he had been supplied with information about lost teaching time, estimated to cost £210,000.

Mr Carver said Cllr Wares’s figures were accurate and a “conservative estimate” for the time when teachers and senior leaders were bringing children into school but now the system was running more smoothly.

He did not understand why the council would not accept the numbers.