Vulnerable children will not have their travel support withdrawn following a review of the council's home to school travel support policy.

However, some pupils' travel support could be revised or even stopped from next September.

More than 800 young people in the borough who have special educational needs (SEN) are currently given travel assistance to and from school at a cost of £5.2million.

But in order to bring the borough in line with Government recommendations, a study was carried which will see changes to the current policy being made.

Over a two-month period more than 1,000 families, schools, colleges and support groups were consulted - 200 of which supported the review.

It was agreed parents should take responsibility for ensuring their children attend school where they can, travel assistance should only be provided for children and young people who would be unable to attend school without it, and that children should be given the opportunity to develop skills to be able to travel independently.

Councillor Maria Gatland, Croydon's cabinet member for education, youth and lifelong learning, said: "While I appreciate that some families will be disappointed that support will not continue to be offered to them from September, I can guarantee that we will not be reducing support to any pupil with severe needs or whose SEN would prevent them from undertaking the journey to school."

Other changes include: - Treating applications from parents on income support the same as applications from other parents.

- Not giving travel assistance to parents who choose to send their child to a school other than the school nominated by the local authority.

- Extending the maximum journey time from 60 minutes to 75 minutes.

Once the new policy is in place, existing travel arrangements will be reviewed. According to the council, it is expected that only a small minority will see their travel support withdrawn from the start of the next academic year.