Summary: Miss B complains that; the Council unreasonably refused to provide home to school transport for her son C to his previous school and the special academy for pupils with moderate learning difficulties named in his Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP); the Council failed to take proper account of the difficulty C has walking long distances due to his hypermobility, or his diagnoses of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) which make it difficult for him to use regular public transport; as a result, in order to get C to and from school, she has had to pay £400 a month to take C in a private taxi; this put her into debt on her utility bills and she was no longer able to afford the cost of a taxi for C; and  this in turn has severely affected his school attendance and his social and educational development.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice

Recommendations

To remedy the injustice to Miss B and C, the Council has agreed to:

• apologise to Miss B;
• reimburse the costs Miss B incurred in getting C to school by taxi (based on £20 a day on the days where Miss B paid for C’s transport, plus interest based on the increase in the Retail Price Index):
  • School 1 - £568
  • School 2 - £943;
• pay Miss B £300 for her time and trouble in repeatedly having to make the same complaint and appeal;
• pay Miss B £1,000 to reflect the distress resulting from the difficulty and hardship caused to the whole family as a result of the withdrawal of C’s transport and the cost to Miss B of providing transport for C; and • pay Miss B £5,500 (11 months at £500 each), on C’s behalf, to remedy the impact on C of his lost schooling as a result of not receiving school transport.
• review its procedures to ensure that decisions on school transport show how it has taken into account individual circumstances and the supporting evidence supplied, and explain the rationale for its decisions;
• ensure that second stage transport appeals are properly minuted to provide a suitable record of the basis for those decisions; and
• be able to demonstrate the new measures and procedures it will put in place to ensure its decisions and appeals are robust and defensible.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 10 March 2021.

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