London Borough of Redbridge (18 018 254)

Category : Education > School transport

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 26 May 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr and Mrs B complained the Council did not support them when they had to move to a new borough after evacuating their home. They complained the Council did not provided their children with school transport, carry out welfare checks or give them information about grants they could access. They also complained the Council did not provide school places or transport when they returned to the borough. The Ombudsman has found fault with the Council. The Council remedied any injustice before the complaint was brought to the Ombudsman.

The complaint

  1. Mr and Mrs B complained the Council did not support them when they had to move to a new borough after evacuating their home. They complain the Council did not provided their children with school transport, carry out welfare checks or give them information about grants they could access. They also complained the Council did not provide school places or transport when they returned to the borough.
  2. In addition, Mr and Mrs B complained the Council did not accept a Special Educational Needs referral for one of their daughters in 2013.

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What I have investigated

  1. I have investigated the Council’s actions from when Mr and Mrs B and their daughters were evacuated from their home to September 2019 when the complaint was assessed by the Ombudsman.
  2. I have not investigated whether the Council should have accepted a Special Educational Needs referral for one of their daughters in 2013. The complaint is out of time.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
  2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
  3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
  4. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered:
    • Mr and Mrs B’s complaint and the information they provided;
    • documents supplied by the Council;
    • relevant legislation and guidelines; and
    • the Council’s policies and procedures.
  2. Mr and Mrs B and the Council had the opportunity to comment on a draft decision

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Legislation and guidance

School admissions

  1. The School Admissions Code provides guidance for admission authorities, governing bodies, local authorities, schools adjudicators and admission appeals panels. It is the responsibility of admission authorities to ensure that admission arrangements are compliant with the code. Where a school is the admission authority, this responsibility falls to the governing body or Academy Trust (School Admissions Code 2014).

School travel assistance

  1. Councils in England must provide such travel arrangements as they consider necessary to get every eligible child of compulsory school-age to their relevant educational establishment and back home again. Travel arrangements for an eligible child must be free and must not require the parent to incur extra costs (Education Act 1996).
  2. The relevant educational establishment for an eligible child will be the nearest suitable school. This is the nearest qualifying school with places available that provides education appropriate to the age, ability and aptitude of the child, and any SEN the child may have (Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance, 2014).
  3. The Council says it normally decides a transport application in four weeks. The Council has a two-stage appeal procedure for travel assistance. At stage one a senior officer reviews the original decision within 20 days of receipt of the request. At stage two a panel of senior officers hears the appeal. The panel has 20 working days to meet and consider the appeal and a further five working days to write to the applicant.

Welfare support

  1. Where a child’s needs are low level, they may be met through early help services. Early help services are delivered to parents, children or whole families. The aim of these services is to improve outcomes for children. For an early help assessment to be effective it should be undertaken with the agreement of the child and their parents or carers (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018).
  2. If it is considered the child may be a child in need, as defined in the Children Act 1989, or the child has suffered significant harm or is likely to do so, a referral should be made immediately to the Council’s children’s social care department (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018).

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What I found

  1. Mr and Mrs B have two children, C and D.
  2. Mr and Mrs B are leasehold owners of a flat in a building of which the Council owns the freehold. Mrs B lives in the flat with their daughters, C and D. In March 2017 Mr and Mrs B’s flat suffered serious damage because of problems with the roof of the building. Mrs B, C and D had to move out of the flat. Their insurance company arranged for Mrs B and her daughters to move into temporary accommodation while the roof was repaired.
  3. The family’s temporary accommodation was in a different London borough, borough E. At first C and D continued at their existing school in the Council’s area. In July 2017, C and D move to schools in borough E. The school placed C in a class a year below her chronological year group at her parents’ request.
  4. In September 2017, the Council offered the family support through early help following an anonymous referral about one of their daughters. The Council states Mr and Mrs B declined the support offered.
  5. When Mrs B and her daughters returned to their flat in April 2018, they applied for travel assistance for C and D to attend their schools in borough E and for them to move to in-borough schools.
  6. In March 2018, the Council rejected Mr and Mrs B’s request for travel assistance for C and D. Mr and Mrs B complained to the Council.
  7. Mr and Mrs B applied for a place for C in the year below her age group at a local academy secondary school, academy F. C visited the academy, took tests and met the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). The academy offered C a place in her chronological year group. It told Mr and Mrs B once C started at the academy it would arrange an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment. The academy said if the resulting plan confirmed C should be taught in the year below, it would arrange for her to move. Mr and Mrs B felt C would not cope in those circumstances and declined the place.
  8. Mr and Mrs B applied to another local secondary school, school G. This school said it could offer C a place in her chronological year group from September 2018. The school advised once C had started at the school an EHC assessment would be undertaken to decide whether C should be moved down a school year. Mr and Mrs B declined the place.
  9. In September 2018, the Council offered D a place at Mr and Mrs B’s preferred primary school, school H. Mr and Mrs B accepted the place and bought D the school uniform. However, they did not take the place because they wanted C and D to change schools at the same time and C had not been offered a place at a school in the year group they wanted. The Council withdrew the place for D at school H. Mr and Mrs B thought the place at school H would be held until C had a school place. They complained and the Council explained offers for community school places are only available for a limited time before being withdrawn.
  10. In October 2018, school J offered D a place. The Council advised if Mr and Mrs B did not accept this place and D did not start on the date agreed by the school she would not be considered for a place at any schools in the borough. The Council suggest the family accept school places for C and D on the understanding their request for C to be educated in the year below her chronological age would be considered as part of the EHC process.
  11. Mr and Mrs B chose to keep C and D at their schools in borough E. This means C and D have long and expensive daily commutes on public transport.
  12. Mr and Mrs B asked the Council to provide school travel assistance for C and D to attend schools in borough E in November 2018. Mr and Mrs B explained C cannot travel alone and was having to spend over three hours a day on public transport or in taxis which they could not afford.
  13. The Council rejected the application in December 2018. The Council explained as Mr and Mrs B had not accepted in-borough school places, it was parental preference for them to remain at schools in borough E. It told Mr and Mrs B a travel award would not be made in these circumstances.
  14. In March 2018, the Council apologised for not including information about the appeals procedure when it wrote to Mr and Mrs B with the outcome of their first application in December 2018. Mr and Mrs B made a stage one appeal in June 2018. The Council responded in August 2018.
  15. Mr and Mrs B made a stage two appeal in August 2018. The Council considered the stage two appeal that month. It upheld the Council’s decision not to award school travel assistance. The Council told the family it rarely made travel awards because children under 16 years get free and discounted travel on all London Transport services with a ZIP oyster photocard. It encouraged Mr and Mrs B to make new school applications for C and D for the 2019/20 school year, in their correct age cohorts, so they could attend schools closer to home.

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Analysis

School admissions

  1. Places were available for C and D to start school in September 2018. Mr and Mrs B rejected these offers because academy F and school G would not admit C to a class a year below her chronological year group. Academy F and school G are their own admissions authorities and are responsible for making their own admission decisions. The Council had no power to overrule the schools’ decisions.

School travel assistance

  1. Mr and Mrs B’s insurance company arranged accommodation for them when they had to evacuate their home. Mrs B and her daughters moved into borough E. There is no evidence Mr or Mrs B applied to the Council for school transport or other financial assistance when Mrs B and her daughters were living in borough E.
  2. When Mrs B and her daughters returned to their home, Mr and Mrs B decided C and D should continue to attend out of borough schools despite being offered suitable in-borough school places. The decision to educate C and D out of borough was parental choice and therefore the Council had no duty to provide travel assistance. Where a school placement is parental preference, the parents are responsible for making suitable travel arrangements.
  3. The Council processed Mr and Mrs B’s transport application within 20 working days. However, in December 2018 it failed to tell Mr and Mrs B how to appeal the decision. This was corrected by the Council in March 2019. Mr and Mrs B were out of time to make an appeal because of the Council’s fault. The Council remedied the injustice caused by the fault by reinstating their appeal rights and processing their appeal.
  4. The Council considered Mr and Mrs B’s stage one appeal within timescales. The stage two appeal response was delayed by two days. This did not cause Mr and Mrs B injustice.
  5. As Mr and Mrs B’s travel assistance application was rejected at each stage of the procedure, the family did not miss any provision.
  6. Information about free travel was available on the Council’s website.

Welfare support

  1. The Council offered the family support through early help in September 2017. Mr and Mrs B declined the offer.
  2. No concerns were raised with the Council about C or D being a child in need or suffering significant harm or being likely to do so while they were living in borough E. Therefore, the Council had no duty to consider providing support to the family via children’s services.

Conclusion

  1. There was no fault with the Council’s actions in relation to school admissions or welfare support.
  2. In December 2019, the Council failed to tell Mr and Mrs B how to appeal its decision not to award school travel assistance; this was fault. The Council remedied the fault in March 2019 when Mr and Mrs B were told how to appeal. As both travel assistance appeals upheld the Council’s original decision not to award travel assistance, the fault did not cause Mr and Mrs B significant injustice.

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Final decision

  1. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr and Mrs B’s complaint. Although I found fault with Council, any injustice was remedied prior to the complaint being brought to the Ombudsman.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

  1. I have not investigated whether the Council should have accepted a Special Educational Needs referral for one of their daughters in 2013. This is because the complaint is out of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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