Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about school transport and the way a request for a personal budget/direct payment has been handled by the Council. This is it because it is reasonable to expect the complainant to use her appeals rights on the school transport issue and we are unlikely to achieve anything more by investigating the personal budget/direct payment issue.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall refer to as Mrs X, complains about her request for individual school transport being refused by the Council. She also says the Council has turned down her request for a personal budget / direct payment to cover her child’s language lessons and CBT sessions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the complaint information provided by Mrs X. I also shared my draft decision with her.

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What I found

4. The Council has considered and refused Mrs X’s request for individual transport for her child. It has explained how she can appeal the decision.
5. With respect to the requests for a personal budget/direct payment, the Council has explained it cannot be granted to use for the CBT need given Mrs X intends to use the same CBT therapist the Council’s commissioned service provides. So, it’s not appropriate as a personal budget/direct payment is considered when alternative provision is needed.
6. With respect to receiving a personal budget / direct payment for language lessons the Council says the need for language lessons does not appear in section F of Mrs X’s child’s Education Health and Social Care Plan. It explains in these circumstances a personal budget/direct payment cannot be requested. It adds the language lessons will continue to be provided as normal.
7. My final decision is the Ombudsman will not investigate as it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to use her rights to appeal the transport decision. We will not investigate the other matters as we are unlikely to achieve anything more given the Council appears to have considered the requests under the relevant guidelines for use of personal budgets and direct payments.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is reasonable for Mrs X to use her rights to appeal and we are unlikely to achieve anything more by investigating the Council’s handling of the personal budget/direct payment issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman