Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the provision of support for education transport for the complainant’s daughter. This is because there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council’s appeal panel considered the complainant’s appeal against its decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr N, says that the Council did not hear his school transport appeal properly. He says it only offered him half of the cost of transporting his daughter to school, whereas it should have covered all of it, because his daughter is within her final two years of compulsory education.

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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 would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by Mr N and by the Council. I have also sent him a draft decision for his comments.

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What I found

5. Mr N’s daughter, D, lived with her mother until recently, when her mother moved to another area. As D wanted to remain at her current school, she came to live with her father.
6. Mr N applied for school transport for N, but the application was refused. This was because N was in Year 9 and did not meet the Council’s criteria for transport.
7. Mr N appealed, because he said D was going into Year 10, and the Council should have considered the application as being for that year group.
8. The Council’s School Transport Policy gives discretionary power to award the costs of transport or a contribution towards it to children in Years 10 and 11, if they are attending a school between 3-6 miles from their home.
9. The Council’s appeal panel took a discretionary decision to award half of the travel costs.
10. Mr N has complained about the decision as he feels the full amount should have been given. We will not investigate the complaint, however, as it is for the appeal panel to decide how much, if any, contribution to make to the costs. As the panel made that decision properly, with due consideration to the information provided, we cannot challenge the merits of that decision.

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Final decision

11. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no fault in the way the Council’s appeal panel made its discretionary decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman