Summary: Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide school travel assistance for her son between 2017 and 2019 and will not reimburse the costs she incurred when taking her son to school in that period. There was fault by the Council because it did not properly assess Mrs X’s application for travel assistance when she approached the Council in 2019. The Council agreed to make a time and trouble payment to Mrs X to reflect the injustice she suffered in pursuing an unnecessary appeal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide school travel assistance for her son between 2017 and 2017. Mrs X complains that the Council will not reimburse the costs she incurred when taking her son to school in that period.
2. Mrs X also complains about a possible breach of confidentiality because the Council sent letters intended for her to the wrong address.
3. Mrs X wants the Council to reimburse the travel costs she incurred as well as compensate her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about data. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So, where we receive complaints about handling of personal data, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
7. 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)
8. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I reviewed the complaint and background information provided by Mrs X and the Council. I sent a draft decision statement to Mrs X and the Council. I considered the comments of both parties on it.

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What I found

Historic events

10. In September 2015 the Council started consulting with families in receipt of travel assistance on a review of its travel assistance service. In September 2016, its SEND team sent a letter to all families known to the service to inform them of the revised SEND transport eligibility policy that would apply from November 2016. The revised policy set out the type of travel arrangements the Council would provide to eligible children and young people.
11. In the academic year 2016/17, Mrs X’s son was placed by the Council in a specialist nursery school so it could assess his needs before it completed the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process. While at that nursery school, the Council provided transport for Mrs X’s son as its travel policy required. Mrs X’s son since has an EHCP.
12. The Council’s travel policy requires it to review and amend travel arrangements if there is a significant change in circumstances such as a change in home address, school or a change in a child’s needs. Mrs X’s son moved from nursery school to primary school in the 2017/18 academic year. The Council withdrew school transport when it was notified Mrs X’s son was leaving nursery school. A new application then had to be made by Mrs X so travel assistance could be provided from September 2017 at his primary school.
13. Mrs X says that she asked the nursery and primary schools about travel assistance and both schools said her son was ineligible for transport or mileage reimbursement.
14. Mrs X queries how she could apply for travel assistance when she did not know it was available. Mrs X also says she was unaware of any letter the Council sent in October 2016.

Recent events

15. Mrs X applied for a transport mileage allowance for her son in March 2019. The Council initially declined her application because it considered her son was ineligible.
16. Mrs X chased matters with officers who asked her to appeal the decision. Mrs X lodged an appeal but also queried the decision. The Council allowed the appeal in May 2019.
17. Mrs X was unhappy with the original decision and so complained to the Council. The Council upheld her complaint. It explained the original decision to decline her application was because the officers who handled the application were unaware Mrs X’s son had an EHCP. The Council accepted officers did not properly check its database. It acknowledged Mrs X had told the officers her son has an EHCP.
18. The Council decided to reimburse the costs incurred by Mrs X from March 2019 when it received the application.
19. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint. She says the Council exceeded the deadlines for a response to the complaint. She says two letters were seemingly sent to her but were incorrectly addressed. The Council, on the other hand, says just one letter was sent to the wrong address. It apologised to Mrs X and says the letter was retrieved unopened.

Finding

20. It is clear the Council’s initial decision on Mrs X’s application was affected by fault. Had it properly checked its own database its officers would have approved the application. The error meant Mrs X faced unnecessary time and trouble in challenging the decision.
21. As to Mrs X’s complaint that the Council should reimburse the travel costs she incurred from September 2017 to March 2019, I find this matter is caught by the time restriction on the Ombudsman’s power to investigate complaints. Mrs X knew about the Council’s decision not to provide school transport for her son because it wrote to her at the time. Mrs X contacted her son’s existing school and proposed new school to query her son’s eligibility. She relied on what both schools said and so did not pursue the matter with the Council.
22. However, I consider it was reasonable to expect Mrs X to have contacted the Council directly, as it is the body responsible for determining home to school transport assistance. The fact the schools might have provided her with poor advice at the time of the events does not provide a good reason to accept Mrs X’s complaint for investigation out of time.
23. As to a possible breach of confidentiality, Mrs X can complain to the Information Commissioner which is the statutory body which handles complaints about the breach of data protection.

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Agreed actions

24. I consider a payment of £100 is warranted to account for the unnecessary time and trouble Ms X was put to in appealing a flawed decision. The Council agreed to make the payment.

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Final decision

25. There was fault by the Council which led Mrs X to incur unnecessary time and trouble in pursuit of matters with the Council. The Council agreed to remedy the injustice to Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman