Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse to provide free school transport for her son. This is because we have not seen any evidence of fault in the way the Council made its decision.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has not followed its school transport policy correctly. And there is no communication between the teams dealing with free transport places and concessionary places. She does not believe the Council has considered what she says is her complex application correctly. She wants the Council to review its procedures.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered the information provided by Mrs X and the Council. I offered her the opportunity to comment on the draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. Mrs X applied for free school transport for her son who is moving from infant school to junior school. On the application form she confirmed she knew he was not eligible but wanted the Council to grant the place as an exception.
5. The Council refused the application because the school Mrs X has chosen for her son is not the nearest school to their home.
6. Mrs X appealed against the refusal. The information from the Council show it considered all the supporting information Mrs X provided. It understood her child has specific education needs, although he does not have an Education Health and Care Plan in place. It told Mrs X it cannot take her or her husband’s work commitments, or her need to take her other child to school elsewhere, into account when considering an application.
7. I have carefully considered the Council’s stage three Member’s Panel review of the decision to refuse Mrs X’s application and the letter to Mrs X advising her of the outcome. I consider it to be thorough, showing the panel considered all the information provided. The panel concluded that Mrs X’s son does not qualify for free school transport because he is not attending the nearest school. And it does not consider the information provided by Mrs X is persuasive enough to warrant it awarding a place as an exception to its policy.
8. I have not seen any evidence of fault in the information provided by the Council. The Ombudsman cannot question the merits of a decision that has been properly made by the Council, and in this case, the evidence shows that the Transport Review Panel made its decision after carefully considering all the information available.
9. Mrs X says the Council did not consider that she had applied for a concessionary seat on the bus for her son, and this is evidence that it has not paid attention to her case.
10. I note a single line in the supporting documentation she provided to the members’ review panel where she says, “On a final note, we have recently applied for a concessionary seat on the bus as we are absolutely desperate and have no other option.” However, all the documents provided by the Council are in support of an application for free transport and then appealed against the decision to refuse her application. I do not consider the Council’s lack of consideration of this point is evidence of a failure to follow its school transport policy.

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Final decision

11. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because I have not seen any evidence in the way the Council decided to refuse her application for free school transport.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman