Summary: Miss B complains about the Council’s decision not to provide her daughter, C, with school transport. Miss B says she had to take C out of school because she could not afford to pay for her to get to school. Following the Ombudsman’s enquiries, the Council recognised it had made errors and proposed to take action to remedy any injustice caused to Miss B and her daughter. The Council completed these actions during the investigation. The Ombudsman is satisfied these actions remedied any injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains about the Council’s decision not to provide her daughter, C, with school transport.
2. Miss B says she had to take C out of school because she cannot afford to pay for her to get to school.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
4. We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
5. 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.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I considered:
• Miss B’s complaint and the information she provided;
• relevant legislation and guidelines; and
• the actions the Council proposed to take to resolve the complaint.
7. Miss B and the Council had the opportunity to comment on a draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

Legislation

8. Councils in England must provide such travel arrangements as it considers 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).
9. The Government sets out a recommended appeal procedure in the Department of Education’s 2014 home to school travel and transport guidance.
10. Stage one appeal: review by a senior officer.
• A parent has 20 working days from receipt of the local authority’s decision to write asking for an appeal.
• The parent’s request should detail why they believe the decision should be reviewed and give details of any personal and/or family circumstances they think should be considered
• Within 20 working days of receipt of the parent’s request, a senior officer must review the original decision and send the parent a detailed written notification of the result of their review, setting out: the nature of the decision reached; how the review was conducted (including the standard followed e.g. Road Safety GB21 ); information about other departments and/or agencies consulted; what factors were considered; the rationale for the decision; and information about how the parent can ask for a stage two appeal.
11. Stage two appeal: review by an independent appeal panel.
• A parent has 20 working days from receipt of the Councils stage one decision to ask for a stage two appeal.
• Within 40 working days of the parent’s request, an independent appeal panel should consider written and verbal representations from both the parent and officers involved in the case. The panel must give detailed written notification of the result (within 5 working days), setting out: the nature of the decision reached; how the review was conducted; information about other departments and/ or agencies consulted as part of the process; what factors were considered; the rationale for the decision reached; and information about the parent’s right to put the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.
12. Statutory guidance sets out what schools and local authorities must do to comply with the law. Guidance must be followed unless there is a very good reason not to.

What happened

13. This chronology includes key events in this case and does not cover everything that happened.
14. Miss B has five children. The family moved into the Council area to escape domestic abuse. Miss B secured places for her children C and D at the same school; school E. Miss B says the nearest school did not have places for C and D. The Council granted D free school transport to school E.

Application

15. Miss B applied to the Council for free school transport for C in September 2019. The Council rejected the application because Miss B had not applied to their nearest school for a place for C. It did not explain why it granted D free school transport but not C.
16. Miss B removed C from school E and applied to their nearest schools. These schools did not have a place for C. Miss B started to home educate C.

Stage one appeal

17. Miss B appealed the Council’s decision in April 2019. She explained when she had moved to the area the Council told her to find a school with places for C and D. She said the nearest schools did not have a place for C. Miss B pointed out that because there were no places at their nearest schools, C would have been placed at school E. Miss B told the Council she could not afford to send C to school E and the walk to the school was dangerous.
18. The Council refused the appeal because the school C first attended, school E, was not her nearest school.

Stage two appeal

19. Miss B appealed the council’s stage one appeal decision. She told the Council she had applied to the nearest schools, but they did not have places for C.
20. A stage two appeal should be considered by an independent appeal panel and the applicant should have the opportunity to make representations. In this case, a senior officer responded to Miss B and rejected her appeal because the Council did not have a record of her applying to the nearest school.

Back to top

Outcome

21. I made enquires to the Council in March 2020. In response, the Council proposed to take action to resolve the complaint; see paragraph 24. I was satisfied the actions the Council proposed to take would remedy any injustice to Miss B and her daughter. Miss B was also happy with the Council’s proposal.
22. Between March and June 2020, the Ombudsman suspended its investigations because of the coronavirus outbreak. With the agreement of Miss B, the Council completed the relevant actions in paragraph 24 during this period.
23. It is positive that the Council took assertive action to resolve the complaint at an early stage in our investigation.

Back to top

Agreed Action

24. The Council:
• Paid Miss B backdated mileage from the date her original travel application was refused.
• Paid £200 in recognition of the time and trouble it took for Miss B to complain.
• Apologised to Miss B for the circumstances that arose in this case.
• Reviewed the case with the appropriate officers and issued guidance to learn from the case so the situation does not happen again.
25. The Council said it would award transport for C. This is no longer necessary because during the investigation, Miss B and her family moved house and Council provided school transport was no longer required.

Back to top

Final decision

26. I have completed my investigation and uphold Miss B’s complaint. Miss B was caused an injustice by the actions of the Council. The Council has taken action to remedy any injustice caused to Miss B and her daughter.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman