Summary: The Ombudsman has discontinued his investigation into Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to provide school transport for her son. The Council offered to pay Mrs X £500 to cover the costs of school transport which has resolved the outstanding issue and no further action by the Ombudsman is needed.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains about the Council’s decision not to provide school transport to her son.

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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’. 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)
3. 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of this investigation I considered the complaint made by Mrs X and the Council’s response. I also considered the remedy offered by the Council to Mrs X. I sent a draft of this decision to Mrs X and the Council.

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What I found

6. The Council has a duty under the Education Act 1996 to ensure that suitable travel arrangements are made, for eligible children, to facilitate their attendance at school. This duty relates to home to school travel arrangements, and vice versa (‘home’ is the place where the child is usually resident). ‘Eligible children’ are defined in schedule 35 B of the Education Act 1996 as those children of compulsory school age (5 -16) - for whom free travel arrangements will be required.
7. Section 508C of the Education Act 1996 provides local authorities with discretionary powers to go beyond their statutory duties and provide transport for children who are not entitled to free transport. Charges can be made, or, as stated in Subsection (5) of 508C local authorities may also pay all or part of the reasonable travel expenses of children who have not had travel arrangements made either under the statutory duty placed on local authorities, or under their discretionary powers to make travel arrangements
8. The Council’s home to school travel policy says in relation to non-eligible children (e.g. those below statutory school age) the Council may exercise its discretionary power and provide home to school travel assistance on an individual basis.

What happened

9. Mrs X applied for a school place for her son, Y who has special educational needs. Mrs X said schools were unable to take Y due to not being able to meet his needs. The Council sent someone from School A to assess Y. School A said it could offer Y a school place from September 2019. Mrs X agreed to this.
10. Mrs X’s preferred choice was School B which initially did not have a place available for Y. However School B later said it could offer Y a school place from October 2019. School A had a minimum of two term policy, so Mrs X agreed to send Y to School A for the first two terms and then move him to School B for the final term of the year.
11. In September 2019 Mrs X asked the Council to provide free school transport for her son, Y while he attended School A. She said Y was missing the beginning of each school day as she had to drop her other child at School B first then take Y to School A.
12. The Council refused Mrs X’s request on the basis Y was not statutory school age. Mrs Y appealed this decision. Mrs X told the Appeal Committee moving Y to School A was not parental preference and she was not aware her designated school had places available as the Council told her this school was full.
13. The Appeal Committee considered Mrs X’s appeal but decided to refuse her appeal. The Committee said Y was not of statutory school age and there was no compelling evidence to suggest the Council should depart from its procedures to provide transport.
14. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman. The Council contacted the Ombudsman to say it had not fully explained the process of securing a school place to Mrs X and did not explain its home to school travel policy to Mrs X prior to her making a decision about which school Y should attend. The Council offered to pay Mrs X £500 to cover the costs of transport for the two terms Y attended School A. The Ombudsman is satisfied this is a reasonable to remedy the injustice caused to Mrs X.

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Final decision

15. I have discontinued the investigation as the Council has provided an appropriate remedy to Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman