Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to award home to school transport. It is unlikely we would find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council has unfairly refused home to school transport for his child, D, who attends a grammar school.

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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 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 Mr X provided with his complaint and the Council’s appeal decision which it provided. Mr X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Mr X applied for a place for his child, D, to attend School Y, which is a grammar school. D had passed the entrance exam and was offered a place which they accepted. Mr X applied for home to school transport. He said:
• School Y is more than three miles from their home;
• School Y is the only suitable school for D as they had passed the entrance exam;
• If D had not attended School Y, then the nearest none selective school was more than three miles away; and
• D qualifies as a ‘looked after child’.
6. The Council refused the application. It said a closer school, School Z, had places and was suitable. Mr X appealed using the Council’s school transport appeals process. The Council rejected his appeal.
7. Mr X says it is not fair. If D had attended the none selective school they would have received free transport. He says they are being penalised for attending the grammar school. He says D will be vulnerable travelling on public transport which is cheaper than the school bus they will have to pay for D to get to School Y.

Analysis

8. In July 2014, the government issued statutory guidance to local education authorities on home to school travel and transport. (The Education Act 1996 sections 508 and 509, and part 6 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.) Councils have to follow this guidance unless they have good reasons not to.
9. Councils are required to make travel arrangements and provide free transport for “eligible children” of compulsory school age to attend their “nearest suitable school”. A child is eligible where the nearest suitable school is more than two miles from their home if the child is aged under eight; and three miles if aged between eight and sixteen.
10. The guidance says the nearest suitable school is:

“Taken to mean the nearest qualifying school with places available that provides education appropriate to the age, ability and aptitude of the child, and any SEN that the child may have.”

11. It defines qualifying schools as:
• “community, foundation or voluntary schools;
• community or foundation special schools;
• non-maintained special schools;
• pupil referral units;
• maintained nursery schools; or
• city technology colleges (CTC), city colleges for the technology of the arts (CCTA) or academies, including free schools and University Technical Colleges (UTC).”
12. The guidance also provides wider rights to free transport for low income families. It does not require priority to ‘looked after children’.
13. Councils also have “discretionary powers to go beyond their statutory duties and provide transport for children who are not entitled to free transport.” They may make charges for, or pay all or some of the reasonable travel expenses where they use their discretionary powers to provide transport.
14. The Council used to consider that for residents in the East and South of the county, a grammar school could also be considered the nearest qualifying school, even where there were other schools closer to home.
15. The Council’s Cabinet resolved in October 2015 to change its policy. The Council continued to provide transport to a pupil’s priority school, or a school that was nearer. But the Council would no longer provide free transport to grammar schools, if there were nearer schools to the pupil’s home. This would apply to new applicants from September 2016 onwards.
16. It is unlikely we would find fault with the Council’s decision. I appreciate that Mr X feels that it is unfair the Council no longer provides transport to grammar schools where they are not the nearest school to a child’s home. But the law only requires the Council to provide transport for eligible children to the nearest qualifying school, which is any level of mainstream school. If a child passes the grammar school entrance exam it does not mean the only suitable school for them is a grammar school.

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Final decision

17. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman