Kent County Council (21 004 769)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to provide Mrs X’s daughter with free transport to school. This is because the Council has now agreed to Mrs X’s request and an investigation could not achieve anything more.
The complaint
- Mrs X asked the Council to provide her daughter (Y) with transport to the secondary school she will attend from September 2021 (School Z). Y has special educational needs set out in an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council originally refused Mrs X’s request because School Z is not the closest school to her home.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In response to the Ombudsman’s enquiries the Council said it had now agreed to provide Y with transport to School Z. The Council said this was because it had failed to name a closer school in Y’s EHC Plan. This meant School Z was the closest school to home Y could attend. Y meets the other criteria necessary to receive free transport.
- Because the Council has now agreed to provide free transport, we will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because we could not achieve anything more.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because the Council has agreed to provide free transport and so we could not achieve anything more.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman