Summary: Mrs X complains the Council’s policy of school transport for selective schools is unfair and inequitable. We will not investigate this complaint as we are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I will call Mrs X, believes the Council’s school transport policy for selective schools is wrong because certain areas, including where she lives, do not fall within Designated Transport Areas (DTAs). She says this makes the policy unfair and inequitable.
2. Mrs X wants the Council to review the DTAs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Councils must make arrangements to provide suitable free school transport to “eligible” children of statutory school age including those who:
• attend their nearest suitable school and live further than the statutory walking distance. This is two miles for children aged less than eight years old and three miles for children eight and above.
• are from a low-income family, defined as receiving free school meals or in receipt of the maximum Working Tax Credit. These children are entitled to free school transport if their nearest suitable school is between two and six miles away if they are aged eight to eleven.

(Education Act 1996 section 508B and Schedule 35B)

7. Councils also have discretion to make provision for non-eligible children where they consider it “necessary” to facilitate the child’s attendance at school. (Education Act 1996 section 508C)
8. The Government has also issued statutory guidance to local education authorities on home to school transport. The guidance makes clear it is for each local authority to decide whether and how to provide transport arrangements for children not eligible for free transport. And whether to pay all or part of the travel expenses. Schemes may include charging for spare places on school buses used by eligible children. (Home to school travel and transport guidance - Statutory guidance for local authorities 2014, paragraph 37)

The Council’s policy

9. The Council’s School and College Transport Policy summary says:

“Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) provides home to school transport for eligible

primary and secondary pupils to their designated school for transport, or to a

nearer suitable school, subject to defined legislative and policy criteria for

distance, nature of route and age. Children of some families at the secondary

stage (i.e. 11-16 years) may be entitled to free transport to schools on grounds of

low income (see sections A5 and A6). This policy does not apply to independent

fee paying schools.”

What happened

10. Mrs X’s son received a place at school A, which is a selective (grammar) school. As school A is more than three miles from their home, she applied for free school transport.
11. The Council refused the application because the nearest school to their home is school B – a comprehensive academy. The Council was not suggesting that Mrs X’s son gave up his place at school A, but that he does not qualify for free school transport as there is a suitable school closer to his home.
12. Mrs X discovered her address does not fall within any DTA. She complained to the Council that its school transport policy was unfair.
13. The Council is required to provide suitable free school transport to “eligible” children of statutory school age including those who attend their nearest suitable school and live further than the statutory walking distance
14. It acknowledges that not all areas of the county fall into a DTA for a grammar school. However, when reviewing the school transport policy Councillors felt that:

“To widen the scope of these transport areas too widely would potentially impact on the ability of the non-selective schools to attract pupils at the higher end of the ability range and therefore to offer pupils within the non-selective area the ability to be educated alongside a significant cohort of pupils of the same aptitude. In striking such a balance it is inevitable there will be a boundary somewhere.”

15. Mrs X disagrees with the policy, but we are not an appeal body. We cannot intervene because a Council has a policy that someone disagrees with. We cannot question the merits of the decision the Council has made or offer any opinion on whether we agree with the judgment of the Councils’ officers. Instead, we focus on the process by which the decision was made. In this case the Council considered whether to widen the DTAs for grammar schools when it reviewed its school transport policy. It decided not to do so and provided reasons for its decision.

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Final decision

16. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because I have found no fault in the way the Council formed its policy on transport for selective schools and the designated travel areas.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman