Birmingham City Council (23 001 300)
Category : Education > School transport
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Jun 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about home to school transport for Miss X’s child. This is because the Council has agreed to provide individual transport and to reimburse Miss X’s costs. It is unlikely an investigation would achieve anything more.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complained the Council had placed her son on shared home to school transport. Miss X said this was not appropriate. Miss X wanted the Council to provide individual transport and to reimburse the costs she had incurred taking her son to school.
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, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- it would be reasonable for the person to ask for an organisation review or appeal.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We will not start an investigation into Miss X’s complaint. This is because the Council has agreed to provide individual transport and to reimburse Miss X’s costs. These are the outcomes Miss X wanted. If we were to investigate, it is unlikely we could achieve anything more. An investigation is not therefore warranted.
- The Council says the individual transport is initially for six months. If the Council then decided to change the arrangements and Miss X was unhappy, it is open to her to challenge the Council via its own processes. She could then then make a fresh complaint to the Ombudsman if still unhappy.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to Miss X’s requests and so it is unlikely we could achieve anything more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman