Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the time taken to arrange home to school transport and the Council’s decision not to reimburse her costs. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complained about the time taken to arrange her son’s home to school transport. Miss X is unhappy with the decision not to reimburse the costs she incurred while waiting for the transport to be arranged.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In its responses to Miss X’s complaint the Council said it considered her application and arranged the transport within the timescales contained in its published policy. It said it does not reimburse costs while transport is being set up. It therefore refused Miss X’s request.
6. We will not start an investigation into Miss X’s complaint.
7. There was no fault by the Council in the time it took to deal with Miss X’s application and to put transport in place. I note the Council’s published policy also states: “Reimbursements for travel costs incurred before an application is approved, and travel assistance arranged will not be made.”
8. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman. If we investigated there would be no grounds for us to recommend what Miss X wants.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman