Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s home to school transport team. This is because an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve any additional outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s poor communication regarding his child’s home to school transport and subsequent poor communication regarding his complaints.
2. Mr X says the matter caused him distress and frustration. Mr X wants the Council to improve its communication.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
4. 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:
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation; or
• the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Background

7. In late September 2023 Mr X complained to the Council. He said he had attempted to contact the Council’s school transport team over the summer but received no response. Mr X said an incident occurred during his child, Y’s, home to school transport. He said another child who shares the transport attacked Y by repeatedly hitting them on the shoulder. Mr X asked the Council how it would ensure this did not happen again.
8. The Council’s home to school transport team responded the same day. It explained what happened, said it had spoken with the parent of the other child, and had put measures in place to ensure the incident did not reoccur.
9. In late November 2023 the Council sent a formal stage one complaint response to Mr X. It apologised for the incident and further explained steps it had taken to ensure the incident did not happen again. It also apologised to Mr X for being unable to contact it during the summer and explained the issue was due to technical and staffing issues.
10. Mr X then asked for his complaint to be escalated. He said the stage one complaint response was late, the incident occurred while he was trying to contact the home to school transport team about his child’s transport, and reiterated his frustration about the Council’s poor communication.
11. Mr X chased the Council for a stage two response in April 2024. When he did not receive a response, he came to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

12. The Council has not completed its full complaints process. However, as the matters complained about are over 12 weeks old, I have exercised discretion to consider the complaint in any case as the Council has had sufficient time to respond to Mr X’s complaints.
13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s home to school transport team and the incident that happened in September 2023. This is because the Council responded to Mr X on the same day and explained actions it had taken to address this issue to ensure a similar incident would not occur again. It also apologised for its poor communication in summer 2023. Therefore, an investigation into these elements of Mr X’s complaint is unlikely to achieve anything further.
14. The Council’s stage one complaint response was delayed. In addition, the Council has not sent a stage two complaint response. Although this is likely to cause Mr X some frustration, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate matters about complaint handling where we are not investigating the substantive issue. Therefore, we will not investigate this matter further.
15. In addition, during two recent investigations the Council agreed to develop an action plan to demonstrate how it will address delays in its complaints handling procedures. Therefore, further investigation into the Council’s complaints handling is unlikely to achieve any additional outcome.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve any further outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman