Birmingham City Council (24 008 533)
Category : Education > School transport
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the wording of letters regarding post-16 transport decisions and other issues with communication. It is unlikely an investigation would add anything to the Council’s response or achieve the outcomes Mrs X wants.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mrs X, complained about the wording of letters she received about post-16 transport for her child. Mrs X said the letters were misleading and contained errors. Mrs X also complained about the service she received when telephoning the Council about her concerns and how it dealt with her complaint. Mrs X wants the Council to improve its communication, train staff, review how it makes transport decisions, and to pay compensation for the stress caused.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its responses to Mrs X’s complaint the Council said it agreed the letters sent were not clear. It also accepted Mrs X’s attempts to clarify matters over the telephone were not successful. The Council apologised and said it would use Mrs X’s feedback to identify any training needed.
- I understand Mrs X’s frustrations, but we will not start an investigation into her complaint.
- The Council has accepted it was at fault, apologised, and said it will learn from Mrs X’s feedback. An investigation by the Ombudsman would be unlikely to add anything to this response. Mrs X has resolved the transport issue through a separate process and so we will not look at how the Council makes such decisions. It is also not a good use of our resources to look at complaint handling as a standalone issue. The Ombudsman does not pay compensation, but we can recommend small payments for things like frustration and distress. But in this case, the injustice to Mrs X is not enough to warrant us investigating. An investigation would therefore be unlikely to achieve any of Mrs X’s desired outcomes.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. An investigation would be unlikely to add anything to the Council’s response or achieve the outcomes Mrs X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman