Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse an application and appeal for school transport. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council is at fault in refusing her application and appeal for school transport for her son.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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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. Mrs X says her son suffers from anxiety, which causes him severe difficulty in travelling to school. She has applied to the Council for school transport. The Council applied its school transport policy and refused the application. Mrs X used her right to appeal against the decision.
6. Mrs X’s application has completed the two stages of the Council’s review and appeal process and has been unsuccessful. Mrs X complains that the panel at the appeal hearing she attended did not demonstrate understanding of her son’s needs and made a flawed decision to refuse the appeal. She wants the Council to provide her son with transport which he can access, such as a taxi or a minibus.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part. The Council has properly implemented its review and appeal process, which has provided Mrs X with the opportunity to which she is entitled to challenge its decision. She has been able to provide written evidence in support of her application and was invited to attend the appeal hearing to make verbal representations.
8. That being the case, the weight the panel members gave to the evidence before them is a matter for their professional judgement. Mrs X disagrees with the decision to refuse her appeal. But that does not mean it was flawed. Without evidence of fault in the way the panel came to its view, the Ombudsman cannot criticise the decision or intervene to substitute an alternative view.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X ’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman