Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s contracted taxi service for school transport. Investigating would not be likely to add anything to the Council’s own investigation or lead to a different or worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X said the Council employed the same transport provider despite previous safeguarding failings. She wanted the Council to stop using the provider.

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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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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))

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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. The Council’s response to Ms X’s complaint stated that the concerns she had raised about the company on her child’s route to school were valid. It stated that despite having met the conditions for a Council contract, the service provided on the route used by Ms X’s child was inadequate and it had engaged a different provider. It also stated that unexpected staff sickness in any organisation could cause disruption and was not something it could anticipate in advance. Investigation by us would be unlikely to recommend further action beyond that already taken by the Council to deal with a failure by an operator to meet the service standards agreed. Whether the Council continued to use the same operator on another route would not create personal injustice to Ms X or her child.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because doing so would be unlikely to lead to a different or more worthwhile outcome than that already achieved by the Council’s investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman