Summary: Mrs X complains the Council has not dealt properly with school transport for her son, causing distress and financial loss. The Council is at fault because it did not initially respond to Mrs X’s complaints and did not properly consider whether transport for Y was suitable. Mrs X suffered distress and financial loss. The Council should apologise, pay Mrs X £150 for time and trouble, backdate Y’s travel allowance, pay Mrs X £250 for avoidable distress, review Y’s transport provision and review its policy.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council failed to deal with school transport for her son Y properly because it:
• Failed to address her concerns raised in September and October 24.
• Did not take the needs of her son into consideration and provided unsuitable transport for him.
2. Mrs x says she has suffered economic loss and avoidable distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law, guidance and policies

8. Local authorities must make suitable home to school travel arrangements as they consider necessary for ‘eligible children’ of compulsory school age to attend their ‘qualifying school’. The travel arrangements must be made and provided free of charge. The relevant qualifying school is the nearest school with places available that provides education appropriate to the age, ability and aptitude of the child, and any special educational needs the child may have.
9. If only one school is named in a young person’s EHC plan, then that is the school the council has determined is the nearest suitable school for the child. It is therefore the nearest ‘qualifying school’ for the child to attend for school transport consideration. Where the child is attending the ‘nearest suitable school’, they will qualify for free transport, provided any other relevant conditions are met.

Statutory Guidance

10. Local authorities must make arrangements to enable a child to travel to school for the beginning of the school day, and to return home at the end of the school day. They are not required to make arrangements:
• for children to travel between institutions during the school day;
• to enable children to attend extra-curricular activities and other commitments outside school hours; or
• to enable children to get to and from before and after school childcare, whether formal (for example, a childminder) or informal (for example, a grandparent).

(Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 63)

11. Where particular classes, year groups or pupils have a start or finish time that is different from most pupils at the school, it will not normally be possible for the local authority to make separate travel arrangements. Schools may need to make arrangements to accommodate these pupils. There may be a small number of circumstances in which local authorities consider it appropriate to arrange transport at an alternative time of day, for example if a child has a medical condition which means they are not well enough to attend school for the whole day. (Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 64)
12. The legislation permits local authorities to meet their duty in respect of an eligible child in a range of alternative ways, provided they have the consent of the parent. For example, with the agreement of a parent, the local authority might provide expenses to enable the parent to make their own travel arrangements for their child. (Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 68)
13. To ensure the arrangements are free of charge to the parent of an eligible child, the travelling expenses may need to be sufficient to cover the parent’s journey home having taken their child to school in the morning, and their journey back to school to collect their child in the afternoon (in other words, all four legs of their journey to school and back). There will be exceptions to this, for example if a parent works close to their child’s school and does not travel home after taking their child to school. . (Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 70)
14. Local authorities must ensure that the travel arrangements they make take account of the needs of the child concerned. (Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 81)
15. As a general guide, the maximum journey time for a child of primary school age should be 45 minutes each way, and 75 minutes each way for a child of secondary school age, including any time taken to walk to a pick-up point, but there will be circumstances in which this is not possible, for example in rural areas where children live in remote locations, where a child needs to travel a long way to the school named in their EHC plan, or when journey times are extended by traffic delays. (Travel to school for children of compulsory school age - Statutory guidance for local authorities January 2024 Paragraph 98)

The Council’s education transport policy

16. Home to school transport will not meet part time hours arranged by schools, parent/carers and as such transport arrangements should be taken into account when bespoke hours are being set for a child.
17. In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to place children with complex and severe needs in Out-of-County schools. These may be Independent or non maintained Special Schools. This would occur where appropriate provision to meet the needs of a child as specified in their EHCP is not available within the administrative boundaries of Essex County Council.
18. Such children are eligible for transport arrangements which minimise the length of journey time as much as possible, taking into account other children attending that school required to be collected en-route. Therefore references to time restrictions are not applicable.

Where a child is entitled to transport under this policy, the Council will provide suitable transport and seek to ensure this is cost effective. The transport provided may take the form of a bus pass, train pass, seat on a contract vehicle e.g. hired bus, or a minibus/taxi e.g. for children with special educational needs and disabilities. A fuel allowance may be provided in the circumstances described above.

Education Transport Appeals

19. Councils should have an appeals process in place for parents who wish to appeal about the eligibility of their child for travel support.
20. The statutory guidance recommends councils adopt the following appeals process:

• Stage 1: review by a senior officer. Within 20 working days of receiving a parent’s written request to appeal the decision, a senior officer reviews the original decision and sends the parent a detailed written notification of the outcome of the review setting out the nature of the decision, how the review was conducted, what was taken into account, the rationale for the decision reached, and how to escalate their case to stage 2; and
• Stage 2: Within 40 working days of receipt of the parent’s request for an independent appeal panel to consider written and verbal representations, a detailed decision is sent setting out: the nature of the decision reached; how the review was conducted; what factors were considered; the rationale for the decision reached; and information about appealing to us.
  (Department of Education, Travel to school for children of compulsory school age statutory guidance 2023, Part 5)

What happened?

21. This is a brief chronology of key events. It does not contain everything I reviewed during my investigation.
22. The Council accepted Y was eligible for home to school transport. It provided transport for Y in September 2024.
23. In early September Mrs X contacted the Council to say the transport arrangements made for Y were not suitable. The Council acknowledged her contact and said it would look into the matter and respond to her.
24. The Council did not respond to Mrs X. She contacted the Council again at the end of September, and chased this up in early October, saying Y would not be able to attend school after half term if transport arrangements were not made.
25. Mrs X complained to the Council in January 2025. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint and offered to back date a travel allowance to November 2024.

Analysis

September/October concerns

26. In response to my enquiries, the Council accepted it did not respond to Mrs X’s concerns in September and October. It offered to apologise and pay Mrs X £150 for her time and trouble. I consider this to be an appropriate remedy.

Unsuitable transport

27. The Council says it backdated the travel allowance offered to Mrs X to 4 November 2024, because this was the first school day after the October half-term holiday in 2024.
28. In response to my enquiries, the Council has also said Mrs X can submit an education travel appeal, regarding the period before 4 November 2024, and if her appeal is successful, it will backdate the travel allowance to the start of the autumn term 2024.
29. The Council told me that its January complaint response set out the Council’s considerations regarding whether transport provided for Y was suitable or not, including regard to how far the journey is to the school, the DfE statutory guidance on journey times, and the fact that transport is usually only provided for the start and end of the normal school day.
30. The Council’s complaint response:
• Acknowledged that Mrs X would like shorter journey times, but considered that the journey time for Y was reasonable given the distance from school and the need for the Council to plan routes efficiently. The travel times set out in the guidance are not mandatory. The Council considered the distance and time taken for Y to travel. This is not fault.
• Said the transport it offered had been cancelled as Mrs X had refused the taxi. This is not factually accurate. The Council accepts the transport was cancelled because it was informed by the operator that Y was refusing to get into the taxi.
• Stated transport is only provided for the normal start and end of school days.
31. The Council’s complaint response does not include any consideration of the needs of Y as an individual in relation to transport provision, nor did it address the specific issue raised in Mrs X’s complaint, of conflict with other children using the transport provided by the Council. It should have done this in accordance with the statutory guidance, as set out in paragraph 15. This is fault. Mrs X suffered distress and financial loss providing transport to school for Y.
32. The statutory guidance allows for Council’s to consider whether it is appropriate to arrange transport at alternative times of the day. The Council’s complaint response made no consideration of whether this was applicable to Y or not and simply applied a blanket policy. The Council should have considered whether or not it was appropriate to provide transport for Y at alternative times. This is fault. Mrs X remains uncertain whether the transport offered by the Council is suitable or not.

How the Council considered Mrs X’s complaint.

33. The Council could have treated Mrs X’s complaint as a complaint, or as a transport appeal. It is for the Council to decide if something should be treated as a complaint or an appeal. The Council has treated Mrs X’s concerns as a complaint.
34. The Council has said it will consider the issues as an appeal. The Ombudsman would not normally expect parents to have to pursue both avenues. It should be a complaint or an appeal. I consider this should have been an appeal as Mrs X’s concerns were about the suitability of the transport offered.
35. I do not consider that the remedy offered of now considering the issues via an appeal are appropriate.

Travel allowance

36. The Council has offered to pay Mrs X a travel allowance of approximately 21p per mile, from early November 2024. Mrs X says this is insufficient to cover the costs involved.
37. By offering to pay a travel allowance and backdate this, I consider the Council has implicitly accepted that the transport it provided was not suitable. On the balance of probabilities, the Council did not provide suitable transport, because:
• it failed to take account of Mrs X’s son’s individual needs and circumstances in determining whether transport was suitable.
• It failed to consider the same issues when Mrs X complained.
• Mrs X’s son was unable to use the transport provided.
38. In response to my enquiries the Council said it does not need to pay the 45p per mile rate referenced in the statutory guidance because it has not determined the travel arrangements in place were unsuitable.
39. I disagree with the Council. The statutory guidance is clear that where a travel allowance is paid it should be at a rate that ensures the arrangements are free of charge to the parent of an eligible child. The exceptions to this are clearly outlined concerning circumstances where full journeys are not made by a parent. The Council is wrong to link this to its opinion of whether the transport it provided was suitable or not, or the cost of the transport it originally provided.
40. This is fault by the Council. Mrs X has had to transport her son to school and back since the beginning of the Autumn term. She has suffered avoidable distress and economic loss as a direct result.

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Action

41. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council should take the following action within 4 weeks of my final decision:
• Apologise to Mrs X for not responding to her concerns and not properly considering whether home to school transport for Y was suitable. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Pay Mrs X £150 in relation to time and trouble.
• Backdate the travel allowance paid to Mrs X to the beginning of the Autumn term 2024, at a rate of 45p per mile, according to the statutory guidance.
• Pay Mrs X £250 in relation to avoidable distress and uncertainty.
• Review its home to school transport policy to ensure it reflects the statutory guidance in relation to sufficiency of travel allowances.

The Council should take the following action within 6 weeks of my final decision:

• Write to Mrs X asking her what transport provision she feels is appropriate.
• Review the suitability of Y’s home to school transport provision, taking into account Mrs X’s views, his individual circumstances and whether it is appropriate to provide transport at alternative times.
• Either provide suitable transport or obtain Mrs X’s agreement to continue paying a travel allowance at the 45p per mile rate.
6. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

43. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman