Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s school to home transport service. This is because the complaint is late and while Mrs X has provided us with reasons she did not complain sooner, they do not sufficiently explain the long delay here, to allow us to disregard the legislation concerning late complaints.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained her child (Y) went missing after school to home transport staff did not ensure their safe return after exiting the vehicle.
2. Mrs X said this incident has caused long lasting trauma for her and her children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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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

7. Mrs X complained about an incident in September 2020. Mrs X said home to school transport staff did not ensure Y’s safe return home, which led to them being missing for several hours.
8. Mrs X has provided information to explain why she did not bring the complaint to us sooner.
9. I have considered whether these are sufficiently good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider Miss X's complaint. The law, explained in paragraph four, says we should not investigate late complaints. I acknowledge Mrs X's comments about why she did not feel able to raise these matters sooner. But this does not displace the expectation in law that we will not investigate.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the complaint is late and her reasons for bringing the complaint late are not sufficient for me to exercise discretion to consider it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman