Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to issue a new contract to the complainant’s daughter’s home to school transport provider. There is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant our intervention.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council is at fault in failing to issue a new contract to her daughter’s home to school transport 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. (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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X’s daughter has special educational needs and is entitled to home to school transport. Mrs X says her daughter has travelled with the same transport provider for five years. Her complaint concerns the Council’s decision not to award the provider a new contract.
6. Mrs X says the contract should have been renewed two years ago when her daughter changed school. She says the Council’s failure to do so has resulted in the provider being changed unnecessarily. She says that her daughter’s inability to cope with change should have been taken into account and a new contract issued to the existing provider. As a result of the failure to do so, she cannot now attend school,
7. In response to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council has explained that it has had to re-tender for the transport contract due to procurement regulations and its legal duties. It has set out specific actions to be taken to ease Mrs X’s daughter’s transition to a new provider.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant our intervention. Where a pupil is entitled to school transport it must be provided. But the choice of contractor is a matter for the authority. Although it is reasonable for Mrs X to want the transport provider to remain constant, that is not something which the Council can be expected to guarantee.
9. There is nothing in the correspondence to indicate that the terms of the provision have changed, other than the provider. The measures the Council has set out to help manage the transition are reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances of the case. There is no role for the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

10. 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