Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s delay in providing her son’s school bus details for the new school year. This is because a further investigation by this office could not add to the response and explanation already provided via the Council’s own investigation of the matter.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council did not provide her with her son’s home to school travel details until she had sent several emails and spent two hours on hold on the phone. Mrs X says she did not receive a promised call back and the Council’s response to her complaint felt scripted and not personalised. She is concerned the same thing will happen again next year.

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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)
3. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6) & (7), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained to the Council about the matter set out in paragraph one, above.
7. The Council apologised to Mrs X for the delay in providing her son’s school transport details and for any frustration this caused. It explained his school route was one of only a few that needed to be procured and so this led to a delay in it being able to provide the relevant details. It also apologised for the team’s lack of communication during this time and for it not explaining the cause of the delay. It also explained there were issues with its telephone service at the time which impacted its response times. These have now been resolved. As a result of the issues raised in the complaint it said it would arrange further staff training to ensure it is providing excellent customer service going forward.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has already taken suitable action in response to Mrs X’s complaint via its own investigation of the matter. It has apologised to Mrs X for the delay, explained the reason for it and set out the steps it has taken to prevent it from recurring. There is nothing further we could add or recommend were we to also investigate and so it would not be a good use of limited public funds for us to also investigate the matter.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is unlikely a further investigation by this office could add to the response already provided by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman