Summary: We found fault with the Council for restricting access of post-19 learners to travel assistance to their first course of study. We also found fault with the Council failing to consider whether travel assistance was necessary for Mr Y. The Council agreed to update its policy, review its procedures and provide training to staff. The Council also agreed to apologise to Ms X and Mr Y and provide a symbolic financial payment for the injustice its fault caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council awarded a Personal Travel Payment for Mr Y’s transport to post-16 education rather than arranging transport. Ms X says this is unsuitable for Mr Y and does not consider his individual circumstances.
2. Ms X says Independent Travel Training has not worked for Mr Y and the Personal Travel Payment does not cover the expense of arranging someone to take Mr Y to college.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot question whether a decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider if there was fault in the way the decision was reached. If we find fault, which calls into question the panel’s decision, we may ask for a new appeal hearing. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, as amended)
6. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
7. 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(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Ms 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

Rules and regulations

Provision of transport for adult learners

10. For adult learners (age 19 and over), the Council has a duty to make arrangements for the provision of transport or otherwise as it considers necessary to facilitate attendance at education or training. This applies to two particular groups:
• adults (those aged 19 or over) receiving education at maintained further or higher education establishments; and
• relevant young adults (those up to age 25 with an EHC Plan who started the programme of learning after their 19th birthday) receiving any education or training arranged for them.
  (Education Act 1996, section 508F)
11. When a council finds it is “necessary” to arrange transport for the young adult under section 508F, then the transport must be arranged and be free of charge (Education Act 1996, section 508F(4)). In deciding whether the council is required to make arrangements because it is “necessary”, the council must have regard to (among other things) the age of the adult and the nature of the route which the adult could reasonably be expected to take.
12. If the adult leaner falls outside the scope of these two categories, or the council decides the arrangements are not necessary, councils still have discretion to pay all or part of any reasonable travel expenses.
13. Councils must also take into account the “Post-16 transport and travel support to education and training statutory guidance 2019” (the statutory guidance). The guidance says “The overall intention of the adult transport duty is to ensure that those with the most severe disabilities with no other means of transportation are able to undertake further education and training after their 19th birthday to help them move towards more independent living.”
14. The Guidance says councils must publish a complaint or appeal process as part of its transport policy. It is for councils to determine how their appeals process will operate but the Guidance says good practice is to use a similar two-stage process to that for under 16s, for which a recommended process is set out in statutory guidance ‘Travel to school for children of compulsory school age’. This recommends an independent review panel considers complaints at stage two. Appeal decisions should set out the factors considered and why a decision was reached.
15. The Act (s.509AA(8)) says councils may make arrangements which are not specified in the policy statement which they consider necessary.

Contribution towards the cost of transport

16. The Government has issued statutory guidance ‘Post-16 transport and travel support to education and training’, 2019 (‘The Guidance’). This says the statutory responsibility for transport rests with councils and the intention of the transport duty is to ensure learners can access education or training of their choice and, if support for access is requested, this will be assessed and provided where necessary.
17. The Guidance says councils must exercise their power to provide transport or financial support ‘reasonably, taking into account all relevant matters’.
18. If a council decides it is ‘necessary’ to provide support to facilitate attendance, they have broad discretion on the type of transport assistance to offer. There is no duty to make a vehicle available, even for a pupil with an EHC Plan or SEND; councils can make alternative arrangements including providing Personal Travel Payments (PTPs).(R (on the application of Drexler) v Leicestershire County Council [2020] EWCA Civ 502)
19. The Guidance says councils may ask sixth form learners and their parents for a contribution to transport costs and in exercising this discretion they should ensure any contribution is affordable.

Council Policy

20. The Council changed its transport policy statement for post-16 education for the academic year 2025/2026.
21. The Council’s policy says it would only consider support for learners aged 16-25:
• With learning difficulties and/or disabilities and are studying on a full-time basis.
• If they have an Education, Health and Care Plan and are attending the school/college named within their Plan, which is the nearest appropriate school/college and is over the 3-mile statutory walking distance.
22. The Council’s policy says it will refuse any request for travel assistance if the provision named is not the nearest provision.
23. The Council’s policy outlines it will offer Independent Travel Training or Personal Travel Payments to help support a person to attend education.
24. The Council’s policy says in exceptional circumstances it will consider provision of council-organised travel assistance such as a mini-bus in areas where lots of students access their local college and the learner may have profound and significant difficulties.
25. The Council’s policy says that for students aged 19-25 it will only provide travel assistance for a first course of study.

What happened

26. Mr Y was 21 years old in September 2025 and had an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Mr Y had arranged to start a new course in September 2025 and the educational placement was named in Section I of his EHC Plan.
27. In June 2025, Ms X applied for post-16 travel support for Mr Y. The application outlined Mr Y needed someone with him to travel safely and that he had been receiving transport from the Council on his current course about to end.
28. The Council rejected the application because Mr Y was starting a new course. The Council said its Travel Policy outlined the Council would only consider travel assistance for the first course a student aged 19-24 attends and would not agree further assistance for a change of course. The Council outlined its review process.
29. Ms X requested a review of the Council’s decision. Ms X said Mr Y cannot travel safely unaccompanied and Independent Travel Training had previously not been successful. Ms X said Mr Y wished to continue with the course as confirmed in his EHC Plan.
30. In July 2025, the Council provided a stage one review response. The Council said:
• It only had a discretionary duty to provide travel assistance for post-16 education.
• From 19 years of age it would only provide travel assistance for a person’s first course of study and Mr Y was not continuing his course.
• Since the original application, Mr Y’s college had contacted the Council to support his application.
• It had considered its discretion to provide a Personal Travel Payment for Mr Y because Mr Y’s transport route was no longer in place.
• Mr Y has not taken part in Independent Travel Training courses run by the Council.
31. At the end of August 2025, Ms X told the Council it had awarded Personal Travel Payments on the assumption Mr Y could travel by bus independently to college but this is unsafe for Mr Y, as outlined in his EHC Plan. Ms X requested consideration of arranging a taxi to college for Mr Y.
32. The Council responded to advise it would “no longer offer ‘transport’ for post 16 students, our offer is a personal travel payment or independent travel training” from September 2025. The Council said it calculates Personal Travel Payments for students at the same rate and this only varies based on distance. The Council told Ms X she could appeal at stage two.  
33. Ms X sought consideration of the Council’s decision at stage two of the process. Ms X reiterated that it was unsafe for Mr Y to use public transport and he cannot travel alone.
34. In September 2025, the Council provided its stage two response to Ms X. The Council said:
• It has applied its policy correctly to offer a Personal Travel Payment and this discharges its discretionary duty.
• The Personal Travel Payment is not intended to cover the full costs of any arrangements a person chooses but is simply a contribution towards costs.
• It has looked to see if there are any shared contracted routes with a vacant seat for Mr Y that could be re-routed but nothing is available.
• Ms X could take her complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman).
35. Ms X says Mr Y could not attend the first few weeks of term in September 2025. Ms X arranged for a friend to transport Mr Y to college after this point.

Analysis

36. The law sets out a statutory duty for councils to provide free transport to relevant young adults aged 19 or over where they decide it is “necessary” to do so to facilitate their attendance. The Council has a distinct duty to make such arrangements as they consider “necessary” in respect of relevant young adults 19-25 years old with an EHC Plan for the purpose of facilitating their attendance.

First course of study

37. The Council has discretion about how to provide travel assistance but must do so as is “necessary” to enable a learner’s attendance at education. The Council’s policy outlines it will only provide transport to a first course of study for a learner aged 19-25. The Council’s adult transport duty is to ensure adult learners can undertake education and training after they turn 19 years of age to help them move towards more independent living. This duty is not one that can be restricted to the first course of study and must be provided as is “necessary”. The Council’s policy to restrict applications for support to only the first course of study is fault.
38. The Council was at fault for rejecting Mr Y’s original application for travel assistance based on this being his second course since he turned 19. However, this did not cause a significant personal injustice to Mr Y because the Council decided to provide travel assistance at the stage one appeal.

Travel assistance

39. When the Council confirmed it would provide travel assistance to Mr Y it did so because Mr Y’s college had contacted it to support the application. The Council said it would provide a Personal Travel Payment as a discretionary payment because there were no available seats or routes that could accommodate Mr Y’s transport.
40. The Council did not consider the factor of “necessity” in its decision making and has not considered whether Mr Y could make the journey to his educational placement without the provision of transport. The Council has not specifically stated whether it was “necessary” to make arrangements for transport to facilitate Mr Y’s attendance at the college named in his EHC Plan in any of its response to Ms X. Instead, the Council has focused on not providing transport because of a lack of available pre-existing routes, rather than considering whether the transport was necessary for Mr Y.
41. Because the process the Council followed was flawed, we can question its decision. We cannot say what decision the Council would have made, in respect of transport to the College for Mr Y, if it had properly considered the law.
42. Ms X has explained the consequence of the Council’s decision was not a financial one but a safety one for Mr Y. As such, re-taking this decision now would not benefit Mr Y because the academic year will be over when the Ombudsman makes its final decision. However, the Council’s fault caused Mr Y and Ms X uncertainty and inconvenience.

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Action

43. Within one month of the Ombudsman’s final decision the Council will:
• apologise and pay Ms X and Mr Y and pay Ms X £250 to acknowledge Ms X’s avoidable frustration and the time and trouble caused by the Council’s failings with Mr Y’s home to college transport and appeals process identified in this decision. We publish Guidance on Remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council will consider this guidance in making the apology we have recommended.
44. Within two months of the Ombudsman’s final decision the Council will:
• Update the Council’s post-16 Travel Policy Statement to remove the restriction applied to 19-25 year olds for the first course of study only.
• Review its procedure and provide training for stage one and stage two staff and any people involved in appeals for determining transport applications and appeals from adult learners 19-25 years old to ensure it is in line with the Education Act 1996, to ensure the Council decides whether transport is “necessary” and if it is necessary, transport is provided free of charge based on the individual circumstances of the young person.
45. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

46. There was fault leading to injustice. As the Council has agreed to my recommendations, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman