Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s delays in providing her son, Y, with home to school transport. We find the Council was at fault for its inaccurate communication and for its delay in providing Y with home to school transport. This caused Miss X frustration and upset, and Y missed education and provision. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and make a payment to her.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s delays in providing her son, Y, with home to school transport. This matter caused distress and upset and Y missed crucial education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 recommend a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. 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)
4. 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

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

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What I found

The Council’s post-16 transport policy

7. The Council has a travel policy statement which sets out the support it will provide to facilitate the attendance of post-16 students at their education settings.
8. Students who fulfil the Council’s criteria for post-16 transport will have to contribute to the cost of their transport.

What happened

9. Y has special educational needs and an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This document sets out a child’s special educational needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them.
10. The Council sent a letter to Miss X in early July 2025. It said it had assigned home to school transport for Y. It told Miss X to show the letter to the transport provider during the first week of travel.
11. Miss X emailed the Council in early September at the beginning of the new school term. She said Y did not have transport even though she had received the letter in July. She had spoken to an officer, and they told her she should have applied for transport. She said Y was due to start Year 11 because he had repeated a year. She could not take Y to school because she had a road traffic accident.
12. The Council responded and said Y was of sixth form age. Therefore, Miss X needed to apply for post-16 travel and pay for the autumn term. It said Y was of sixth form age even if he had repeated a year.
13. Miss X applied for transport for Y on the same day and paid £150.
14. Miss X complained to the Council on 20 September. She said it wrongly told her in July that Y had home to school transport. She said it had failed to resolve the issue, and Y did was not attending school because he did not have transport. She said Y’s attendance at school was important because he was doing his GCSE’s.
15. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint on 6 October. It said Y’s transport had started that day. It upheld the complaint about the delay in providing Y with transport. It said it would offer a fuel reimbursement for the time her family took Y to school.

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Analysis

16. The Council’s letter from July 2025 suggests that it had arranged Y’s home to school transport from September onwards. However, this was not the case as Miss X had to apply for post-16 transport for Y. The Council should have explained this to Miss X in its letter. Its failure to do so is fault.
17. Miss X applied for post-16 transport as soon as she became aware of the issue. However, the Council did not provide Y with transport for five weeks. This delay is fault.
18. The Council’s faults have caused Y a significant injustice. He missed five weeks of full-time education and specialist provision during an important time in his school career. Miss X could not take Y to school as she had previously been involved in a road traffic accident, and she did not have access to a car. She says Y did not have any education at all for two weeks. For the remaining three weeks, his school paid for staff to take Y to and from school. However, he was only attending part time (two lessons per day rather than five) because he had to work around the schedules of the school staff.
19. The Council’s faults have also caused Miss X frustration and upset that Y did not receive the education he was entitled to. She also paid for a service that she did not receive for five weeks.
20. While the Council upheld Miss X’s complaint, it did not apologise to her for the injustice caused. The remedy it offered was not appropriate for the circumstances of the case. I have made suitable recommendations to address the injustice caused.

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Action

21. By 14 September 2026 the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Miss X and Y for the injustice caused by fault in this statement.
• Pay Miss X £415 to reflect Y’s missed education and specialist provision from 1 September 2025 to 6 October 2025.
• Pay Miss X £50 which reflects a partial refund of the post-16 transport fee.

22. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

23. There was fault by the Council, which caused Miss X and Y an injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and so I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman