Summary: We will not investigate Mrs M’s complaint about school transport because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.

The complaint

1. Mrs M complains about school transport for her son. The Council agreed to pay ‘mileage’ but Mrs M wants compensation for the impact on her earnings of providing the transport herself.

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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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation,
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome,
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, and
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(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 M’s son has an education, health and care (EHC) plan maintained by the Council.
6. He has attended off-site provision approximately 8 miles from his school since September 2023. The school is approximately 10 miles from Mrs M’s home.
7. Mrs M asked the Council to pay ‘mileage’ so she could take her son to the off-site provision herself. The Council refused. It agreed to pay ‘mileage’ to the school, but said the school was responsible for transport to the off-site provision. The Council suggested Mrs M asked the school to contribute to the additional cost.
8. In early 2026, the Council updated Mrs M’s son’s EHC plan and agreed to provide transport to the off-site provision.
9. The Council acknowledged that the wording of the plan had not been clear and accepted it should have provided transport to the off-site provision when Mrs M’s son started attending full-time in September 2023.
10. The Council offered Mrs M an additional payment so that she received mileage to the off-site provision, backdated to September 2023. The Council also explained the lessons it had learned from Mrs M’s complaint.
11. Mrs M remains dissatisfied. She appreciates the Council’s offer of the mileage payment but says that providing transport for her son has limited her earnings because of the time she has spent travelling. She asks the Ombudsman to consider compensation for her lost earnings.
12. The Council has paid mileage for the transport Mrs M provided. This is a suitable remedy. There is nothing we could add to the Council’s response. Mrs M asked the Council to pay mileage to the off-site provision and the Council has now agreed. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
13. We do not award compensation. We cannot achieve the outcome Mrs M wants.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs M’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman