Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to arrange home to school transport, or failure to ensure its transport operator met his reasonable adjustments. There is no evidence of a significant injustice which would warrant our involvement and further investigation by us would not achieve any other worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to arrange home to school transport for his child (Y). Mr X said he told it about a change of address before the start of a new academic year. However, it did not action this, leading to Y not being collected for school at the start of term.
2. Mr X also complained the Council did not tell its transport operator about his reasonable adjustments.
3. Mr X said the matters caused significant distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In July 2025, Mr X told the Council about a change of address for Y’s home school transport collection, effective from the start of the new academic year.
8. Mr X said the Council did not action this. Therefore, he contacted the transport operator before the start of term. Mr X said the operator called him, despite having a reasonable adjustment with the Council for email only communication.
9. The operator told Mr X, the day before term began, it could not collect Y from the new address because this was not the address the Council provided. Mr X went on to complain to the Council after he had to transport Y to school for the first day of term.
10. Before responding formally, the Council responded to Mr X’s correspondence and apologised transport was not in place and confirmed it had arranged it from the new address from the next day. It also agreed to refund Mr X for any costs he incurred by transporting Y to school.
11. The Council did not provide home to school transport for one day. I do not consider this caused a significant injustice which would meet the threshold for a full Ombudsman investigation.
12. In any case, the Council apologised, arranged transport from the next day and offered to refund costs. Further investigation by us would not lead to a different, or any other worthwhile outcome.
13. In its complaint response, the Council acknowledged it did not share Mr X’s reasonable adjustments with its transport operator, which led to a telephone call which caused Mr X distress. It also apologised and said it had recorded the adjustment for its home to school transport team to have access to. It also shared the information with its transport operator and recommended the member of staff involved to receive additional training.
14. Further investigation by us on this point would not lead to a different outcome. While I acknowledge this matter caused Mr X distress, the Council have taken actions to prevent this from reoccurring. We could not achieve anything further by investigating this complaint.
15. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of a significant injustice and further investigation by us would not achieve any other worthwhile outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman