Summary: There was fault by the Council in failing to consider the holistic needs of a disabled parent and disabled child, where the parent’s disability prevents them facilitating travel to the early years setting named in the child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. While there is no transport duty for young children under the Education Act 1996, the Council does have discretion to make support available under various mechanisms. We would expect a council to explore the full range of options rather than risk leaving a child without access to education provision they have been assessed as needing. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment, review alternative mechanisms for support and make service improvements.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council refused free home to school transport for her child, Y, who has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan naming a private day nursery as the setting where Y’s special educational needs will be met.
2. Ms X is a single parent with a medical condition and says she cannot safely transport Y to the nursery setting 1.9 miles away. As the Council has not provided transport support, Ms X says she has had to fund taxis at £10-11 per single journey to take Y. Ms X says this has led to Y not being able to access all their sessions. Ms X says she can no longer afford to fund taxis so, from September 2026, Y will be unable to access early years education or the special educational provision in their EHC Plan. Ms X says she is in £1000 of debt due to taxi costs.

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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 recommend a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. An organisation should not adopt a blanket or uniform approach or policy that prevents it from considering the circumstances of a particular case. We may find fault in the actions of organisations that ‘fetter their discretion’ in this way.
6. 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

7. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.
9. 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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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

Transport

10. The Education Act 1996 sets out travel arrangements Councils must or may make for a child in their area to facilitate the child’s attendance at any ‘relevant educational establishment’ in relation to the child.
11. Arrangements for ‘eligible’ children of compulsory school age are set out in s.508B.
12. S.508C says a Council may make school travel arrangements as they consider necessary for other children in their area who are not eligible under s.508B to facilitate attendance at a relevant educational establishment. However, a ‘relevant educational establishment’ for the purposes of s.508C does not include early years provision which is not a maintained nursery school.
13. S.509A says Councils may provide a child with assistance with travel to early years education settings, if they are satisfied that, without such assistance, the child would be prevented from attending to receive education. ‘Relevant early years education’ for s.509A means free childcare made available by the Government to specified groups and which can be provided at private nurseries.
14. Assistance may be either:

(a) making arrangements (for the provision of transport or otherwise), or

(b) paying the whole or any part of reasonable travel expenses.

15. The Council may have regard to whether it would be reasonable to expect alternative arrangements to be made to receive relevant early years education at any other premises (whether nearer to the home or otherwise).

Social care

16. S.17 of the Children Act 1989 says it shall be the general duty of every council:

(a) to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and

(b) so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families,

by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.

17. A child shall be taken to be in need if—

(a) they are unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by a local authority;

(b) their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision of such services; or

(c) they are disabled.

18. The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 places a specific duty on a council to provide support that a disabled child is assessed as needing if it comes within the scope of s.2. S.2 includes provision that assists the disabled child ‘in taking advantage of educational facilities’ that are available to them and can include the provision of transport.
19. Section 36(20) of the Children and Families Act 2014 defines an EHC needs assessment as including an assessment of the child or young person’s social care needs. Where a child or young person is not previously known to social care this will require a new assessment to identify if there are social care needs which need to be included in the EHC Plan.  
20. Where the council decides it is necessary for support to be provided under s.2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 it must include this in Section H1 of the EHC Plan. Support provided by Early Help or under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (child in need) should be included in Section H2 of the EHC Plan. 
21. The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act 1989 to require councils to assess parent carers on the ‘appearance of need’ or when a parent requests an assessment. The parent carer needs assessment must have regard to the need to promote the welfare of the child.

EHC Plans

22. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them. The EHC Plan is set out in sections which include: 

• Section B: Special educational needs.  
• Section D: Social care needs related to the child or young person’s SEN
• Section F: The special educational provision needed by the child or the young person. 
• Section H1: The social care provision which must be made for the child or young person under 18 resulting from section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.
• Section H2: Any other social care provision reasonably required by the learning difficulties or disabilities which result in the child or young person having SEN. (Where relevant this includes adult social care provision to meet eligible needs under the Care Act 2014).
• Section I: The name or type of educational placement 

23. The council has a duty to make sure the child receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan (Section 42 Children and Families Act, the ‘s.42 duty’).
24. Councils must review EHC Plans at least every twelve months, however the Code of Practice (9.178) says councils should consider reviewing an EHC plan for a child under five at least every three to six months to ensure that the provision continues to be appropriate. Such reviews may be streamlined and not necessarily require the attendance of the full range of professionals, depending on the needs of the child.

What happened

25. Ms X’s child, Y, is in private early years education. They will reach compulsory school age (the term after a child is 5 years old) in January 2027.
26. The Council issued an EHC Plan for Y in January 2026, due to Y having complex needs and working well below their developmental age. The EHC Plan does not detail any social care needs or provision.
27. While Y attends a private day nursery, the EHC Plan states they are in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) class which has a high staff to pupil ratio. Y’s EHC Plan sets out a highly personalised curriculum of special educational provision.
28. Ms X is a single parent and has a medical condition. Ms X says she cannot drive for medical reasons. Ms X says she is unable to take Y to their early years setting which is 1.9 miles away due to her own health needs.
29. Ms X applied to the Council’s transport team for support. The Council refused this under s.508 of the Education Act 1996, on the basis Y was not of statutory school age, and the Council “does not have, and is not legally required to have, a policy or offer travel assistance to pupils who are below compulsory school age”.
30. Ms X also sought to challenge the Council through the Council’s complaint process arguing that without transport the Council had failed to meet its s.42 duty under Children and Families Act 2014 to secure the special educational provision in Y’s EHC Plan.
31. The Council responded to the complaint in Spring 2026. It acknowledged that the Council had a duty under s.42 to secure the special educational provision in the EHC Plan, but said it had done this by naming the early years setting in Section I. It said there was no evidence the setting could not deliver the Section F provision.
32. The Council said the s.42 duty was separate to its responsibilities to provide transport under statutory eligibility criteria of s.508 Education Act 1996. It referred to statutory guidance for children “Working together to improve school attendance” that says the practical arrangements for travel to and from a setting ordinarily remain the responsibility of parents.
33. The Council said it did not intend to review Y’s EHC Plan again until January 2027.

Analysis

34. The Council is correct to say it has no legal duty to provide transport to a child below compulsory school age under s.508B of the Education Act 1996. It also cannot use its discretion under s.508C to provide transport unless Y was attending a maintained nursery school class (not a private day nursery).
35. The Council can however provide transport assistance (actual transport or financial support) under:
• S.509A Education Act 1996
• S.2 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
• S.17 Children Act 1989.
36. It has failed to consider any of these options, this is fault. We would expect council transport teams to be alert to other options for support and to make appropriate referrals, not engage in silo thinking.
37. The social care needs of this family should have been considered as part of the EHC needs assessment prior to the issue of the EHC Plan in January 2026. This did not happen and is fault. The holistic needs of the family, including the impact of the mother’s disability on the child’s education, should have been considered much earlier and may have led to additional or different support that met the needs of the family better. The uncertainty of whether additional support may have been available is an injustice.
38. The Council could also have considered if Y could receive their special educational provision and early years education at a different setting that was accessible, or to which transport would be provided, or whether the special educational provision in the EHC Plan could be delivered via a home programme.
39. It is concerning the case has been through a transport appeal and complaint process without anyone considering involving education and social care in a ‘team around the child’ or similar multi-team approach.
40. Since issuing my draft decision, the Council has arranged for children’s social care to carry out an assessment to consider if transport support can be offered to the family. The Council has acknowledged wider consideration could have been given to potential support available through social care legislation. It says it is currently reviewing the role of social care assessments within the Education, Health and Care needs assessment process and will strengthen the guidance available to officers and appeal panels to ensure that the full range of relevant statutory powers and duties is considered when determining similar cases in the future.

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Agreed Action

Within four weeks of my final decision:

41. The Council will apologise to Ms X for the faults identified in this decision statement.
42. The Council will pay Ms X £250 to acknowledge the impact of the fault and the time, trouble and uncertainty this has caused.
43. The Council will review the case on a holistic basis, for example via a ‘team around the child’ approach to explore potential solutions. The Ombudsman is pleased to note a social care assessment has already taken place.
44. If the outcome of the case review is to provide support, the Council will consider reimbursing Ms X for any taxi expenses for which she is out of pocket.

Within three months of my final decision:

45. The Council reflect on the issues raised by this complaint and identify whether it needs to make changes to its services, or local offer information, regarding transport support to early years settings or if it needs to provide additional training to officers. The Council will provide details to the Ombudsman of any service improvements it decides to make.
46. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

47. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy the injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman