Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to reduce funding for transport to education for Ms X’s children. This is because we are unlikely to achieve any worthwhile outcome by doing so.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council reduced payments toward her children’s transport to school.
2. Ms X says the Council has caused significant distress and financial hardship. She is seeking an apology, financial redress and improvements to the Council’s service.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 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

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

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My assessment

6. Ms X complained the Council reduced the Personal Transport Budget agreed for her children, causing her financial hardship.
7. The Council explained it cannot pay for transport which was not provided. It said it had cross referenced school attendance records with taxi records and deducted payments for days the children did not attend school.
8. Within its complaint response the Council accepted it could make it clearer that it will not include days the children did not attend when paying for their transport. It has agreed to do this in its contracts with service users so it is clear from the outset.
9. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would agree the Council should be clear about its funding from the outset, but we are unlikely to say it should make payment for transport which was not required or used.
10. The Council has already taken steps to make its approach clearer to service users from the outset.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we would not achieve a worthwhile outcome by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman