The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: The Ombudsman had discontinued its investigation into Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to offer home to school transport to her daughter as a travel assistance budget. The Council has offered a discretionary place in a taxi to and from school and there is no injustice to remedy even if we had gone on to find fault.
The complaint
Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to offer home to school transport to her daughter Y, as a Travel Assistance Budget (TAB). She says the Council has failed to consider that Y requires an escort and therefore the TAB is not practical nor suitable. Ms X also complains about the appeal process. She says there was no appeal panel, and she was denied the opportunity to make verbal representation.
Ms X says the budget is not enough and puts her in financial difficulty. She says the budget is not practical as she has to escort her two children to different schools.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) 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(i), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I discussed the complaint with Ms X and considered the information she provided. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response and documents it provided.
I sent Ms X and the Council a copy of my draft decision and invited their comments. I considered all comments I received before reaching a final decision.
What I found
Home to school transport The Education Act 1996 defines councils’ duties with regard to provision of home to school transport at sections 508B, 508C and Schedule 35B and 35C (as inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006).
The law says councils must make ‘suitable travel arrangements’, ‘as they consider necessary’, for ‘eligible children’ to attend their ‘qualifying school’. This transport must be provided free of charge.
Schedule 35C School Travel Schemes, paragraph 3 (5) states that: “’Travel arrangements’, in relation to an eligible child, include travel arrangements of any description made by any parent of the child only if those arrangements are made by the parent voluntarily.”
The law and guidance say on condition the relevant parental consent has been obtained by the council (annually or, if a child moves school), as an alternative arrangement to meet its duty relating to make travel arrangements, it may pay the parent a mileage allowance to drive their eligible child to school. This would be in place of the council arranging for a taxi to transport the child.
‘Home to school travel and transport’ issued by the Department for Education in July 2014 provides statutory guidance by the government (‘the Guidance’).
Government guidance: transport appeals The Government issued statutory guidance in 2014 which recommends councils have a two-stage appeal process for parents who wish to challenge a decision about their child’s eligibility for school transport.
Stage 1: review by a senior officer. Within 20 working days of receiving a parent’s written request to appeal the decision, a senior officer reviews the original decision and sends the parent a detailed written notification of the outcome of the review setting out the nature of the decision, how the review was conducted, what was taken into account, the rationale for the decision reached, and how to escalate their case to stage 2; and Stage 2: Within 40 working days of receipt of the parent’s request for an independent appeal panel to consider written and verbal representations, a detailed decision is sent setting out: the nature of the decision reached; how the review was conducted; what factors were considered; the rationale for the decision reached; and information about appealing to us.
Parents can challenge the council’s assessment of their child’s eligibility, its measurement of the distance to the school, and its assessment of the safety of the route. Parents can also ask the council to consider their exceptional circumstances.
The Council’s School transport policy The Council’s policy states it has a duty to assist parents by providing travel assistance if a child: has Special Educational Needs/Disability with a Wandsworth EHCP; and is under 8 years of age and lives over 2 miles from school is aged 8 years or over and lives over 3 miles from school In the first instance TABs is the standard support option for children who are eligible for travel assistance on account of their Special Educational needs. The aim of TAB is to support families to take their own children to school, reduce journey times, and/or to support the independence of the young person and enable them to become independent travellers. It also gives parents/carers the flexibility to choose the mode of transport that suits their prevailing circumstances as the budget allows them to switch from one mode of transport to another.
The policy sets out the stage one review and stage two appeal process in line with statutory guidance.
What happened Ms X applied for home to school travel assistance for her child Y. The Council rejected her application.
Ms X went through the two stages of appeal. At stage one the Council decided that Y did not meet the eligibility criteria for home to school transport. It said Ms X lived 1.1 miles from school which was less than the statutory walking distance of two miles and Ms X had provided no evidence to support why she could not escort Y to school.
At stage 2 the panel decided to award Y a discretionary Travel Assistance Budget to support Ms X financially to take Y to school. Ms X was not given the opportunity to make verbal representation.
Ms X disagreed with the Council’s decision to offer Y a Travel Assistance Budget and complained to the Ombudsman.
In response to my enquiries the Council confirmed it had offered Ms X the opportunity to attend a further stage 2 panel hearing in June 2022. Ms X confirmed that she attended the hearing and made verbal representation.
The Council has now offered Y a discretionary place in a taxi to and from school. The Ombudsman cannot achieve more for the complainant by pursuing the complaint
Final decision
I have discontinued my investigation into Ms X’s complaint. The Council has offered Y a discretionary place in a taxi to and from school and there is no injustice to remedy even if we had gone on to find fault. I have completed my investigation on this basis.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman