Ombudsman criticises Bradford Council over school travel passes

Bradford City Council unreasonably refused to award free school travel passes to a woman’s daughters after having done so for her elder son to go to the same school.

Bradford City Council unreasonably refused to award free school travel passes to a woman’s daughters after having done so for her elder son to go to the same school, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Anne Seex. In her report, issued today (14 July 2011) she says: “The decision to award a pass to her son to assist him ‘in attending the nearest mixed Catholic school’ created a reasonable expectation in [the mother] that the Council had accepted her case that free travel should be provided to enable all her children to attend a mixed-sex Catholic school together”, and added: “in these circumstances it was perverse to refuse travel passes for the daughters.”

Mrs R wanted her son to attend a mixed-sex Catholic school five miles from her home. He gained a place and the Council provided him with a free bus pass. After Mrs R had applied for her younger daughters to attend the same school, the Council told her it had issued the free travel pass by mistake and would withdraw it as there was a boys’ Catholic school closer to her home. Mrs R appealed, telling the appeal panel that she wanted her son to go to the mixed-sex school so that her daughters could join him and the children could travel together and have the same holidays. The appeal panel decided that Mrs R’s son should have a free travel pass “to assist your son in attending the nearest mixed Catholic school.”

When Mrs R applied for her daughters to have free travel passes the Council refused and its refusal was upheld after Mrs R appealed.

The Council argued that every appeal panel must be free to reach its own decision and subsequent appeal panels could not be bound by the decision of the first.

The Ombudsman found that the Council acted with maladministration in refusing Mrs R’s daughters free travel passes and had made mistakes in a number of other cases.

She said: “The Council’s administration of free school travel passes to Catholic children in Mrs R’s neighbourhood has not been competent – by its own account three families have been given passes that the Council says were mistakes; officers’ attempts to withdraw passes from two of the families were rejected by appeal panels; in another case of a travel pass being refused by officers an appeal panel said the child should have one in order to be able to attend a mixed-sex Catholic secondary school.”

To remedy the injustice caused to Mrs R, the Ombudsman recommends that the Council should:

  • refund Mrs R the costs she has incurred for her daughters’ travel to school;
  • issue them with free travel passes, and
  • apologise and pay Mrs R £200 in recognition of her worry, time and trouble in pursuing her complaint.

The Ombudsman also recommends that the Council should clarify and communicate clearly to parents whether a preference for a mixed or single-sex school means that a nearer school that did not meet that preference would be ‘suitable’ under the free travel policy. She emphasises that it is entirely for the Council to decide what the policy should be. Her interest is only in ensuring that, whatever the policy is, it is clearly communicated to parents and to members of appeal panels.

The real names of people are not used in the report for legal reasons.

Report ref no 09R012 826

Article date: 14 July 2011

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