Derbyshire County Council (24 007 156)

Statement Upheld School transport 25-Feb-2025

Summary: Mr B complained the Council wrongly refused to award travel assistance for his son who has special educational needs, failed to consider his circumstances and delayed responding to his correspondence. The Council failed to carry out the appeal properly, failed to keep notes from the appeal hearing and delayed responding to Mr B’s correspondence. Mr B has experienced distress and cannot be satisfied his appeal was properly considered. An agreement to carry out a further appeal, apology and payment to Mr B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

Somerset Council (24 015 876)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 24-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to change the school transport pick-up point for the complainant’s children or the collection time. There is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council considered the matter to justify an investigation.

West Sussex County Council (24 008 795)

Statement Upheld School transport 24-Feb-2025

Summary: There was fault and delay by the Council in implementing an order of the SEND Tribunal. This delayed Y being able to attend the school the Tribunal had determined was suitable and caused distress and uncertainty. The Council also failed to consider a remedy payment under its own complaint process, which could have resolved the complaint without the need for Ms X to come to the Ombudsman. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and make service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

London Borough of Sutton (24 008 763)

Statement Upheld School transport 21-Feb-2025

Summary: The complainant complains that an appeal against a transport to school decision did not consider the issues she raised about why her son’s nearest school was not appropriate. Nor did it explain its reasoning to refuse her application. We uphold the complaint. The Council has agreed to our made recommendations.

Manchester City Council (24 015 406)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 20-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to provide free school transport for her child. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council (24 016 230)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 20-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to change the pick-up time for his daughter’s transport to college. Or the complaint about the Council’s post-16 transport policy. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant our involvement.

East Sussex County Council (24 011 613)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 20-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about home to school transport costs. There are no good reasons to investigate events before March 2023. We cannot investigate issues a Tribunal has considered. And we are unlikely to achieve more than the reimbursement already given.

North Somerset Council (24 015 601)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 19-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the safety of home to school transport. It is unlikely we would find she has been caused any significant injustice directly by the Council’s fault.

North Somerset Council (24 015 024)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 14-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her request for home to school transport. There was some fault by the Council, but it did not cause a significant personal injustice. An investigation is not therefore warranted.

Surrey County Council (24 015 163)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries School transport 11-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to provide a chaperone for her child’s taxi journey to school. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement .