Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse the complainant’s application and appeal for education transport for her daughter. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mrs X, complains that the Council is at fault in refusing her application and appeal for education transport to enable her daughter to attend college.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X’s daughter attends a vocational college. Mrs X says she was previously provided education transport by taxi, but that the Council will no longer provide one for her. Mrs X believes this is unreasonable, as she cannot take her daughter to college every day and she cannot travel unaccompanied.
6. Mrs X appealed against the Council’s decision. She wants the matter to be reconsidered and her daughter provided with taxi transport to college.
7. It is not for the Ombudsman to take a view on whether Mrs X’s daughter should be provided with transport to college. That is a matter for the Council. Our role is to consider whether there is evidence of fault in the way the Council made its decision and, if so, whether that fault is likely to have been material to the outcome. Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s decision, but that does not mean it is flawed.
8. The evidence shows that the Council considered Mrs X’s representations through its appeal procedure. The minutes of the appeal hearings and the decision letters show that Mrs X’s grounds of appeal were considered. The decisions are properly set out and appear reasonable and defensible in the circumstances of the case.
9. The weight given to Mrs X’s case was a matter for the professional judgement of the decision makers and there is no evidence of fault in the way the decisions were made. In the absence of such evidence, the Ombudsman cannot criticise those decisions, or intervene to substitute an alternative view. We will not therefore investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman