Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to provide Miss X’s child with financial assistance for home to school transport. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has refused to provide her daughter (Y) with financial assistance to cover transport to and from school.

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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 Miss X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Councils have a duty to provide free school transport to ‘eligible’ children. These include children attending the nearest suitable school to home and who live over the statutory walking distance; for children of secondary school age this is three miles. Statutory guidance on home to school transport states the nearest secondary school to a student’s home will almost always be their nearest suitable school.
6. Miss X has asked the Council to provide her child (Y), with free transport to secondary school. The Council refused because it says Y is not attending her nearest suitable school. This means she is not entitled to free transport.
7. Miss X appealed against the Council’s decision. She advised Y moved school twice because of issues with bullying. The school she attends is the one she expressed a preference for. Miss X says a move to another school will be disastrous for Y’s mental health. She also says the costs of taking Y to and from school each day is a significant financial burden. She provided letters of support for Y to remain at her current school from her GP and other organisations.
8. The Council considered Miss X’s case through its appeals process. It noted concerns were expressed at a Team Around the Family meeting about the distance from Miss X’s home and Y’s preferred choice of school. Miss X says she was told at the meeting that she could apply for school transport.
9. The Council decided that, while Miss X was told she could apply for transport, she was not told it would be granted. It decided not to uphold her appeal as Y does not qualify for free school transport. This is because Y is not attending her nearest suitable school, instead she is choosing to attend the school preferred by herself and Miss X. This choice was made knowing the school is some distance away from their home.
10. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether a complainant disagrees with the decision the organisation made. This is a decision the Council is entitled to take.
11. The panel considered Miss X’s appeal and the extra information she provided. It did not uphold the appeal. It found Miss X’s application did not meet the eligibility criteria for travel assistance as Y is not attending the nearest available school. It considered the information Miss X provided about her circumstances and parental preference for the school. However it found these did not amount to exceptional circumstances which would cause it to depart from the transport policy.
12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault by the Council here. It has considered and decided Miss X’s application in line with its published policy. We are not an appeal body, and it is not our role to question the Council’s decisions where, as here, there is no sign of fault in the way it was reached.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council decided not to grant free school transport for her daughter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman