The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a home to school transport incident as there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply. And we are unlikely to find fault or achieve a significantly different outcome on a transport dispute.
The complaint
Ms X complains about the suspension and cancellation of home to school transport in August 2022.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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; or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council’s responses to her which it provided.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X’s child, Y, has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). She says she moved into this Council’s area in April 2022. She says the Council agreed home to school transport in principle in June 2022. She says she was offered a personal independent payment to pay for transport. She says she turned this down as she wanted a consistent safe provider. She says she requested Company A who had already been transporting Y. She says Y’s GP had said it was important to continue to use the same transport. The Council told her Company A was too expensive. It set up Company B.
At the end of August 2022 there was an incident. Ms X disputes Company B’s version of events. She complained in September. The Council says it replied in September 2022. Ms X made a detailed complaint in November 2022 which we have seen. The Council says it replied in December 2022. It says it offered a home to school taxi through its normal tendering process.
In August 2023 Ms X complained to the Council about education and transport matters. The Council replied in detail in September 2023. It repeated its offer to provide a home to school taxi with Ms X accompanying Y to aid their adjustment to the new transport. It explained why Company A was too expensive and gave comparative figures.
In February 2024 the Council repeated its previous offer plus offered a personal budget.
Analysis The incident in August 2022 is more than 12 months old. There is no evidence that Ms X has continuously followed her complaint about this. We will not investigate this because there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.
The Council’s decision to refuse to finance Company A is not one we should investigate. 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 Ms X disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
I have considered the steps the organisation took to consider the issue, and the information it took account of when deciding to refuse to finance Company A. It is unlikely we would find fault in how it took the decision.
In addition, we are unlikely to achieve more than has already been offered. The Council has offered home to school transport by taxi and by a personal budget.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply to her complaint about an incident in August 2022. And it is unlikely we would find Council fault or achieve a significantly different outcome on the ongoing transport dispute.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman