The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse single-occupancy home-to-school taxi transport for Mrs X’s child. Ther is not enough evidence of fault in the way the transport panel reached its decision to warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mrs X said the Council wrongly denied her child a single-occupancy taxi for home-to-school transport rather than a shared vehicle..
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
At my request, the Council supplied the full notes of the appeal, including those made of the panel members’ deliberations. These showed the panel members considered the case Mrs X put forward. It showed they considered whether to exercise discretion to offer a single-occupancy vehicle. The notes show they decided the evidence they had seen was not sufficient to support the view that the child would be unable to travel in a vehicle that also transported another child. The Ombudsman does not act as a supplementary appeal, and I cannot substitute my own opinion for that of the panel if it acted properly in reaching a decision. Investigation by us would be unlikely to find it acted with fault in reaching its decision.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman