Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council is failing to follow Government guidelines on school transport. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. Mr X represents Mrs Y. Mr X says the Council is failing to do all it can to get children to school as required by government guidelines on school transport. He says there are 14 children in his village (including Mrs X’s three children) whose parents drive them to school. Mr X reports the nearest school is in special measures and the next nearest is 0.1 km further away.
2. Mr X wants the Council to provide transport to school for these children or work with schools and academies to ensure as many parents as possible are not forced to drive their children to school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council confirms children from the village where Mrs Y lives are expected to attend a secondary school which I shall call School A. It says other schools have increased their catchment areas to include the village. However, this is a decision made by the schools, not the Council. These other schools are not considered the nearest suitable school – this remains School A.
7. If Mrs Y chose to send her children to School A, they would qualify for free school transport. However, she has chosen to send them to School B, which slightly further away and is therefore not the nearest suitable school.
8. Mr X complains the Council is not working with schools to provide transport to those children who are not attending their nearest suitable school.
9. The Council is required to provide transport for eligible children of compulsory school age who:
• attend their nearest suitable school
• live more than the statutory walking distance from that school
• could not reasonably be expected to walk to that school because of their special education needs, disability, or mobility problem; or
• would not be able to walk to that school in reasonable safety, even if accompanied by a parent.
10. The nearest suitable school is defined in the guidance as suitable for the child’s age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs they may have. Parents often wrongly believe a school is not suitable because of a poor rating from the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) or a bullying issue. However, consideration of suitability is limited to the definition described in the guidance.
11. As Mrs Y’s children are not attending the nearest suitable school, the Council has no duty to provide school transport for them.
12. The Council says it is keen to support local children in accessing local schools. It wants to support community cohesion and help develop local high quality and successful education provision. It states that to provide financial assistance to support parents to access education provision outside of their local community and away from their local schools would be contrary to this and would be disadvantageous to local schools.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman