Leicestershire County Council has agreed to refund a mother’s school transport costs after Ombudsman found flaws in the way it handled her application.
She won an appeal for school transport costs for her teenage son, who has disabilities and attends the post-16 section of a special school, which was upheld by the council.
But the council refused to backdate the £7,000 cost of her son’s transport while it considered the appeal.
The Ombudsman investigated the mother’s complaint and found faults with the process the council used for both the application for transport, and for considering the appeal of the decision.
The investigation found the council took too long to reach its initial decision on the family’s school transport application, and that the information provided to parents about timescales was misleading.
The council has now agreed to apologise to the family and reimburse the costs they incurred minus the personal transport budget payments received.
It will also pay £500 to recognise the avoidable distress caused by the way it handled their application and appeal.
It will also consider providing information on transport and consider looking at its systems to ensure any issues identified can be dealt with promptly.
Local government and social care ombudsman Paul Najsarek said: ‘When carrying out assessments and appeals for any services, councils need to ensure transparency, timeliness and accountability.
‘But in this case Leicestershire’s school transport process was beset by delay and a lack of clear information.
‘This investigation also found that this process was inherently inferior for children and young people with special educational needs.
‘Because their places are decided later in the year they have been disproportionately affected and less likely to have their appeals heard in time for transport to be put in place for the start of term.
‘I am pleased Leicestershire County Council has taken on board my findings, and hope the changes it has agreed to make to its application and appeal process will ensure other children and young people with disabilities will not be adversely affected in future.’
A spokesperson for Leicestershire County Council said: 'We fully accept the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. We’ve apologised to the family and we’re now actively working on addressing the other recommendations set out by the Ombudsman. We take all complaints extremely seriously and improvements in our processes are now being put in place. As with any complaint which is upheld, it ensures lessons are learned.'
