Sandwell Council has apologised after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found flaws in the way it considered a family’s application for travel support.

The parents of a boy with special needs applied to the council for transport to a school identified in their son’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan.

The council turned down the request and a subsequent appeal, claiming it had only agreed to name the parents’ preferred school in the boy’s EHC Plan on the understanding they had accepted responsibility for transport.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found the council did not follow the correct procedure when deciding whether school transport should be provided.

Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: ‘Councils must provide help or transport for children to attend their nearest available school with places, if it is more than the set distance away from home. This distance will depend on the child’s age.

‘In this case, the boy could only attend the school identified in his EHC Plan, and the council should therefore have made suitable home to school travel arrangements for him. But it did not do so.’

A Sandwell Council spokesperson apologised to the family for the distress this matter caused them.

‘Like many local authorities, we are seeing a significant increase in demand for support for children with SEND, with a 51% increase in the number of children with an EHCP since 2019,’ they added.

‘We have already commenced a review of our services so that we can provide the best possible support to children and their parents and carers and will incorporate the points raised by the Ombudsman’s report into this work.’