The local government ombudsman Dr Jane Martin has warned that local authorities which have signed the Armed Forces Covenant must make sure military personnel and their families are not disadvantaged.
Dr Martin said it was 'not enough for councils just to pay lip service to the Armed Forces Covenant.'
The warning follows a case in Devon where the county council declined to provide home-school transport to a forces family after they had to move home.
The council argued that its decision did not disadvantage the family because a non-forces family would have been treated in the same manner.
The council has been asked to apologise to the family and has agreed to raise the profile of the covenant among its staff and review its school transport policy.
It has agreed to put in place a home-school transport plan for the child and pay the family £1,000 to reimburse the costs they incurred as a result of the council's faults, and a further £1,000 to acknowledge the avoidable stress the faults caused the family.
The covenant, adopted under the last government, says the nation has a 'moral obligation to members of the armed forces and their families.'
Dr Martin said: 'Councils that have signed up to the covenant have pledged to consider the often quite unique circumstances that forces families find themselves in.
'It is not enough to say that decisions about civilian families would be similarly made and therefore forces families are not placed at a disadvantage.'
