Hampshire County Council apologises to and compensates family left to 'pick up the slack' for school transport

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) has negotiated for Hampshire County Council to apologise and provide compensation to a family that was left to drive a child with special educational needs 24 miles to and from school each day.

It comes after the father complained to the LGO that his child, who was due to start reception at his special needs school in 2021, was not given the free school transport he was entitled to during the summer term.

The new school was more than 12 miles away from the family home and the family was offered shared transport, but this would have meant the boy spending an hour and 40 minutes each way to school and home.

The child’s father said this was not appropriate. The county council instead offered a taxi, but could not provide an escort despite the child being assessed as needing one.

The father therefore had to drive his child to and from school between April and July last year.

Michael King from the LGO said: ‘The council should not have taken so long to put in place the escorted travel it was obvious from the outset this young child needed.

‘While I appreciate the difficulties the council has in recruiting escorts, it should have worked on finding one, rather than expecting the family to pick up the slack.

‘I welcome the council’s ready agreement to my recommendations.’

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The county council has agreed to apologise to the family and pay its mileage allowance for the journeys they provided school transport, and pay the family a combined £400 for having to drive their child to school and also in bringing the complaint.

County council leader, Cllr Rob Humby, said: ‘I can assure residents that we always work hard to try to get things right first time and take all complaints very seriously.

‘Where we haven’t been able to resolve things directly with the member of the public, we work closely with the ombudsman to remedy any issues and make improvements to our services along the way.

‘In this matter I can confirm that we have apologised to the family and actioned the ombudsman’s further directions.’