Fosterers short-changed

COUNCIL TOLD TO APOLOGISE AND PAY FOR YOUNGSTER’S TRAVEL COSTS

A COUPLE were left “significantly out of pocket” after a council refused to provide free transport to take their disabled foster child to a special school 17 miles away from their home.

Gateshead Council has now been told to reimburse the foster carers for the heavy cost of driving almost 70 miles a day to take the child, who has multiple disabilities and complex needs, to and from the school since 2016.

The ombudsman which investigates complaints against local authorities said that the foster parents were “doubly penalised” by the council’s failings because they had to use other funding they received to care for the boy to meet the large transport costs.

Council bosses have also been told to apologise, pay the couple an additional £750 to compensate for the distress caused and the lengthy complaints process, and take responsibility now for arranging the boy’s transport or covering additional costs.

The local authority says it will consider the ombudsman’s recommendations at a council meeting next month.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “I welcome Gateshead Council’s willingness to learn from this case, and implement our recommendations to review its practice in this area. While it is unfortunate the family had to pursue their case all the way to us, I’m pleased to provide some resolution for them and see these problems finally put right.

“The family had been doubly penalised in this case. Not only did they have to drive the boy to school instead of receiving transport, but they were worse off than other carers looking after children with similar needs that could attend schools nearer their home. Ultimately they had to pay for considerable transport costs out of the money they received for his other needs.”

The couple, referred to in an ombudsman report only as Mr and Mrs B, had been looking after the boy since 2012 and requested in July 2016 that he be moved to a different school further away from their home because it could better meet his needs, to which the council agreed.

However, the local authority later said that it would no longer pay transport costs to the new school, which is outside Gateshead, saying they should come out of the money it paid the couple’s fostering agency.

The council argued that its contract with the agency stated that the fee it already paid included the cost of transport to school up to a distance of 15 miles – and that it had wrongly funded the boy’s taxi travel to his former school from 2012 to 2016.

He previously attended a community special needs school seven miles away from their home, and the authority argued that nobody working with the boy was “concerned or unhappy” about his placement there.

Mrs B told the ombudsman that she drives 340 miles a week to take her foster child to and from his new school, but the council had only agreed to pay the cost of the additional two miles above the 15 miles specified in the contract – amounting to just £48 a week.

The ombudsman concluded that it was “entirely reasonable” for Mr and Mrs B to believe that the council would continue to fund the travel costs, adding that there was no evidence that the council properly explained the implications of moving schools before it was arranged.

A Gateshead council spokesman said: “Having now received the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s report, we are reviewing its findings.

“The Ombudsman lays down strict protocols to follow when a complaint is upheld. We are following this process, recommendations will be formally considered at full council on Thursday, November 22.”