COUNCIL TO TAKE SECOND LOOK AT SCHOOL TRANSPORT REFUSALS
One teenager faced a 50-mile round trip
FIFTY teenagers rejected for hometo-school transport support are to have their cases reviewed in the wake of a critical ombudsman’s report.
Staffordshire County Council has agreed to look again at the decisions, which all affect post-16 students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It follows a case involving an autistic teenager who faced a 50-mile round trip to her sixth form after the local authority refused to pay for transport.
The girl’s family took the matter to the local government and social care ombudsman, who found the council was at fault and should pay £300 compensation.
Officials had failed to take into account the student’s actual journey, which would have taken two hours each way as there was no direct bus route.
The school she attended was named in her education, health and care plan as it met her needs and she had previously been given money for travel costs before she turned 16.
Ombudsman Michael King also highlighted that it was not the first case in which he had found ‘problems’ with the local authority’s decisions about providing school transport.
Now an internal review of one-fifth of the cases dealt with in 2020/21, which involved post-16 SEND students, has shown some need reconsidering.
Councillor Jonathan Price, cabinet member for education, said: “Using the interpretation favoured by the ombudsman, we found some examples where the application would have been granted, so we are going to review all the decisions – that’s 50 in total – to ensure we reach the right decision in all of them.
“We will be doing this as quickly as possible and, where our decision was wrong, we will be putting it right immediately and we will contact all those families to let them know how they stand.”