Surrey teen with special needs missed school after Council failings
His mum wasn't told that she needed to reapply for transport
A Surrey teenager who attends a special school missed the start of the academic year because the council failed to tell his mum she needed to reapply for transport.
They only found out from the taxi firm that the youngster’s usual transport had been cancelled, the day before he was due back at school.
The mum was left to fork out £2,400 in fares for the support that her son, who has autism, was entitled to under his Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
It had been agreed in her son’s annual review of his EHCP that his transport would continue when he started sixth form, but the mum was not told she needed to re-apply.
Surrey County Council (SCC) has had to reimburse the cost in full after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint from the mother, who chose to remain anonymous.
She was also paid £150 for distress and uncertainty, and £100 for her time and trouble in bringing the complaint.
The ombudsman said the same fault may have caused injustice in others and they too could be entitled to reimbursement.
Michael King, local government and social care ombudsman, said:
“I welcome the proactive way the council has responded to remedying the complaint for the family, and its willingness to review how its services can be improved in future.
“However, I have some concern that there may be others affected by what went wrong during the same period, so I have asked it to write to those families and invite them to make a retrospective application for transport, and reimburse them too where necessary.”
Anyone else with an EHCP, who was receiving travel assistance before a move to further education between September 2018 and 2019, may be eligible to have the transport costs they paid for reimbursed by SCC.
Council apologises
A spokesperson for the council accepted it was at fault and said it had apologised.
He said:
“A thorough review is now underway, with the council working closely with families, schools and transport providers to ensure the correct information is available in a timely fashion, and that incidents of this nature do not happen again in the future.”
It must also now contact other families who may have been similarly affected and has agreed to ensure it tells parents of children in Year 11 who have EHCPs to apply for post-16 transport.
The council stopped their general school transport service for over-16s in September to try to bring down costs. However, 17 and 18-year-old students with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) may still be eligible.
Currently, £32m per year is spent on transporting 6,405 pupils to and from school every day during term time, funded wholly out of council tax receipts.
SCC overspent in children’s services last year, mainly due to a higher than expected demand for SEND transport, and was told by its external auditor it had to consider ways to mitigate demand.