Hampshire County Council compensate family for failing to provide school transport for child with special needs

HAMPSHIRE County Council has apologised and must pay £400 compensation to a family after bungling school transport for a child with special needs.

HCC had expected the Reception class pupil, whose identity was not revealed, to travel in a taxi on their own or face a three-hour round trip in shared transport, writes David George of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman negotiated for HCC to apologise and provide compensation to a family that was left to drive the youngster 24 miles to and from school each day.

The father complained to the ombudsman that his child, who started in Reception class at his special needs school in April 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 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. HCC instead offered a taxi, but could not provide an escort despite the child being assessed as needing one.

The father was left with no other option than to drive his child to and from school between April and July.

Michael King, from the ombudsman, 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."

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

HCC 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."