'Avoidable' harm caused to family by RBWM school transport error

RBWM caused ‘avoidable frustration’ to a young disabled woman and her family by ‘confusing’ two different policies, an ombudsman has found.

The young woman, who has complex learning difficulties and an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), has simply been trying to get to college.

Windsor and Maidenhead council was tasked with deciding if it should provide free transport to the young woman.

The woman, who is over the age of 19, cannot travel independently and had received free transport to her education setting since the age of three.

But when she started college in September 2024, the council offered her family just £1,200 a year towards travel costs.

This is despite its own figures showing the true cost of suitable transport could be as much as £15,200 a year.

There are different legal requirements for disabled adult learners aged 19 to 25 with an EHCP compared to sixth form students – and the council had confused the two.

This meant the woman’s mother spent more than a year driving her daughter to college.

Eventually, the mother had to use money from her daughter’s care budget to pay for transport – money that was meant to support her independence.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) was contacted to investigate a complaint about the way Royal Borough assessed the young woman’s needs.

This ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration and service failure – and considers whether any such fault has had an adverse impact on the ones making the complaint.

It found RBWM’s handling of the case – including two failed appeals – caused the family ‘avoidable frustration, avoidable time and trouble and uncertainty.’

Amerdeep Clarke, chair of the commission at the LGSCO, said:

“This young woman’s access to education was put at risk, and her mother was left to pick up the pieces, financially and practically.

“This is not an isolated case, and we are finding similar faults being made by councils up and down the country.

“Councils have a clear duty to look at each person’s circumstances individually, and to apply the right rules for adult learners with an EHCP.

“In this case, the council did neither.”

She added: “I am pleased it has now agreed to reconsider its decision – and hope the lessons from this case will ensure this does not happen to anyone else.”

Now the council has agreed to apologise to the family and pay £500 in recognition of the trouble caused. It will reconsider whether it should provide the young woman with free transport.

RBWM will also look at other disabled adult learners’ cases to see if they have been affected by similar decision making and may be owed free transport.

It will update its transport policy and retrain staff so this does not happen again.

A council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the ombudsman’s decision and we will be contacting the family directly to offer a formal apology.

“We will take forward the learnings as part of our ongoing commitment to ensure families are able to access the appropriate transport support they are eligible for.”