City to review transport policy for adults with special educational needs following Ombudsman investigation

Birmingham City Council has agreed to a series of measures including a review of its transport policy for adults with special education needs after it emerged that a mother had to drive five hours a day to take her adult son to his specialist college, because the local authority did not provide him with transport.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigated the case, said the 20-year-old, who has autism and suffers from anxiety, was due to attend a college for an additional year and had previously had an escort to accompany him. He has ‘severe and critical needs’.

Birmingham declined his mother’s application for school transport, saying it was her responsibility to transport her son to college. She appealed this decision.

She frequently chased the council for updates because it was important for her son to have time to adapt to any changes to avoid causing him significant distress, the LGO said.

“Despite this, it was not until 8.58pm of the evening before he was due to start college in September it told her the appeal had not been successful and it would not provide transport assistance. She first applied in the February.”

The Ombudsman said the mother had to take the five-hour round trip to take her son to college every day.” She did this without support because the council failed to provide a guide. Previous assessments had agreed the son needed a guide.

“She had to reduce her working hours and was, medical practitioners said, at risk of violent outbursts from her son. One practitioner said the mother must have found the situation frightening because of the son’s physical stature. She was also concerned his independence skills were being impacted upon.”

The Ombudsman added that despite the mother making regular contact with the council, it was not until February 2018 that the council agreed to fund the son’s transport and backdate that to the start of the academic year. However, this was still without a guide to accompany him on his journey.

The LGO said its investigation found numerous faults with the way the council dealt with the mother’s application. It found there was unacceptable delay in dealing with her request, and poor communication when processing it. The report also criticised the council’s record keeping, and for failing to complete a carer’s assessment of the mother’s needs.

Birmingham City Council has now agreed to:

• apologise to the mother and her son;
• pay the mother £1,000 to acknowledge the distress she suffered pursuing the council for support;
• pay her a further £800 to acknowledge the risk of harm to her during the period in question and £300 in acknowledgment of the time and trouble the mother was put to in pursuing the complaint;
• pay the son £1,500 to acknowledge the distress and anxiety he suffered during the year he was unsupported by the council;
• implement the findings of its current consultation on transport policy, and ensure applicants are clearly signposted to any revised policy;
• review all transitional cases and write to those affected;
• review its policies and procedures around providing escorts, to ensure risk assessments are carried out in good time; and
• review its policies on carer’s assessments to ensure staff are aware when carers need support.

Michael King, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “Any parent wants the best for their children and this mother is no exception. But the child’s or young adult’s welfare should not come at such a great cost to the parents.

“We have previously said councils cannot offload the responsibility of school transport onto parents, who have their own demands on their time, and are under no obligation to meet the needs of another adult. This is true in this case too.

“I welcome the council’s readiness to accept my recommendations to improve its services and hope the steps it will now take will prevent other families from facing the same situation.”

A spokesperson for Birmingham said: “We are really sorry for the distress caused to the complainants and sincerely apologise. The way this case was dealt with was clearly not good enough and we will be looking at any changes that need to be made to ensure this sort of thing does not happen again, including reviewing all transitional cases.

"Our new 0-25 home to school transport policy has been approved by cabinet, pending a request for it to be called-in, following a comprehensive consultation from service users and their families; we have taken on board a clear message from them that they want to be much more involved in decision-making and work closely with us in future.”