Under 5’s school transport
An excellent report[1] from the ombudsman concerning the legal obligations on a council to provide transport for a disabled child below statutory school age.
The report provides a helpful statement of the law and the requirements of the relevant statutory guidance. In the case considered by the ombudsman, the council had misunderstood the law, misunderstood the facts and misunderstood the minimum requirements for a lawful appeals process. Although by the time the ombudsman prepared his report, the council had adopted a revised policy – this policy was almost certainly unlawful for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 and amounted to a ‘fettering’ of its discretion.
.
[1] Complaint no 18 017 909 against Herefordshire Council, 24 July 2019.
.