Nottinghamshire Council paid parent £3,000 after dispute over disabled child’s school travel support

It follows an 18-month complaint against the authority upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

It related to a parent who suffered an “injustice” by not being properly moved onto a larger school transportation mileage support scheme.

The parent first complained to the ombudsman in June 2021.

She transported her disabled child to school and was compensated through the “parental mileage allowance rate”, a council scheme to provide payments of 22.6p per mile for two return journeys per day to school.

However, the authority introduced the ‘direct travel assistance payment’ in 2017 for children with special educational needs and disabilities. It is paid every term in advance and offers a mileage rate of 45p per mile.

The complaining parent was contacted regarding DTAP in November 2019 and agreed to her first payment in June 2020.

However, she complained she should have received the DTAP since its introduction in 2017. She believed she was owed £2,968 in compensation, complaining “parents were not told about it at the time” and she did not know it was on offer.

The ombudsman report said: “Mrs M complains she knew nothing about DTAP until she was invited to apply in November 2019 by a transport officer, who suggested she would be better off claiming the new allowance.”

In its responses to investigators, the authority said it published information on its website, in documents and leaflets about DTAP, but “does not routinely review travel arrangements for children with SEN”.

However, Mrs M kept “detailed records” including an archive of council magazines, for which she said she could “find no reference”.

In assessing her complaint, the ombudsman concluded the council should have offered Mrs M the DTAP from its launch.

The report said: “The council was at fault not to ensure all eligible parents were aware of the offer from its introduction. Simply advertising the offer and expecting parents to realise they would be better off and apply was unreliable.”

The authority agreed to pay Mrs M £2,942.05 for backdated DTAP payments.

The authority’s governance and ethics committee heard DTAP is now “the first thing applicants see” when applying for support.