A local authority has been ordered to apologise and review its policies after wrongly refusing free college transport to a disabled young woman, forcing her mother to cover costs using money intended for her daughter’s care.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigated a complaint against the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council on behalf of a young woman with complex learning difficulties and an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Now aged over 19 and unable to travel independently, she had received free transport to her education placements 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 – despite its own estimates putting the cost of suitable transport at up to £15,200 annually.
The Ombudsman found the council had confused legal requirements for disabled adult learners aged 19 to 25 with those for younger sixth form students. As a result, the young woman’s mother spent over a year driving her to college, eventually having to dip into her daughter’s personal care budget to fund transport – money meant to support her independence, not to get her to class.
Two separate appeals by the family failed to resolve the issue, causing unnecessary distress, financial hardship and wasted time, the Ombudsman concluded.
The council has now agreed to apologise to the mother and pay her £500 in recognition of the impact. It will also reassess the young woman’s case using the correct legal framework and reimburse any transport costs the family covered if free travel should have been provided.
Beyond the individual case, the Ombudsman has required the council to review other disabled adult learners in similar circumstances who may also have been affected. It must also update its transport policy and retrain staff to prevent the same confusion from recurring.
Mrs Amerdeep Clarke, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said: ‘Because of the council’s misunderstanding of the way education transport should be funded for different age groups, 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 when they confuse the different rules for pupils of compulsory school age, sixth form, and adult learners with an EHC Plan. Councils have a clear duty to look at each person’s circumstances individually, and to apply the right rules for adult learners with an EHC Plan.
‘In this case, the council did neither. 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.’
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