For children with EHC plans, issues around transport can become relevant in an appeal about the school named in Section I of an EHC plan and transport costs are relevant to the costs of a particular school placement. It is possible to appeal Section I of an EHC plan to have a sentence about responsibility for transport removed. But the SEND Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to deal with disputes about transport alone.

If you disagree with a decision made about transport, you will need to start by making an appeal through the LA’s own internal appeals procedures. All LAs should have an appeals procedure for parents to use when they have a complaint about the service or disagree with the eligibility of their child for travel support. The government’s guidance ‘Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance 2014’ says that the details of the appeals procedures should be published alongside local authority travel policy statements.

If you are unhappy with your local authority’s decision about your child’s transport to school write to the transport section of your local council to ask for a copy of the policy and appeal procedures. Remember, your local authority is required to publish this information and make it readily available to you as part of its Local Offer.

If you consider that there has been a failure to comply with the procedural rules of an appeal or if there are any other irregularities in the way the appeal was handled you may have a right to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“LGSCO”).

In an extreme case it may be possible for the process by which the decision was reached to be challenged through judicial review proceedings if the decision was unlawful, irrational or unjust.

If you can’t find the answer to your question in this section, you can book an appointment to speak with us.