Home to school transport policy

A two-stage process is in place as set out below and summarised in the accompanying flowchart. Parents who require a paper copy of this process should contact the Community Transport section of the local authority.

Stage one: Review by a senior officer

A parent or carer has 20 working days from receipt of the home to school transport decision to make a written request asking for a review of the decision. This written request should be submitted to the Community Transport Manager.

The written request should detail why the parent/carer believes the decision should be reviewed and give details of any personal and/or family circumstances the parent believes should be considered when the decision is reviewed.

Within 20 working days of receipt of the written request from the parent/carer, the appropriate senior officer will review the original decision and send the parent a detailed written notification of the outcome of the review, setting out:

• the nature of the decision reached
• how the review was conducted
• information about how other departments and agencies were consulted as part of the process
• what factors were considered
• the rationale for the decision reached
• information about how the parent can escalate their case to stage two (if appropriate)

Stage two: Review by an independent appeal panel

A parent or carer has 20 working days from receipt of the local authority's stage one written decision notification to make a written request to escalate the matter to stage two.

Within 40 working days of receipt of the request from the parent/carer an independent appeal panel will consider written representations from both the parent/carer and officers involved in the case and give a detailed written notification of the outcome (within 5 working days), setting out:

• the nature of the decision reached
• how the review was conducted
• information about how other departments and agencies were consulted as part of the process
• what factors were considered
• the rationale for the decision reached
• information about how right of the parent or carer to put the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman

Guidance on the independent appeal panel members and the nature of referrals to the Local Government Ombudsman can be found in Annex 2 of statutory guidance, published in July 2014.