Ask for a Transport Case Review

You can ask for your case to be considered:

• as an exception to the policy due to your exceptional circumstances, or
• you believe that the initial transport assessment was incorrect

Who will review your case

A senior officer from our School Places and Admissions Team will review your case, along with the supporting evidence that you have provided.

Information you should provide with your case

If you think that the original transport assessment was incorrect, you should provide details of the reasons why and support these with evidence. If you believe that part of the route is dangerous it would be helpful if your case provided specific details such as road names or photographs of the area in question, as we may need to assess the route. However, this will only apply if the school is considered to be the nearest available school to your home. For exceptional consideration of your application, you should provide details of your extenuating circumstances and explain why these impact on your child's journey to school or your ability to transport your child to school. 

Supporting evidence

In general, supporting evidence should clearly explain why a particular circumstance makes it difficult for you or your child to complete the journey to school. Examples of the type of professionals who could provide supporting evidence are:

• GP, doctor or hospital consultant
• social worker
• schools
• the police
• health visitor
• housing officer
• probation office

Getting a decision

A senior officer, who was not involved with making the original decision, will review your case within 20 working days of receiving your written request. More complex cases may sometimes take longer than 20 working days.

The senior officer will write to you, normally within five working days of the review. They will tell you:

• the decision reached
• how the review was conducted
• information about other departments and/or agencies that were consulted as part of the process
• what factors were considered
• the basis for the decision reached
• information about how you can ask for your case to move to stage two (if appropriate)

What happens next

What happens if transport is agreed

Your child's details will be passed to our Integrated Passenger Transport Team (IPT) as they are responsible for setting up transport, issuing public transport passes and processing claims for petrol allowances. They will let you know once transport arrangements are in place.

What happens if transport is refused

You should submit a request in writing for your case to be moved to stage two so that it can be reviewed by an independent panel of county council officers. It is likely that a stage two review panel would only be able to consider changing the decision made at stage one of the process if the original decision-making process had been flawed; and / or if you could supply further information or evidence that had not been considered at the initial stage or at the stage one review.