You’ll receive an email or letter from us if your child qualifies for free transport assistance.
If you think we've made a mistake
Contact our Transport Assessments team if you’d like an explanation of how we worked out that your child doesn’t qualify for home to school transport.
Transport Assessments
Email: transportassessments@leics.gov.uk
Reasons for appeal
You can make a formal appeal if you disagree with:
- our decision on your child’s eligibility for school transport
- the transport arrangements we’ve offered your child
- the distance we have measured to work out which is your nearest school
- the distance we have measured to work out the shortest available walking route to the school
- the availability of the walking route
- the standard offer of a Personal Transport Budget (PTB) if your child is Post 16
You can't appeal:
- if you disagree with our school transport policy
How to appeal
Appeal a school transport eligibility decision
To appeal your eligibility decision (you have received correspondance from ourselves to say your child is not eligible for free home to school transport).
Download the correct form below – fill in and save. Then send it to the email address shown on the form. You can auto-sign most PDFs to add your signature.
Alternatively, print off and fill in the correct form and return to the address on the form.
Appeal an offer of a Personal Transport Budget (PTB)
You have received an eligibility decision email confirming your SEND child aged 16-19 years is eligible for transport assistance and we have made our standard offer of a PTB. However, you are not able to facilitate your child's attendance at school/college using a PTB and therefore require council-organised transport instead.
In this case we need to consider your individual circumstances. Please complete the online PTB appeal form below.
Before you start the PTB appeal form
Please submit your appeal within 20 days of receiving your eligibility decision and you will receive a formal response within 20 days of the Council receiving your appeal. If you are late in submitting your appeal this may delay any PTB payments or setting up of transport if your appeal is successful. If you need any help with this form, you can contact SENDIASS (details below).
Provide as much detail as you can about:
- any personal and / or family circumstances
- why you feel that your case is exceptional such that the Council should provide traditional transport (taxi or minibus).
- home to school routines
- your child’s living arrangements
- alternative means you have explored for getting your child to school
- how other members of your family are affected
- flexibility of working roles – e.g. working hours, location, responsibilities
- any parent / carer / other family member’s disability relevant to your case – backed up with recent professional evidence
- any outside support received by the family – carers, social workers
- anything else you consider may be relevant to your case
The more information you provide, the easier it will be for us to reach a decision. If you don’t provide enough information your appeal for council-organised transport could be refused.
The Council Officer who will review your appeal already has access to your child’s EHCP and Transport Risk Assessment (if they have had transport previously) and will also consider these when reviewing your case.
A submitted PTB appeal form will form the basis of a Stage 1 appeal against the Council’s standard offer of a PTB for post 16 SEND students (see SEND Home to School Transport Policy and PTBs). Details of the appeals process can be found at Appendix 1 of the Mainstream Home to School Transport Policy.
Please note that you cannot appeal just because you disagree with the policy. We advise that you read these before submitting any appeal.
The outcome of this appeal will tell you if the Council still assesses whether or not a PTB is suitable for your child.
If the appeal has been refused, you have the option of proceeding to a Stage 2 appeal and you will be provided details of how to do so in your refusal letter.
You can get advice and support on the appeals process and completing this form from:
SEND Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS Leicestershire)
Telephone: 0116 305 5614
Monday to Thursday 9am to 4.30pm, Friday 9am to 4pm
Email: sendiass@leics.gov.uk
Appeal a decision on a PTB application
Deadlines
You must send in (or submit) the relevant appeal form within 20 working days of receiving our decision. Working days are Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
What happens next
We will look at your appeal form and reply within 20 working days.
If we agree with you
If we agree with you, your appeal will stop and we will arrange transport for your child.
If we don't agree with you
We will explain the reasons why we don’t agree with you and provide a written response.
If you still believe we haven't applied the policy correctly, or you have new information that we haven't been aware of, you can escalate your appeal to stage 2. To escalate your appeal to stage 2, you must provide the reasons for this and any supporting evidence that is relevant.
Appeal hearings
Stage 2 appeals are heard by a panel with people from various council teams, for example:
- Transport Operations
- Student Admissions and Pupil Services
- Special Need Assessment Services
- Road Safety Education Team – if you’re disputing the safety of the route to the school
Which teams attend and the format will depend on what you’re disputing. We also have variations to process in place at the moment as a result of remote working arrangements.
Further information about the appeals process is available in Appendix 1 of the Mainstream home to school transport policy.
Deadlines
We will tell you the date, time and details of the appeal hearing at least 10 working days before.
You must send any extra documents or evidence that you want the panel to look at to the Clerk to the Appeals Panel, at least 5 working days before the date of the hearing.
After the hearing
The panel will make their decision in private (known as a ‘closed session’). A member of the panel or legal representative who is at the hearing will write to you to tell you the decision within 5 working days (Monday to Friday) of the appeal hearing.
That decision will be final. You can’t appeal again.