Alice Brown's report criticised North Lanarkshire Council

North Lanarkshire Council was condemned for its handling of a complaint from two families over the way their sons were treated by staff on a school bus.

Alice Brown, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, ordered the council to apologise and pay �1,000 to each of the families involved.

The two young men, then aged 16 and 17, are both confined to wheelchairs.

They travelled by bus to the same school.

'Aggravated' situation

The parents of one of the boys, who has severe learning difficulties and a steel spinal rod, complained in August 2001 about his treatment by staff of a new firm which had taken over the running of the bus.

They claimed he was "strapped in" during journeys in an unsatisfactory and unacceptable manner and that his toilet and other needs were not being met.

The parents of the other teenager, who suffers from cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia, said their son was upset by what he witnessed and was "terrified" to travel on the bus.

But the council said an independent inspection found nothing wrong with the bus service.

READ THE REPORT North Lanarkshire Council [80KB] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

The parents were sent letters which warned that if they refused to have their children travel on the bus their places at the school would be under threat.

They decided to drive their sons to school themselves, requiring daily round trips of 80 miles and 64 miles respectively.

In her report, Ms Brown states: "This was not a decision they would have taken lightly, particularly given their sons' physical difficulties, unless they genuinely considered their sons were suffering significant distress when travelling on the school bus."

The council was also criticised for aggravating the situation by only agreeing to pay travelling expenses if the parents jointly transport their sons to and from school - even though they could not do so because of their differing physical needs.

This led to both families deciding not to send their sons to school until other arrangements were made.

As well as paying compensation and issuing apologies, the council has been ordered to carry out reviews into several parts of its complaints procedure.

SNP MSP Alex Neil, who referred the case to the ombudsman, urged the council to immediately implement the recommendations.

He also demanded that the education department official who dealt with both of the families was severely disciplined.

North Lanarkshire Council's head of central services John Fleming said he would need to consider the report in detail before responding.

He added: "The Ombudsman did previously let us see a draft report - and it appeared to us that there were fundamental flaws in that report, which we brought to her attention.