Can I claim transport costs arisen while appealing changes to transport provided (appeal was successful)?

- Transport changed from solo taxi to shared taxi without new risk assessment being conducted
- initial appeal (end of august, just before school returned) submitted parent statement
- initial appeal failed, warned one attempt left. Gathered evidence from multiple professionals for stage two appeal and triggered pre-action protocol letter
- while appealing - self funded transport with the same company the LA had been using previously, receipts provided
- outcome - won appeal and LA concluded solo transport was required, however refusal to reimburse any costs as it was parental choice to send our son to school and we hadn't provided all the evidence (which we didn't have) at stage one

Context - our son is a school refuser (gaps in attendance can lead to increase in distress behaviours going in / increased refusal), his school is out of county and we were unable to drive him ourselves, all our leave was allocated to school holidays, our son has a congenital brain injury and cannot be left at home without supervision, our son has previously looked after child status (adopted) and significant trauma, the loss of regular driver triggers rejection and toxic shame responses (including self injurious behaviour).

Additional - initial appeal August 2024, pre action protocol issued October 2024 (and not accepted as stage two complaint hadn't gone through - we thought both ran together, additional costs associated with this), complaints re costs incurred outcome August 2025. (Process initially delayed by gathering evidence, and then by stress incurred / health issues)

Costs incurred - around £5,000, now in debt as a result as had been told if we won the appeal we would claim costs back (but county staff member - recording of this phone call is unavailable we have been told, as not all calls are recorded)