Can my partner get help?

Hi I wonder if any of you could help me with my enquiry. My partner split with his ex wife 12 years ago, in 2011 a judge ordered him to pay a regular maintenance amount and he has paid it fully and every month via standing order to her bank account He also pays for school shoes, school trips (£1000 for his son to go to Valencia and the football ground in April) and other things she says they need etc.He has his children from Friday after they finish school until sunday evening every other weekend like what was arranged in court,he has done this without exception unless due to illness, his dads death or an accident/emergency with his elderly mother.

He has done both pick ups and drop offs for the past 10 years she has done maybe 2 or three drop offs. He didn’t mind doing this because at the time of agreement she wasn’t driving and he was only living 20 mins down the road from her and only an hour and 20 mins drive from work every other Friday to hers to pick them up. So that was all good and it has worked amicably for all this time. She now drives and has done for past 2 years, is remarried, with 2 new children (toddler age), well about 5 months ago they moved roughly half an hour away from where they were living (due to cheaper rent cost and more work for him) this wasn’t a problem (more a bit of a pain in the bum) for my other half as them moving now added on the extra half hour drive to the hour and 20 min drive he already doing from work every other Friday to collect them. He continued to do the driving as normal, any how it came about that we got opportunity to move closer to my disabled daughters (not his child) special needs school plus bigger house but downside higher rent, never mind.

This however meant that my partner also had to change jobs due to needing to earn more to pay towards the cost of the rent, this job however is a 2 hour 50 mins drive away from her house (and that’s on a good Dartford tunnel Friday!!). He decided to call her (because they have been able to talk amicably about the kids welfare etc) and explain that now the ‘his driving to pick up’ every Friday situation has changed quite dramatically would she come and collect the children from our new house one Sunday a month. He will still do the 5+ hour return journey from hers to ours but can she help out and return the favour (one Sunday a month isn’t even asking to split it fairly halfway) Her reply was a complete NO. No thought, no fairness just a No I’m not driving that far