The Independent Travel Needs Assessor will be in attendance to provide an overview on home to school travel assessments.
The Independent Travel Trainer will be in attendance to provide an overview on travel training provided by Middlesbrough Council.
Recommendation: that the Panel determines what further information will be required for this scrutiny investigation.
Minutes:
The Council’s Independent Travel Trainer gave a presentation to the Panel in relation to travel training.
Independent Travel Training (ITT) was about enabling students to gain the confidence to use public transport, demonstrate road safety awareness and be able to travel by themselves without confusion or anxiety. ITT involved young people being taken on practical journeys by a travel trainer, who would highlight important aspects of travel, the rules of road safety, personal safety, and what to do if they became lost or anxious. Travel training was a gradual process which culminated in a young person being able to complete unaccompanied journeys. ITT was a bespoke service that built on a young person’s existing skills as well as teaching them new ones with the goal of being confident and safe to travel on their own.
ITT also aimed to demonstrate to parents that their child was capable of travelling independently. Students were empowered to feel more confident and independent and this helped with preparation for adulthood as well as being able to go out with friends and have more freedom. Once trained, students no longer had to rely on specialist transport or parents or carers. In turn this provided parents or carers with some respite and confidence that their child could be more independent. By gaining knew skills, including who to ask for help and what to do if things went wrong, students would feel safer in the community and have a better chance of finding and maintaining employment.
Initially, the Independent Needs Assessor would receive a referral from a school or the Council’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) Service. Following an assessment parents would be informed whether or not their child was eligible for transport to and from school, or eligible for travel training or not eligible. Details of those students who were eligible were passed to the Travel Trainer. The Travel Trainer would then contact the school and the parents to seek their permission and a journey plan was created which was shared with all.
The journey plan included information in respect of the starting point, destination, route, timings and mode of transport. The Travel Trainer could work with the students in school but needed parental consent in order to work with them in the community. If parental consent was not provided for travel training the transport offer would be withdrawn.
Once parental consent was obtained, the Travel Trainer would meet with the student and complete skills assessments. The Travel Trainer worked with students from the Year 6 age group up to College age. Students received an emergency care card which contained contact telephone numbers for their next of kin and Travel Trainer as well as the name of the school or college that they attended. The card was bright yellow and students were aware that if they were too anxious to ask for help they could show the card to a “safe stranger” for help. No names were included on the card so that the student could not be identified.
The Travel Trainer would meet with the student at home for their first practical training session. Sometimes they would walk to the bus stop and just watch the buses and talk about them and then walk back home. Once the student was ready, they would get on the bus and travel a few stops and back. Since travel training was a bespoke service it very much catered to the individual’s needs. Every contact was logged with parents, student and school.
Once the journey to and from school had been completed and the student was feeling more confident, the Travel Trainer might meet them at the bus stop and shadow them while they complete their journey. Once the student was ready to be signed off they would receive a certificate. The Travel Trainer would write a report for the student and parents accompanied by a safety plan. The Travel Trainer commented that she often received thanks from parents for the progress made by their child.
As at June 2024, there were 34 students on the waiting list for travel training. Two had since moved out of area, 4 students’ parents had declined the offer, 6 had been deemed not ready yet but would be reviewed annually, 9 were reassessed after more information was provided and 13 had been successfully Travel Trained.
The Travel Trainer was currently working with 3 college students and 7 in schools and there were 7 on the waiting list. The Travel Trainer shared some success stories:
• Student A in year 11 had been transported to and from school. After working with the Travel Trainer in school and on the buses, Student A was able to travel to and from school independently. Transport was stopped, parents and student very happy with student’s newly- found independence.
• Student B in year 6 completed Travel training in two sessions and was very happy to be able to make their own way to school
• Student C, also in year 6, worked with the Travel Trainer whilst in Primary school and in the summer holidays and was able to complete the journey to and from school independently at the start of year 7, saving the Council money in transportation costs.
The Travel Trainer commented that she got immense job satisfaction working with students, watching their confidence grow, their parents’ confidence grow, and them being able to travel independently.
Examples of the many positive comments received by the Travel Trainer from parents were shared with the Panel.
In response to a query as to how
well the Council supported the service, the Travel Trainer stated there were no
financial issues. However, additional
support in the form of “Bus Buddies” would be welcomed as this would enable
more students to be trained. The
Council’s Passenger Assistants would sometimes take on that role but they were
only available outside of school term time.
Additional support to travel with students on the buses would free up
more time for the Travel Trainer to undertake the training in schools. It was difficult to say how many additional
students could be trained if additional bus buddies were made available, since
some students might take longer to train than others and some might prove not
to have the capacity or skills required to complete the training.
Whilst Travel Training did
achieve monetary savings in terms of students no longer needing Council
provided transport, the main purpose was to prepare students for adulthood and
support those with SEN to become independent.
Whilst the cost savings were a benefit, this was not the sole purpose of
the service.
Some of the students who worked
with the Travel Trainer had previously travelled on Council provided buses or
taxis. The Travel Trainer developed
journey plans which could include bicycle routes, walking routes or public
transport but did not include transport by taxi.
The Travel Trainer worked with
students aged from 11 up to 25 years old but they had to have a Middlesbrough
address and attend an education setting within Middlesbrough’s boundaries as
per Council policy.
In terms of a cost comparison for
a student receiving Council transport or being independent trained, it was
explained that there it would be a difficult comparison to make as students had
different individual needs, some more complex than others. It was the case however that more students
being able to travel independently was cheaper than providing other forms of
transport.
The Chair thanked the Travel
Trainer for attending the meeting.
AGREED as follows that:
1. The information provided was received and noted.
2. The Democratic Support Officers would re-arrange for the Independent Travel Needs Assessor to provide an overview on home to school travel assessments for a future meeting.