Our clients existing commissioning were due to expire in 12 months. Our role was to identify a commissioning model the best fit their transport services across children and adult services.  Compared to neighbouring boroughs the cost for specific vehicles types was considered high. This was attributed to a lack of ongoing market engagement and competition meaning the Council's negotiating power was low. 

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It was recommended that the introduction of a Dynamic Purchasing System would aid the Council to reduce unit costs and improve the Council’s ability to deliver high-quality services, with a reduction in unit costs of approximately 20%. 

 

As part of the process, the service specification was rewritten to reflect user needs and corporate and legislative requirements, and to include monitoring arrangements to ensure effective delivery of service standards.

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The Council had previously attempted to introduce the use of collection points on SEN Transport but were faced with significant objection. Our role was to revisit this opportunity, undertake a pilot and implement this initiative across the service. 

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We revisited the original objections and concerns raised by Schools and families. It was quickly identified that the majority of the concerns raised were as a result of a lack of understanding and a fear that the most vulnerable would be at risk.

 

We undertook a pilot at 4 SEN Schools/unis and established working groups at each School with families. We also created a task and finish group (with the Parent Group)to develop the decision matrix that would underpin the assessment process and identify which children could access a collection point and which ones should continue to be collected from home. 

 

At the start of the next academic year 15% of children and young persons previously accessing transport from home were now using a collection point successfully. 

Many clients require a review of existing travel arrangements to ensure use of optimal resources. We have performed this role numerous times and continue to have great success in this area.

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Through a robust review of route arrangements we have been able to produced baseline data for existing delivery, validation of passenger need information, and an analysis of the local networks to build travel solutions that reflect agreed local rules and requirements.

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Building in some capacity for annual growth of ECHP and service numbers we typically identify a 10-15% reduction in routes. This is confirmed after engagement with Schools/Colleges to ensure passenger groupings are appropriate and individual needs have been accommodated.

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This approach typically focussed on single School/Destination solutions. Linking more Schools/Destinations to a solution can create further efficiencies.

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Within 4 month of our client deciding to set up an Independent Travel Training Programme we commissioned an experience ITT provider, established assessment and review processes, promoted the programme with families & Schools, identified a cohort to be trained, and began to deliver training. 

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During the first year of the programme 5% of the Council’s typical demand for arranged transport were successfully trained to travel to and from school/college on their own, with a higher number successfully trained during the next 12 month period.

 

Testimonies from families and young people confirmed that this programme had helped to transform the lives of the entire family as well as the young person.

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Our client had an extensive transformation programme in operation, areas of focus included: Home to School/College and SEN Transport. Within this area of work transport had a number of workstreams that would attribute towards the savings targets that had been agreed. It was identified that we could provide the necessary support and expertise to review the Council’s in-house provision of Passenger Assistants to deliver a saving of £200k from an annual spend of £4.3m. 

 

This involved a review of the service structure, procedures, training requirements, external market capabilities & capacity, review of passenger needs & assessment process, and replanning of transport provision to realise saving opportunities.

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A number of our clients have already exhausted replanning activity to single destinations. To deliver further efficiencies wider planning is sometimes required, linking services together to either mix passengers to different locations or to utilise the vehicles more effectively and enable double running/linking of routes (without passenger mixing).

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Using reliable route planning tools, our consultants extensive knowledge of route planning and service understanding we supported a client to undertake a Network replan of School transport services.

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Success is dependent on adoption of a child centric focus and effective needs analysis, this enables us to produce initial solutions that have potential for further exploration. This results in a 3 stage replanning exercise and ensures all efficiency opportunities are explored whilst ensuring the needs of all children continue to be met.

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This approach helped us to identify a further 5% in route efficiencies (on top of the standard transport planning approach) that were able to be implemented. More opportunities for sharing/linking routes and vehicles were identified but were deemed not suitable for immediate implementation and will be revisited at a later date.

The Council had decided that their existing policy failed to promote and support the development of independent travel and alternative travel arrangements for young learners.

 

We provided programme management and expertise to guide the Council through the review of its policy, undertake an extensive public engagement programme, and produce the final policy and governance papers/reports. 

 

Using a range of techniques we were able to engage with young people and families to explore how the Council could improve its travel assistance offer to children and young people by enabling them to travel independently or use alternative travel options to access their education, where it was appropriate to do so. The final policy also continued to protected the level of support to those with the most complex needs and most vulnerable. The policy began to take effect from start of the 2020/21 academic year.

Following a major transport provider of SEN Transport and Dial-a-Ride services in going into administration. The largest public transport provider in the area took the decision to diversify and acquire the bankrupt organisation.

 

Our role was support the mobilisation process and ensure the service delivered on the first operational day was successful.

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We had positive input and influence over a range of aspects and function necessary for successful delivery of the service, this included; vehicle specifications, staff training, route planning, costing of the service, and communication & engagement. Our support enabled mobilisation of 206 routes for SEN Transport 4 weeks after the acquisition was confirmed, improving service delivery in the process.

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Our client required a review of their Home to School Transport service due to ongoing budget over spend and operational difficulties.

 

Our role was to conduct the review and report back our findings to the Council, including the identification of 16 improvement opportunities.

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During the review we engaged with Schools, Transport Officers, Parent Groups and other key stakeholders to ensure a balance opinion was provided in relation to the existing travel arrangements and expectations for the future.

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Our client has decided to implement a number of the improvement opportunities identified, and continues to build on the close relationship we developed with the Parent Groups to enable ongoing collaborative development of the service.

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