3. Develop independence skills in young people and introduce an updated personal travel budget scheme

Travel solutions which provide more flexible travel options for families and more opportunities to develop the independence and social skills of young people are not widely available in the county at the moment. These options can provide a dual benefit in that as well as delivering positive benefits for the young people who are able to take them up, they also have the potential to support a more cost efficient home to school transport service and enable us to allocate the budget more effectively.

There are three elements to this proposal.

Independent Travel Training Scheme

We are proposing to introduce and offer independent travel training to support greater independence and socialisation of children and young people with SEND.

The 2021 review highlighted that independent travel schemes have been shown to be extremely successful and, in some councils, over 50 children every year are helped to travel independently. The schemes have also produced better outcomes for young people over the longer term as they can help young people get to school or college more independently as well as undertaking out of school activities during evenings, weekends and school holidays. This can make travelling to college or work placements easier and can also help their transition to adulthood by giving them valuable life skills.

While achieving this level of independence will not be possible for all young people with SEND, especially some of those children with the most complex needs, we believe those that are able, should be given the opportunity and support to try it. We will work with families, schools and carer groups to develop and set up the scheme and ensure it meets the needs of young people who would like to be involved.

Pick up points

We are also proposing to introduce pick up points for children with special needs where this is appropriate. These are specific locations which are used by a child or young person with SEND to meet the bus or taxi, rather than being picked up and dropped off at their own home. The maximum distance from home of a pick up point will depend on a range of circumstances and will be assessed on an individual basis. This reduces the time needed to pick up pupils and can support children and young people to become more independent. Pickup points are already operating in many other council areas.

Where the introduction of pickup points is considered, we will work with the parents and carers of young people on those routes and in such circumstances, will carefully consider and assess the individual child's needs as well as any mobility issue and or disability of their parents.

Personal Travel Budgets

We are also proposing to review and simplify our Personal Travel Budget scheme for children with SEND and make it more widely available.

A personal travel budget provides a parent or carer with a financial allocation and allows them to make their own arrangements for transporting their child to school. They have a dual benefit in that they increase choice and flexibility for the family and can also help us to provide a more efficient service.

In many local councils, Personal Travel Budgets are typically offered to the parents of SEND passengers as this group of young people mainly represent those in receipt of special transport arrangements. However, in County Durham there is also an opportunity to offer Personal Travel Budgets to young people in some rural locations.