Support from First helps South Gloucestershire Council travel-train 168 young people
March 7th, 2015
Through working in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council s travel training team bus operator First West of England has helped the local authority travel train almost 170 young people with special educational needs and learning difficulties over the past three years.
The bus company has provided South Gloucestershire Council s travel training team with a free bus pass (worth £1050) for use across the West of England for the past two years. In turn it has helped the council s travel trainer to get out and about, using the company s bus network, training their clients even in times of austerity.
The company has just renewed its agreement with South Gloucestershire Council s travel training team, providing free travel for the next 12 months for one of its trainers, Teresa Derrick.
Talking about the impact the relationship with First has had on the travel training team at South Gloucestershire Council, Travel Coordinator Teresa Derrick says: Over the few years we have travel trained 168 young people aged 14-19 to become independent with travel on the bus going from home to college in the South Gloucestershire and Bristol areas.
Travel training empowers young people to become independent with travel and builds confidence in dealing with professionals and the public within the community setting. It opens their world and enables them to access the community and become a part of that community, interacting with friends, families and gaining confidence with daily life skills.
Independent travel is essential to employment and social networking for young people with special educational needs and learning disabilities. Public transport is the key factor in achieving independence for this group of young people as, for many this will only ever be their mode of transport to independence.
We are so grateful to First West of England for their continued support in this area. It really does make a real difference to us, and those people we work with.
Adding, First s Managing Director, James Freeman, says: We are delighted to be able to do our bit to help South Gloucestershire Council s travel training team, and to make sure that those people with special educational needs and learning disabilities feel confident about using our services. We provide connections between many key destinations across the West of England, so it s really important to us that people feel confident using our buses.
First has a well-established relationship with South Gloucestershire Council s travel training team. As well as providing a free annual pass for one of its trainers, the company has also helped facilitate filming on its buses, helping the Council produce special videos explaining how to catch buses. The company has also signed up to the Council s Safe Places scheme, which means people with special educational needs and learning disabilities can access help and support through staff in the company s travel shop in Bristol Bus Station should they need it while they are out.
For more information about First West of England, log onto www.firstgroup.com/bristol.
To watch the How to catch the bus video produced by South Gloucestershire Council, see; http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/bristol_bath/bus_access/how_to_catch_the_bus/ or
http://www.southglos.gov.uk/transport-and-streets/public-community-and-school-transport/public-transport/travel-training/
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