big interview
june/july April/May2019 2021business businessedge edge
Giving social mobility wheels By HELEN COMPSON
At the very heart of Community Transport Sussex is the wish to stamp out the causes of social isolation. Whether they result from rural living or the additional challenges posed by poor physical or mental health, the primary aim is to find a solution that enables people to get out of the house and to the destination of their choice. General manager Matt Roberts said: “We exist to resolve social isolation for as many people as possible and the means by which we do that is keeping them connected through transport. “The best services and entertainments can be provided for the elderly and the disabled, but if they can’t reach them they are not a lot of use - transport is one of those things that’s always forgotten by service commissioners!” Community Transport Sussex was formed out of the merger of Crawley Community Transport, Bluebird Community Partnership and Horsham District Community Transport in 2016. A charitable incorporated organisation, or CIO for short, it covers the districts of Horsham, Crawley and Mid-Sussex, along with East Grinstead, Henfield, Hurst, Adur and Worthing. That amounts to around a third of the county of West Sussex to date, and its patch continues to grow.
CT Sussex is currently applying for funding to expand across the districts of Arun and Chichester too, filling the void left by another community transport company that folded a couple of years back. Key to the 2016 merger was the strengthening of the three existing services in terms of scale and therefore financial viability, so they would avoid a similar fate. Matt said: “It used to be difficult at times to apply for grant funding if a service was too small to be coterminous with a county’s borders. “The charity has been set up in a very specific way so that, while operating as Community Transport Sussex, we can still define our services, including all of the quantitative data grant funders require, within a set of local boundaries when appropriate.” Chief among its services is the Dial-aRide scheme that helps those who would otherwise struggle to access public transport, whether due to age, disability or the general lack of commercial services in their area. Functional and practical, upon request it takes service users to the shops and to medical appointments and even to see their friends. Sometimes, if the issue is simply that they live in a rural area without public transport, it can be a matter of getting them to their local railway or bus station. The second of CT Sussex’s three main services is the ‘group hire’ scheme
whereby community and not-for-profit organisations can hire one of its minibuses. It works closely with many different types of groups of abilities and disabilities. “There’s the Kangaroos charity for disabled young people, for example,” he said. “They take members out for activities and on short holidays. Then there’s the Stroke Club and the Parkinson’s Society, and many more besides. “Often organisations either don’t need or can’t afford a minibus fulltime, but they do need the transport.” When dispatching a minibus would be overkill, the charity’s third service kicks in, the voluntary car scheme that matches would-be passengers with local drivers willing to take them. Most villages have at least three or four people who have difficulty accessing transport and an equal number happy to help. Marrying them up was usually the easy part; ensuring that regulations were complied with for the protection of all concerned was trickier, said Matt. “Transport is one of the fields where you really do have to get the compliance right. “We have a duty of care to all of our drivers and volunteers and the passengers as well, so we are scrupulous in ensuring absolutely everything is done properly. “The whole idea is to make sure there is an integrated network of transport services that stretches right across the county.” matt@ctsussex.org.uk
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