Just over three years ago Gloucestershire County Council and National Star College introduced a countywide independent travel training and awareness programme. The programme in partnership with learners, families and wider stakeholders was designed to increase opportunities for independent travel by using public transport and to reduce costs for the county council by eliminating reliance on taxi transport or journeys being made with a support worker. LIFT (Learning Independence for Travel) is a Guardian Award winning programme and has Beacon status for being a leading initiative. LIFT provides a range of services that are delivered to disabled, disadvantaged and vulnerable young people and adults in Gloucestershire. LIFT breaks down barriers to accessing public transport, school transport and the wider community; supporting people to realise their travel aspirations. LIFT offers a combination of classroom sessions and Travel Mentors who provide 1:1 support on specific routes that enable young people to access education, employment and training. LIFT has worked with 150 individuals to deliver independent travel training and travel awareness. So far 90% have progressed to independent travel and have significantly increased long term social, educational and employment opportunities.
As well as meeting the needs of individuals, from the outset the programme was designed to provide clear, substantial and sustained savings to the local authority, youth service and Access to Education budgets. Gloucestershire County Council and LIFT have established a Service Level Agreement to provide funding, review Local Authority Transport Policies and in the first of its kind, provides financial incentives for families and young people who complete the LIFT Programme. LIFT is also funded by the 14-19 transport partnership which has created a strong link with further education sector. LIFT is also supporting the 14 – 19 Agenda, reducing the amount of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training and more recently, is working to support the reintegration of young offenders. The partnership has a long term vision to create a cultural shift from individuals with high transport dependency to confident, successful and independent travellers.
We are now looking to start the recruitment and assessment processes for our courses starting in January and April 2011. form. If you would like more information about LIFT our website is http://www.natstar.ac.uk/content/lift-independent-travel-training or please contact me direct. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in travel training.
Thank you for your help.
