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A social enterprise is hoping to roll out its innovative approach to community transport across the region – with the help of a £23,500 grant from regional development agency One NorthEast.

Adapt North East* is using the funding to bring together people operating community transport schemes all over North East England, to explore new ways of making their schemes sustainable and more efficient.

This includes an approach tested by Adapt which has seen more than 20 people in Northumberland move into jobs, improved the efficiency of its vehicles and helped Adapt to reduce its reliance on charitable grants.

With support from Jobcentre Plus, the Hexham-based charity piloted a training scheme in 2005 to move people from long-term unemployment in Northumberland into jobs as minibus drivers, tackling one of the major issues for community transport schemes – having enough drivers and vehicles to meet demand and sustain their services.

Twenty-four people took part, qualifying to drive minibuses for people with special needs. Twenty went on to get jobs in community transport: six new jobs were created by Adapt, while others went to the North East Ambulance Service and companies such as Arriva. The scheme has also helped to provide cover drivers for statutory transport services.

Liz Prudhoe, General Manager at Adapt, said: “Our pilot was very successful in making sure we’re using our vehicles to their full potential, and gave us the chance to create sustainable jobs in this area, helping people to develop their skills and get back into work.

“The pilot has meant that we can meet existing demand for our services and develop them, providing invaluable links for people who find it most difficult to make the simple journeys which many of us take for granted.

“We’ve been able to deal with the same issues which are facing community transport schemes all over the region, so we want to share what we’ve learned. Ultimately, community transport is enormously important in helping people access services and employment, and we want to make schemes in North East England as effective as possible.”

Adapt now hopes the approach can be used regionally, to help develop and sustain community transport services and to tap into the resource of people who have been unemployed long-term.

By bringing together services across the region, it also plans to help schemes maximise their efficiency – making sure that vehicles are being used all day, perhaps even pooling resources where possible.

Adapt won funding to explore this regional roll-out from One NorthEast’s Third Sector Capacity Fund. The fund has awarded more than £600,000 in grants to 19 different projects, all aimed at helping not-for-profit organisations find new and better ways of overcoming the barriers which can prevent people from working or starting a business, or to share new ideas across the sector.
 
One North East’s Economic Inclusion Manager, Robin Beveridge, said: “The region’s aim of getting another 70,000 people into work by 2016 simply can’t be achieved without input from the third sector.

“Charities, community groups and social enterprises like Adapt are ideally placed to try new ways of helping people get involved with the economy, whatever their age, sex, background or circumstances, experimenting with new approaches to help people overcome those things which can prevent them from working.

“We saw a need to make it easier for these groups to identify best practice and try new ways of working across the region. The fund’s panel were pleased that Adapt had been successful with this new initiative and this project highlights precisely what this funding is all about. Adapt has a big challenge to bring together community transport schemes across the region, but the results could be very exciting.”

Community transport can include services such as Dial-a-Ride, home to school transport for young people with disabilities, group hire minibuses and social car schemes. It provides tailored services for people who can’t use public transport or statutory transport provided by the council, or who simply don’t have access to normal buses or trains in their local area.

Crucially, it can be a key way of getting people to employment sites, particularly from rural areas.

Adapt’s project will culminate in a regional community transport conference later this year.

All the Third Sector Capacity Funding for the 2007-08 financial year has been allocated, but the potential for a further fund in 2008 is being explored.

* Formerly Action by Differently Abled People in Tynedale