Nearly one in five people in Scotland have a long term activity-limiting health problem or disability and approximately one in ten disabled people in the UK have difficulty accessing public transport services.

Community Transport Glasgow (CTG) is a not-for-profit transport organisation providing transport solutions to vulnerable communities in Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire; we transport approximately 75,000 passengers annually.

With the estimated 31% increase in the elderly population over the next 20 years along with the reduction in commercial public transport services, we need better transport delivery models within the overall transport mix. That is why we have created the Transport Hub; making use of an interactive web based scheduling and booking solution to create a single point of contact.

This collaborative digital platform will enable us to match up supply - from key stakeholders such as Local Authorities, Community Transport Operators and the NHS - to demand of vulnerable individuals and community groups. This will assist in addressing the transport needs of passengers and patients who are vulnerable or live in disadvantaged communities by working in partnership with key stakeholders to make better utilisation of existing transport resources to improve and develop transport solutions.

Through a partnership developed with NHS Lanarkshire, CTG is piloting the scheduling, planning and booking of NHS Lanarkshire’s non-emergency transport provision through CTG’s newly established Transport Co-ordination Centre. The Transport Hub went live on 1st April 2019 with activity for the initial four weeks of operation seeing 614 transport journeys booked and scheduled through the Coordination Centre. With 15% of these journeys moved to two third sector providers, a Community Transport Operator and a voluntary organisation, making use of their available vehicle capacity.

The successful development, establishment and going live with the Transport Hub is down to a number of factors:

• The importance of developing key partnerships with stakeholders at an early stage. Without the partnerships developed with NHS Lanarkshire and other transport providers such as Community Transport, the project would struggle to achieve its aims.
• Ensuring at the outset that the data gathering from the key stakeholders, such as NHS Lanarkshire and Community Transport providers, is limited to the specific requirements of the project. There is no requirement to gather data on all the activities that the Community Transport vehicles provide but just the information detailing the vehicle downtime available that can be built into the system and made available to allocate the appropriate transport journeys.
• To establish a partnership with the software provider at the outset that is not just seen as a supplier – client relationship.
• The importance of the recruitment of the right staff. Although from the outside our project could be viewed as “just another Contact Centre who books transport” that is not the case. We are looking to develop a person-centred transport solutions environment, therefore the key skills we were looking for in our staff are customer service skills and the ability to problem solve.

The last point in relation to staff is key, feedback from staff has been:

The establishment of the Co-ordination Centre and the pilot project with NHS Lanarkshire is just the start of the journey. CTG has an ambitious strategy to develop a holistic approach to the current and future challenges faced by vulnerable communities who require access to accessible, affordable and reliable transport services. This includes continuing to develop innovative transport solutions to meet communities needs as well as looking at how we can work with key stakeholders to make better use of under-utilised transport resources.

The long term ambition is to expand and diversify the work of the Coordination Centre to provide information on transport options and develop a mobility and accessibility centre that will provide support and assistance to those people who cannot access mainstream public transport.