Convener's Update

Transport plays a vital role in all our lives. It enables us to get to work, education or training; to access health and social care services; to see friends and family; take part in leisure activities; and in doing so, prevents loneliness and social isolation. Accessible and affordable transport is not in itself a human right in international conventions, but it is a necessary requirement in order to enable our human rights. A rights-based approach to transport should start from the principle that access to suitable transport, no matter where in Scotland you live, your differing needs or capabilities, or your level of income, should be seen as a necessary requirement in order to achieve other human rights. The present transport system does not yet deliver this level of access for all and I would argue that this must be addressed and addressed at a much faster pace and with urgency.

Scottish citizens have been given a commitment within the National Transport Strategy (NTS2) to reduce inequalities. This is supported by the Accessible Travel Framework (Going Further) and the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

NTS2 sets out a vision for a public transport system that enables everyone in Scotland to share in the benefits of a modern and accessible transport system. Transport plays an important part in delivering the fully inclusive society we want and need. By reducing inequalities (in synergy with NTS2's three other priorities. i.e: take climate action; helps deliver inclusive economic growth; and, improves our health and wellbeing), the strategy will focus on delivering a public transport system that:

Will provide fair access to services we need. There is a duty to reduce inequalities and advance equality of opportunity and outcome, including the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Will ensure that our disadvantaged communities and individuals have fair access to the transport services they need. The transport system will enable everyone to access a wide range of services and to realise their human rights.
Will be easy to use for all. People have different needs and capabilities. Our transport system will recognise these and work to ensure that everyone can use the system with as few barriers as possible.
Will be affordable for all. People have different incomes and our transport system will not exclude people from mobility by making it unaffordable. We will target actions to deliver the strategy towards those needing most help, including those living in poverty.

The Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) focuses a great deal of our capacity and work on offering advice and constructive challenge to Scottish Ministers and Transport Scotland, whilst encouraging the wider transport community to strive for progress. MACS developed and promotes the "Triple A" check for transport. That it is Available, Accessible and Affordable.

We know we have a "way to go" for our public transport system in Scotland to pass the Triple A check. We will continue to focus our work in pursuit of this, which we are currently driving though our five high-level objectives:

Objective One.

To build on the commitment in Programme for Government (PfG) to promote a fair, accessible and inclusive Scotland.

Objective Two.

To work across Cabinet and Ministerial portfolios to ensure the need for an accessible transport system is recognised and cited as an enabler.

Objective Three.

To ensure that the Scottish Government makes it clear that public bodies and Local Authorities have a duty to respect the legislation regulating improvements of the accessibility of public transport service provision and the surrounding infrastructures.

Objective Four.

To advocate for engagement with MACS when developing or revising policy, plans or contracts by officials to gain expert advice and ensure accessibility is given a priority consideration. This includes using procurement and franchise opportunities when awarding contracts to promote accessibility in transport provisions.

Objective Five.

To review the NTS2 and the Accessible Travel Framework Annual Delivery Plan on an annual basis, acknowledging progress, identifying blockages and gaps and make recommendations to assist with the delivery of commitments.

The 'Strategic Plan' section of this report will give more detail on our work and the progress we have achieved under each of these objectives that derive from our strategic plan and form the base of our annual work plans.

MACS has also been working this year to promote consideration of the holistic journey (i.e. the end-to-end or door-to-door journey experience) and look at ways to encourage transport planners and providers to take a more joined-up approach in order to better consider the obstacles, gaps or pinch points which might be encountered in a door-to-door journey. These can (either alone or in combination) represent substantial barriers which discourage or prevent disabled people from planning, attempting or successfully completing a journey. We strongly believe that transport services should be delivered in a joined-up way that properly considers the type of journeys people take and want to take.

People should be able to change transport easily and affordably on their journeys (e.g. changing between buses or changing between different types of transport such as between bus and train or ferries). Particular attention needs to be paid to connectivity in rural areas and island communities, as evidence shows our rural and island communities face the most challenges keeping connected by public transport and incur the highest costs, with many people being forced into car ownership due to a failure in public transport provision.

Transport systems should be explicitly designed to be inclusive, taking into account the different needs of disabled people and older people. These groups of transport users should be at the heart of the design process. Our transport system should be inclusive and accountable, with people and communities able to influence the delivery of services to ensure it is designed around their needs, and importantly, meets their needs.

For me, the most accurate and concise framing of inclusion is as follows: "Inclusion is participation in everything society has to offer. No boundaries, no barriers, no negative stereotyping, just making it happen". Let's work together, listen, act and make it happen.

This year MACS has asked government bodies, and our stakeholders, to focus on the first and last part of the journey and inter-modal connections. Through our work with the Health and Social Care Alliance (The Alliance) and with Disability Equality Scotland (DES) we ran a series of themed webinars looking at the 20-minute neighbourhood aspirations and what this meant; what was important to disabled people and older people in their neighbourhoods. What did they need to get out and about, to feel connected and safe and to prevent social isolation and loneliness?

Pavements. Top of the lists – clutter free, well maintained, wide pavements with ample dropped kerbs, good lighting and clear lines of sight for safety. We heard how critical pavements were in getting about local neighbourhoods, getting to the bus stop, the doctors, health centre, shops, post offices, or to visit friends and neighbours. We heard of the growing and un-tackled problem of cars parked on pavements, blocking the way for people and discouraging people from going out for fear of their safety. The report from these themed events can be found at the link here:

Exploring Scotland's 20-minute neighbourhoods series event report - Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (alliance-scotland.org.uk).

In response, MACS developed a well-received guidance document for Local Authorities to address these issues. We called it 'Small Changes Can Make A Big Difference' and we will continue to push for progress prioritising pavements.

View report - Small Changes Can Make A Big Difference.

Pavements are for people! Let's say it again – Pavements are for people!

MACS believes that public transport should be available and affordable for everyone, no matter their level of income or distance from urban centres. People should not have to make trade-offs between spending on transport versus other essential items such as food or heating their homes. We have advocated a review of the concessionary travel scheme to address this and we are hopeful that the Fair Fares Review from 2021 PfG and the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party co-operation agreement will address the issue of an outdated concessionary travel scheme that we believe embeds inequality for many disabled people and older people, particularly within rural and island communities.

Before moving to the main report let me sign off by thanking the organisations we worked with this year. The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (The Alliance) and Disability Equality Scotland helped us reach out and engage with communities of interest and communities of place to listen to, and hear what they need from their transport system. This has been critical in defining our work plans and the basis of the advice we give to Scottish Ministers and Transport Scotland.

Communities of Interest: can refer to groups of people who share an experience. For example: consideration of the impact of strategic decisions on people who share one or more of the protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010.
Communities of Place: refers to people who are bound together because of where they reside, work, visit or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time.

Thank you to Scottish Ministers for always having an open door and for the constructive discussions to seek solutions and deliver on the recommendations and commitments from many policies and strategies.

To many of the policy teams within Transport Scotland, we thank you for the regular and frequent meetings and for meeting us early in the change or planning process to ensure the voices and experiences of disabled people (experts by experience) are not lost or marginalised by the volume of others.

I would also like to thank our Sponsor Team and Secretariat for arranging numerous meetings with various stakeholders and for keeping us digitally connected.

My final thanks are twofold. Thank you to everyone who has engaged with us during this difficult year. We know how hard a time this has been for everyone and that disabled people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and we truly thank you for taking the time to talk to us, share your experiences and challenges and trust that we will ensure these are not lost but amplified to drive change.

To my MACS team, I will sign off our report this year by acknowledging our members who completed their second terms and retired and welcome our new members but for now, can I wholeheartedly thank my hard-working dedicated team.

A team that works so well together, shares experiences and learning, takes time to help and understand each other and always, without fail, go the extra mile to get the job done. I thank you for this level of dedication and commitment.

Linda Bamford
National Convener
Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS)

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