Appendix B - Detailed Profile Of Case Studies

Profile of Case Studies

Annandale Transport Initiative

Annandale Transport Initiative (ATI) was established in 1999 and provides community transport services throughout Annandale and in part of Eskdale in South West Scotland. Having started with two fully accessible minibuses, the organisation has gradually expanded and now has six minibuses and two accessible community cars. ATI provide a range of community transport services as follows:

Group Transport - the organisation offers vehicles for hire for constituted voluntary and community organisations based in the Annandale area. There are 153 registered groups and these cover a wide range of activities including sports teams, church groups, lunch groups, disability groups, and schools etc. The organisation can provide drivers for an additional cost or the voluntary and community groups can use their own driver as long as they are MiDAS trained. Approximately 25% of the group journeys undertaken involve transporting disabled people. In terms of age there is a fairly evenly split across the age categories.
Door to Door Dial-a-Ride - the organisation provides door to door transport for individuals who have difficulty using conventional public transport or whose transport needs are not met by the existing network. There are 18 registered members of this service, with three of these using the service on a weekly basis. The remaining 15 use the service on an ad hoc basis for a variety of reasons including access to hospital appointments and social activities. Users are mostly older and/or disabled.
Day Trips - the organisation provides a programme of weekly day trips throughout the year to destinations in Scotland and northern England which are not generally accessible to the local community. The trips are open to all and are aimed at those with mobility problems or without their own transport during the day e.g. the elderly, disabled, young families or the rurally isolated. The majority of users are elderly and there has been a gradual increase in the number of trips available over time.
Registered Routes - The organisation runs two registered bus routes to Peebles (last Thursday of the month) and Carlisle (1st and 3rd Thursday) under S22 permits. As with the day trips, the majority of users of these services are elderly.
Transport to Hospital - The organisation is currently trialling a service from Langholm to Dumfries Hospital.

All of the services are provided directly by the organisation under S19 permits with the exception of the registered routes. In addition to the CT services, the organisation offers MiDAS and MEET training. PATS was previously provided but this was discontinued due to lack of demand. Training costs £60 per person per year and the organisation offers voluntary/community groups two for one offers in to encourage them to train their own drivers.

During the recession demand for services remained fairly constant. In terms of growth, the organisation recently expanded its operation into the Eskdale. In addition, there is potential for the Transport to Healthcare service to grow if the Langholm to Dumfries Hospital trial is successful.

Badenoch & Strathspey Community Transport Company

Badenoch & Strathspey Community Transport Company (B&S) provides a range of accessible transport services for people living in a Badenoch and Strathspey who do not have transport of their own or who are unable to access public transport. The organisation was initially established using funding from the Rural Community Transport Initiative (RCTI), with the first service being a pilot car scheme covering two outer areas of Badenoch and Strathspey. Following the success of the pilot the scheme was extended to cover the whole of Badenoch and Strathspey and a number of other services were developed. These are discussed below:

Volunteer Car Scheme - the Volunteer Car Scheme provides door-to-door transport for users who are unable to access conventional transport. The service is provided by volunteer car drivers who use their own vehicles of which there are currently 130. Users of the service use the scheme for a variety of purposes including access to health appointments, shopping trips and social outings/clubs.
Access to Aviemore - the Access to Aviemore (A2A) service provides door-to-door transport for users based in Aviemore on a Monday and Friday. The majority of users are older and/or disabled and include a number of visually impaired individuals. Users of the service use the scheme for a range of purposes including health centre appointments, shopping trips, and access to classes and groups such as the Sunshine Club.
Community Vehicle - the organisation offers vehicles for hire for voluntary and community organisations based in Badenoch and Strathsepy including a variety of social clubs and sports groups. The majority of groups who use the service on a regular basis are made up of people over the age of 60.
Registered Routes - the organisation runs a registered route from Aviemore to Nethy Bridge which operates every Wednesday and from Aviemore to Laggan which operates every Tuesday and Thursday.
Shopping Services - the organisation provides door-to-door shopping services to Aviemore and Grantown-on-Spey. The Aviemore service which has been operational for 15 years is provided using one of the organisation's minibuses and operates every Thursday morning. The Grantown-on-Spey service is operated in conjunction with a taxi company, with users brought from a wide area to Grantown-On-Spey by taxi where they are met by volunteers who provide assistance.
Scooters and Wheelchair Hire - the organisation offers wheelchairs and mobility scooters for short term hire from locations in Aviemore and Glenmore. The Glenmore site is run in partnership with the Forestry Commission which has made a number of trails near the hire site wheelchair accessible. The hire services are used by both local people and holiday makers.
Social and Music Groups - the organisation arranges a number of monthly social events and activities including an afternoon tea dance and a music group and provides appropriate community transport to and from each event. Users of the services are largely older and/or disabled, with approximately 40-60 individuals attending each event.

All of the transport services are operated under Section 19 permits except the registered routes which are operated under a Section 22. The organisation provides MiDAS training both internally and externally. It also provides a regular programme of training to its staff and volunteers. This has included training on emergency first aid, disability awareness, winter driving, telephonist and database management. Over the last few years, the organisation has experienced a reduction in the funding provided by the local authority and this has created difficulties as the demand for services continues to grow.

Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus

Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus (BDACB) has been providing transport services in North East Aberdeenshire for over 15 years. Having initially offered just one weekly service, the organisation has grown substantially over this period and now has a total of 11 buses, over 1,000 individual members, 290 group members and in 2013 generated a turnover of almost £400,000. The organisation provides a large number of community transport services as follows:

Shopping Service - the Shopping Service is a five day a week door-to-door timetabled bus service. It runs mainly in the central Buchan area and covers 10 small villages as well as isolated farms and cottages. The service is timetabled three months in advance and each client is sent their own copy of the timetable every quarter. Potential clients for the Shopping Service can contact the organisation directly or go through another agency e.g. carer/medical or social worker etc. While called the Shopping Service, clients use the service for a variety of reasons including visiting family/friends and going for lunch/coffee. Concessionary fares are accepted on the service and 90-95% of users are therefore not charged. Those users without a concessionary pass are asked to pay a small charge (approximately £2).
Community Use - the Community Use service is a mini bus hire service for community and voluntary groups. There is one 16-seater minibus permanently allocated to the service, with other buses used in their downtime from other projects. The service is provided using volunteer drivers although some community groups use their own drivers who must be MiDAS trained. There is a mileage charge of 80p per mile. A wide range of community and voluntary groups use the service including the Brownies, various sports teams, walking groups, befrienders, sheltered housing, music groups, mental health groups and the Roundtable.
Transport for You (T4U) - the T4U service is a door-to-door dial a ride service for individual users. The service started as a patient transport service (PTS) for the NHS in 2001 but as a result of a lack of funding the service was withdrawn and subsequently changed to T4U in 2009. The service is used by a wide variety of clients of varying ages and for different purposes. There is a mileage charge which starts at £5 for journeys between 1- 4 miles and runs up to £24 for journeys of 26 miles plus. However, the organisation is flexible and if the client is unable to afford it, they do not charge for the service
Library Service - the Library Service is a door-to-door service to Mintlaw Library which runs one evening every two weeks. The service has been in operation since 2007 and the users are typically elderly. Bookings are taken by Mintlaw Library and provided to the driver on the evening of the service. There is a 50p charge.
Evening Services for Young People - there are two evening services which pick up young people from the community centres in Mintlaw and Peterhead and take them home after evening events (a music group and a youth group). Users range from secondary one through to their early twenties. The service is run under a service level agreement (SLA) with Community Education Mintlaw and Peterhead and has been in operation since 2004 in various guises.
Transitions Extreme - the organisation provides transport for Transitions Extreme as part of their Alternative Academy. The Alternative Academy is a 12-week alternative development programme for young people (aged 15-18) who are disenfranchised or have been expelled from school.
Aberdeen Services - the organisation provides three services under contract with Aberdeen City Council Social Work for clients with profound difficulties. The services have been provided since 2009 and run five days a week. Clients include disabled children attending primary and secondary school and adults with special needs.
ACVO Change Fund - in Autumn 2014, the provider started working with Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations (ACVO) and the Social Transport Working Group to provide transport for individuals and groups using funding from the Change Fund. The service is run using two buses, with one full time and one part time driver. All of the users are elderly and include the NHS Falls Group, NHS Pulmonary Clinic, MS Society, whilst the vehicles also run to the Community Centre, Social Clubs for Care etc.
Volunteer Drivers Service - the Volunteer Drivers Service is a contracted service for Aberdeenshire Council Social Work which provides transport for looked after children and families throughout the North Aberdeenshire area. The service is provided using a core group of 7-8 volunteer drivers. The Council has an aspiration to extend the service to cover the whole of Aberdeenshire and therefore the organisation expects that this service will grow in the future.
Shopmobility Peterhead - the organisation offers wheelchairs, walking aids and motorised scooters at its Shopmobility facility in Peterhead. The service is available Monday-Saturday and is run using a grant from Aberdeenshire Council. Users are not charged for the service unless the hire period is longer than one day in which case users are required to pay a deposit.

All the services are provided directly by BDACB. The Shopping Service, Community Use and T4U services are considered to be the core services and those which would be protected if there was a loss in funding.

In addition to the charity, a number of services are provided on a commercial basis via DAB Plus Driver Training, a Social Enterprise which was set-up in 2007 to generate an income for the charity and reduce grant reliance. DAB provides MiDAS and PATs training to external organisations, offers vehicles for private hire for non-charitable purposes and provides three school services under operator license.

During the period of economic downturn, the organisation remained fairly static, in part as a result of income provided by the social enterprise. However, as a result of a lack of NHS funding the patient transport service was withdrawn. In addition, the staff at the organisation did not receive a pay rise for three years. It is expected that the organisation will continue to grow in the future, with expansion in the number of services anticipated. However, any future expansion is necessarily limited by the availability of funding.

Community Transport Glasgow

Community Transport Glasgow (CTG) has been providing CT services in communities across Glasgow since 2005. The organisation grew out of the Glasgow Community Transport Operators Group, an umbrella organisation which was established in October 2003 in response to the growth in CT provision in Glasgow. The organisation subsequently evolved, becoming formally constituted in 2004 and changing its name to CTG in 2005. Since its establishment, CTG has grown substantially and now has 20 vehicles and provides a wide range of community transport services including:

Group Hire - the Group Hire service provides vehicles for hire to non-profit organisations throughout east, west and south-east Glasgow as well as in East Dunbartonshire. Groups can use a driver supplied by the organisation or provide their own driver who must be MiDAS trained. A wide range of groups use the service, with the majority being older groups followed by disabled people and youth groups.
Healthy Journeys Patient Transport Project - the Healthy Journeys Patient Transport Project is a volunteer car scheme which provides transport to health appointments for elderly people in the north-east of Glasgow. The service is free for users and to be eligible patients must be: over the age of 65, living in the north-east of Glasgow, mobile enough to get in and out of a car by themselves and experiencing difficulty in getting to health appointments. Users are referred to the service by their doctor or a medical professional.
Glasgow Club Runs - the Glasgow Club Runs is a similar service to that of the Group Hire but the runs operate daily (Monday - Friday) and are provided to Glasgow City Council (GCC) under a Service Level Agreement (SLA). The groups transported are those which were previously transported by GCC using their own transport which they outsourced as a result of funding issues. In total, there are approximately 15-18 different groups, including older and disabled groups and young people.
Evening Hospital Service - the Evening Hospital Visitor Service has been operating for six years and provides door-to-door transport for individuals wishing to visit family/friends in the seven main hospitals in Glasgow (the Royal Infirmary, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Stobhill Hospital, the Western Infirmary, Gartnavel General Hospital and the Victoria Infirmary). SPT provide the administration for the service (taking phone calls and making the bookings) and provide CTG with a list of users the night before. A number of different CT organisations are involved in running the service, with CTG covering all geographic areas except for the north which is subcontracted out to Community Centre Halls (CCH) in Maryhill. The service is free for individuals to use and is available to anyone who does not have access to or cannot use conventional public transport.
Physiotherapy Exercise Classes - CTG provides transport on behalf of the NHS for individuals to attend two physiotherapy classes. The service is only available for older people who have experienced a fall and are undertaking physiotherapy. The classes operate every day and are run across Glasgow, with other CT groups also covering some of the trips. There is no charge to use the service.
Shopping Trips - the organisation provides twice weekly shopping trips for older people in East Dunbartonshire as well as a weekly lunch club. There are a regular group of users for the service who pay a £3 flat rate per trip.
CB2 Drumchapel Circular (CB2) - the CB2 service is a registered bus route operated under a Section 22 permit which is subsidised by SPT. While the service is available to the general public, there are likely to be a large number of elderly users and a high number of concessionary passes and companion tickets. The service was awarded the Best Community Transport Initiative Award in 2012.
Service for Glasgow Subway Staff - the organisation provides a tendered service for SPT which transports the subway staff back and forth to work. The shifts for the service are 23.30-02:00 and 04.00-06.00 and the organisation has been providing the service for approximately one and a half years.

CTG generally provides the services directly. However, where appropriate CTG will subcontract work to other smaller CT organisations which already exist in the area.

In addition to the CT services provided, the organisation also provides PATS, MiDAS and 'Out in 3' (minibus evacuation) training. In addition, CTG recently set up its own social enterprise in the form of a garage facility using funding from the Enterprise Growth Fund. The facility maintains CTG's own fleet of vehicles and provides services for other charitable organisations, thus providing an income stream for the charity. The organisation recently secured the contact via SPT to be the approved maintenance provider for 14 minibuses which were awarded to CT organisations this year.

Order of Malta Dial-a-Journey

Order of Malta Dial-a-Journey (OOM) provides transport services in the operating areas of Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils for people who have a mobility problem and cannot use conventional public transport. The organisation was first established in 1986 with the aim of providing affordable and accessible transport and has grown substantially since then, expanding from a two vehicle to a twenty-four vehicle operation. OOM provides a number of different CT services as follows:

Dial-a-Journey Door to Door Service - the Dial-a-Journey service provides accessible door-to-door transport for people who have mobility difficulties and cannot use conventional public transport. The service is the organisation's flagship service. Approximately 45% of its users have a disability and 45% are elderly or infirm. There are also a number of users with mental health issues.
Central Shopmobility - loans scooters, powered chairs and manual wheelchairs to individuals who have a temporary or permanent physical impairment that results in difficulties in getting around the shops. There are two fixed bases: one in Falkirk at the Callendar Square Car Park and one in Stirling Bus Station.
Self-Drive Vehicles for Voluntary Groups - the self-drive service provides vehicles for hire to bona-fide voluntary organisations who are registered with the organisation. A large range of groups use the service including Arthritis Care, Alzheimer's, domestic abuse groups, the MS Society, sports teams and a number of lunch clubs.
Self-drive for Family Members - the organisation also offers a number of smaller vehicles which can be hired by family members or carers. This offers members the ability to have their own personal travel for days out or short holidays without the need to worry about planning their activities around transport arrangements.
Taxicard Booking Service - Dial-a-Journey administers the Taxicard Booking Service on behalf of Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils. OOM does not undertake the transport journeys but is responsible for arranging the trips with the taxi companies registered to provide the service.
School Transport - the Order of Malta provides transport for schools through separate commercially tendered contracts. This tends to be assisted supportive needs (ASN) travel.
Excursions - the organisation also runs a programme of excursions throughout the year.

In addition to the CT services, OOM provides MiDAS training, both internally and externally. In addition, the organisation has a trading subsidiary called WAVE (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Enterprise). It competes for local authority contracts to run more conventional bus services and carries out work for the general public and corporate organisations, with any profits generated gifted to the charity. WAVE has been operational for 12 years and over that time has generated £232,000 of funding.

OOM receives funding from Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Falkirk Councils. However, over the last few years the level of funding provided has declined and consequently, the organisation has had to integrate the services provided and develop its commercial activities in order to maintain the same level of service. This has meant that the Order of Malta has not been able to expand or develop its offering.

Coalfields Community Transport

Coalfields Community Transport (CCT) is based in East Ayrshire and provides a range of transport services for eligible groups and socially or economically disadvantaged individuals in the former coalfield areas like Cumnock and Auchinleck. The organisation was established in 2002 and currently provides a range of transport services including Group Transport, a Community Bus Route, a door to door Dial-a-Ride, a Day Hopper Club shopping service, an Away Hopper service providing short breaks, a contracted service for children on the at risk register on behalf of East Ayrshire Community Planning Partnership, and social care transport on behalf of East Ayrshire Council.

CCT ran a Wheels to Work (W2W) scheme from 2006 - 2009 but the service is no longer in operation as a result of the lack of available funding. The scheme covered the whole of East Ayrshire and provided scooters to individuals for a period of six months to enable them to access employment, training or education. To be eligible for the scheme participants had to:

live in a remote area from which it was not easy to get to work;
have a training, employment or education opportunity available to them; and
be aged 16 or over.

There were a total of 120 participants who used the service over the three year period, with 20 participants involved in the service at any one time (unless a vehicle was off-road for maintenance etc). The majority of the users were young people, driven partly by the initial funding criteria. The scheme generally ran full and there was always a waiting list with CCT having to turn people away on a number of occasions. It was noted that there remains a high level of demand for the service, with the organisation still receiving calls from people asking if they provide W2W.

Tagsa Uibhist

Tagsa Uibhist (TU) is a voluntary organisation in the southern portion of the Outer Hebrides. They provide a range of services throughout the Uist Chain to assist the elderly and vulnerable populations in the local community. The organisation was established in 1999 as a care provider but has grown substantially since this date. In contrast to the other CT providers examined in this study, TU provides a range of community services and community transport is not considered to be the core service offering. The core services are a home support service and a small respite care home. They also offer a handyman service, a domestic cleaning service, a mental health outreach project and a social and horticultural project. In terms of its transport services the organisation provides the following:

Shopping Service - the organisation provides nine shopping service routes which run every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and cover North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula. The service users are largely older or disabled with mobility issues. There is a £3 charge for use of the service in the local area and a £5 charge for going into Benbecula from North or South Uist. In 2013, 1,328 people used the service.
Dial-a-Bus - the Dial-a-Bus runs daily including weekends (where required) and transports people for a variety of purposes including transport for residential homes, medical appointments, dentistry, medication collection, hospital discharge, day care, and respite. The users range from pre-school age to elderly service users. There is an 80p mileage charge for use of the service and this is charged only from the pick-up and drop-off points. In 2013, 304 individuals used the service.
Social Outings - the social bus is provided on Mondays and Fridays on a fortnightly basis. Each group member pays £1 for the trip, £1.50 towards the vehicle hire charge and an 80p mileage charge. In 2013, 391 people went out on the service. There are 5 groups who the organisation manages who use the service, with the majority of users older or disabled.
Group Transport - the organisation provides vehicles for hire for community groups as well as families. There is a £25 hire charge for the vehicle and a £25 hire charge for the driver (where required). There is no additional mileage charge.
School Transport - the organisation provides a daily school service (Monday-Friday) on behalf of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. The service is a tendered contract.

With the exception of the school transport service, all other services are provided under a Section 19 agreement. TU has seen a growth in demand for its dial-a-bus service in recent years and anticipates bidding for a number of new contracts with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in the near future.

RSVP East Renfrewshire

RSVP East Renfrewshire provides a range of community transport services in the East Renfrewshire area including a Voluntary Car Scheme which has been in operation since 2000. The scheme is primarily provided by volunteers using their own cars. However in 2010, SPT provided funding for an accessible vehicle so that the organisation would be able to transport patients in a wheelchair. Users of the service are referred via their GP and the majority are elderly. In total there are 840 registered users (although it should be noted that, once registered users names are not removed from the list). Last year, the organisation ran 5,704 one way journeys and currently carries out between 40 and 55 patient double journeys for the service per week.