Derby City Council

Service provided: Home to Day Care Centre Transport

Derby City Council has a long standing relationship with TransLinc to provide transport to both adults with complex physical needs and those with learning disabilities or special needs. But the current service TransLinc delivers has changed considerably from previous service user contracts.

Originally, TransLinc delivered return transport from the service users’ home to a day care centre, utilizing larger vehicles to carry large numbers of service users with a range of care needs.

After a review, Derby City Council identified that service users would benefit from travelling in smaller groups of people with similar needs, for shorter periods of time. This allows them to avoid “trigger” situations for those with learning disabilities or behavioural problems and allows additional care to be provided for those with existing physical conditions. The day centres are now various sizes, both large and small, to cater for the specific needs of the service users.

TransLinc has been able to meet these changes by being flexible with its staff and vehicles. This has been achieved by reallocation of vehicles within the fleet, optimising the use of smaller vehicles and giving drivers and personal assistants individual service user travel plans which give relevant background information on the service users they are transporting.

The new system has increased TransLinc staff awareness of potential issues that service users may have, which is reported to the day care centre staff or the service users’ representative as part of the overall care package

In addition to this, regular liaison meetings take place at local level between centre managers and TransLinc to keep abreast of any updates which will affect the service user.

The work that’s been done by Derby City Council and TransLinc has been beneficial to the service users, ensuring that they arrive at their destination avoiding unwanted stimulation that may have occurred in the past large groups travelling large vehicles.

Download a PDF of the Derby City Council case study here