Decision details

The Independent Travel Training (ITT) posts were re-evaluated to better reflect the nature of the role which includes lone working and the delivery of bespoke training packages to provide children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) the skills and confidence required to make an independent journey from home to school or college. The increase from a grade 3 to grade 5 will also support recruitment and retention to the roles.
The Travel Assistance Service budget is projected to be overspent by £316k for Q1. £236k of the overspend is due to the cost of contracted transport. By creating 2 additional travel trainer posts, on average, an additional ten students will be travel trained per year and this will
contribute towards reducing the increasing cost by reducing reliance on taxi and other forms of contracted transport and assist in the reduction of costs within the wider Travel Assistance Service.
There is an increasing need for the service as indicated through the SEND placement panel referrals.

To increase the number of Travel Trainers from 3 to 5 (for a 3-year period) and increase all Travel Trainer posts from Grade 3 to Grade 5.
To increase the current staff from a Grade 3 to a Grade 5 will cost an additional £1,700.00 pa. The cost of 2 additional Travel Trainers will be approximately £24,800.00 pa. for 3 years. Travel Trainers will be employed on a 20 hour per week, term time contract.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED
To maintain the current level of 3 trainers, this would not be sufficient to meet need and make further savings.
Increase current Term Time Only contracts to Term Time plus 4 weeks to allow for some initial training of students over the summer holidays for the next academic term. This has been considered and may be a further option depending on future volumes of referrals.