Luton Borough Council

15/02/2024 - Have your say on our draft adult social care travel assistance policy

The council is seeking views on its draft adult social care travel assistance policy to ensure a consistent, fair and equitable way of supporting adults to meet their travel requirement needs.

Adult social care provides transport through a variety of options to people who have been assessed as requiring travel assistance. This includes adults living with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and older people across Luton.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a reduction in the number of people who are accessing transport provided by the council. This is due to people being connected to local community groups, carers and families supporting with travel arrangements and individuals accessing services closer to their home.

The draft policy applies to people who have an assessed eligible social care need for travel assistance, are aged over 18, not in full time education and live in Luton. It aims to:

promote the wellbeing of service users and their carer/s
deliver a fair and consistent approach to travel assistance
focus on people’s needs, abilities and support network to encourage a healthy and long-term and independent approach to travel assistance
help individuals, family members and carers when they are exploring travel options
provide employees and service users guidance, consistency and clarity in relation to travel assistance

The policy will also explain the council’s legal and statutory duties.

The consultation runs until Wednesday 27 March. View the policy and complete an online survey.

If you require the survey in a different format or language or have any queries about this consultation please email [email protected] or call 01582 548898.

Councillor Fatima Begum, portfolio holder with responsibility for adult social care, said: “Our adult social care team has developed a draft travel assistance policy which aims to focus on adults’ needs, abilities and support network within their family and community so that people with social needs are supported to explore all transport options available to them.

“Our goal is to empower residents to be involved in decisions in planning their own care and support as well as help adults and their carers to travel independently and safely as possible.

“We want to give our residents a genuine opportunity to influence this policy before it is finalised. So please have your say by completing the short survey. You can also share your views with me by emailing [email protected] ."