About independent travel training, eligibility and how to refer a child or young person.
Our Independent Travel Training (ITT) Programme is a free programme to help children and young people in Bristol to build confidence and develop skills for safe and independent travel. The programme will be available towards the end of the 2024 to 25 academic year for a small number of pupils before it becomes widely available during the academic year 2025 to 26.
Training includes:
- road safety
- how to use a bus pass
- safe boarding of a bus or train
The child or young person will be taught skills on appropriate social behaviour, and strategies to problem solve in real-time and unexpected situations which may happen when travelling.
Travel Independence supports self-esteem and confidence and improves a child or young person's ability to become an active and independent member of their community. As well as building confidence in their own abilities the training includes learning about:
- opportunities to develop important social skills and learning how to cope in situations
- what to do in an emergency
- time and money management skills
- journey planning skills
- road and personal safety skills
- how to be less dependent on friends and family, so that the child or young person can travel independently within their community
- how to travel to increase social, education and work opportunities
We work one-to-one with children and young people from mainstream, special schools, colleges of further education and pupil referrals units. We offer a programme:
- to meet the specific needs of each individual
- without any time limits
- at the pace of that suits their need
- during term time and school and college holidays.
The child or young person's training is complete only when they can safely and confidently travel independently to and from their school or college.
Our programme and support will continue when the child or young person has completed the training. We'll continue to support the child or young person for as long as they need and as they move to different schools, further education or employment.
Eligibility
To qualify for ITT, the child or young person must:
- be between 11 and 24 years of age
- if aged 16 to 24 be in post-16 education
- have an Education, Health and Care Plan/EHCP, an identified Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND)
- be entitled to our travel support to school or college
Potential routes for the home-to-school journey will be risk assessed to make sure the route does not take an unreasonable amount of time or require multiple changes.
As well as route assessment, there will be further individual assessments to ensure the safety of the child or young person at all times. Every child or young person who takes part must be eligible and suitable for the training.
Our aim is to focus on children and young people who need support but can develop their skills to a level where they can travel independently on public transport.
The trainer
When a child or young person has been accepted onto our independent travel training programme, they will be assigned a trained and accredited independent travel trainer. This trainer will stay with the child or young person all through their training and will work with their school, teacher, and parents or carers to make sure they are comfortable and learning at each step of the programme.
Refer a child or young person
If you, your child, or a young person that you know meets the eligibility criteria and would like to consider ITT training fill in a referral form.
We aim to notify all applicants within 10 working days from receipt of the form if we can offer training and when the training will be.
Refer a child or young person for independent travel training