By Dr Sarah Brooks-Wilson
Lecturer in Criminology, Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology
Everyday life involves an abundance of services and journeys that change alongside individual circumstances. For example, most children visit educational establishments to learn, and in adulthood travel to workplaces to earn. Travel distance and route complexity from home to required destinations can be diverse, making some places easier to access than others. Some destinations are accessed by fewer people, such as health settings, social services, youth justice teams, special schools and other places. Yet significant variance in institutional locations, practices, and accessibility support can make journey problems difficult to understand [i] [ii] [iii]. UK Disability History Month 2023, running from 16th November to 16th December, focuses on children and young people’s experiences of disablement: ‘so that all children and young people with long term impairment will not experience the social exclusion of stigma, stereotypes, negative attitudes and socially created barriers in the environment and the way things are organised’ [iv]. For young people in particular, service access includes a further layer of complexity as the transition from dependent to independent travel usually involves fewer lifts, less chaperoning or money, and accessing new destinations like college or training [v] [vi].
The obligations
Independent travel training (ITT) Teams are part of a set of statutory local authority measures that are designed to support pathways to employment [vii] [viii]. Many ITTs focus on young people with disabilities, reflecting obligations in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25, which describes how preparations for independent adult living should be supported from year 9 onwards [ix]. Local authorities also have an obligation to comply with the public sector equality duty, which aims to eliminate discrimination, promotion of equality of opportunity and fostering of good relations between people with and without characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010, including age, disability, race, religion or sex [x] [xi].
The bus boarding context
Ideologically aligned with UK Disability History Month 2023, Disability Rights UK describe how: ‘The Social Model of Disability was developed by Disabled people and describes people as being disabled by barriers in society, not by our impairment or difference. If modern life was set up in a way that was accessible for Disabled people, then we would not be excluded or restricted’ [xii]. When young people with disabilities attempt to access services essential for everyday life, bus boarding emerges as pinch point, because multiple activities take place within a very restricted time window. Bus drivers need to adhere to timetables, respond to traffic levels, road closures and diversions. They need to promote passenger safety within the vehicle and through road safety practices, as well as when embarking and disembarking. For young people with disabilities, this environment does not always operate in a way that supports journey completion, raising questions about what might help.
Bus boarding as a source of disablement?
Evidence suggests that bus boarding contexts can disable young people in different ways. For example, the bus boarding environment provides limited opportunities for non-verbal young people to effectively communicate journey details with bus drivers. Scratch card style concessionary passes are not universally usable as young people have varied fine motor skills. In any one area, multiple transport providers can use different ticket types, prices and peak/off peak criteria, making bus boarding complicated and confusing. When young people experience anxiety, such scenarios can produce extreme resistance to future public transport use. In the long term, this can result in higher support needs when accessing basic requirements such as education, training, employment, social contact, food and clothing. Such situations can also result in service inaccessibility when intensive travel support is not available.
Next steps: The Bus Boarding Project
Independent Travel Training Teams help young people thrive by unlocking supported opportunities for travel skills development. Diverse eligibility and referral systems means that teams work with different young people, who develop skills and experiences on training programmes of varied intensity, duration and structure. A new research collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Solihull ITT Team [xiii] is examining why bus boarding is less successful for ITT students. The Bus Boarding Project is consulting with ITT Teams and other stakeholders at a regional and national level to help develop an effective intervention to address this problem. If you would like to know more about this project or can share expertise to support eventual intervention development, please contact Sarah on: s.brooks-wilson@bham.ac.uk.
Acknowledgments: This project is funded by the Birmingham Institutional Impact Fund. With thanks to Danielle Edwards, Megan Chance and Kayleigh Garthwaite for research impact support, and special thanks to Laura Cole for supporting broader project development.
[i] Brooks-Wilson, S (2020) ‘Rethinking youth justice journeys: complex needs, impeded capabilities and criminalisation’, Youth Justice, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 309-327. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225419893791
[ii] Brooks-Wilson, S (2023a) Shifting Journey Cards: Final Report. Available at: shifting_final_28.6.23-1.pdf (wordpress.com) (Accessed 13.12.23).
[iii] Brooks-Wilson, S (2023b) ‘The youth justice commute (or the construction of youth transport poverty)’, Youth Justice, online first: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14732254231202683
[iv] UK Disability History Month 2023 (2023) Disability, Children and Youth. Available at: UK Disability History Month – 16 November – 16 December (ukdhm.org) (Accessed 13.12.23).
[v] Barker, J., Ademolu, E., Bowlby, S., and Musson, S., (2019) Youth transitions: mobility and the travel intentions of 12–20 year olds, Reading, UK, Children’s Geographies, 17:4, 442-453, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2018.1543853
[vi] Cuzzocrea, V., and Mandich, G., (2016) Students’ narratives of the future: Imagined mobilities as forms of youth agency? Journal of Youth Studies, 19(4): 552-567. (Accessed 1.12.23).
[vii] Department for Education and Department for Health, (2015) Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years Statutory guidance for organisations which work with and support children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities. Available at: SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) (Accessed 5.12.23).
[viii] Department for Transport (2023) Travel to School for Children of Compulsory School Age. Available at: Travel to school for children of compulsory school age (publishing.service.gov.uk) (Accessed 1.12.23).
[ix] Department for Education and Department for Health, (2015) Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years Statutory guidance for organisations which work with and support children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities. Available at: SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) pp99 (Accessed 5.12.23).
[x] HM Government (2010) Equality Act 2010, London: HM Government
[xi] Department for Education, (2023) Travel to school for children of compulsory school age: Statutory guidance for local authorities. Available at: Travel to school for children of compulsory school age (publishing.service.gov.uk). pp7-8 (Accessed 5.12.23).
[xii] Disability Rights UK, (2023) Social model of disability: Language. Available at: Social Model of Disability: Language | Disability Rights UK (Accessed 10.12.23).
[xiii] Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (2023) Solihull Independent Travel Training (ITT) Available at: Solihull Independent Travel Training (ITT) (Accessed 25.11.23).
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Birmingham.