Why Community Transport Matters
TAS is really pleased to have assisted Deloitte in developing the key methodologies deployed in their focus on CT’s role in mitigating loneliness and isolation, which have significant costs for both the individual and the state in terms of poor health and the associated interventions.
The report concludes that community transport schemes have the potential to make savings of between £400m and £1.1bn a year to the public purse, as well as reducing pressure on public services and helping older people to remain active members of society.
“We also provided suggestions about objective data sources in the primary and secondary health, and social care fields,” commented TAS Director, John Taylor. “This used our considerable experience in cost-benefit analyses for local and central government in respect of community transport, rural and demand-responsive transport, linked to equivalent work in respect of buses. It also reflected our work on the benefits of public transport to health, undertaken for the Countryside Agency.”
“Whilst one might think that there ought not to be a need to use cost-benefit analysis to justify core civic services, the fact is that without such an approach, passenger transport is currently very vulnerable to financial decisions made on a short-term basis, which have major longer-term costs for society,” concluded John.
The Why Community Matters report is split into two parts:
- Tackling Loneliness and Isolation Through Community Transport
- A Practical Method for Measuring Community Transport Social Value
The first study which the report draws on is Tackling Loneliness and Isolation through Community Transport, a major piece of research into the economic cost of loneliness and isolation which ECT Charity worked with Deloitte to produce.
The second study, A Practical Method for Measuring Community Transport Social Value, will help community transport organisations make a compelling case to commissioners on the value of their services. It was developed through the London Strategic Community Transport Forum (LSCTF).
ECT Charity represents community transport companies which operate in Ealing, Cornwall, Cheshire and Dorset; the organisation started as Ealing Community Transport in 1979 whose mission was to provide accessible and convenient transport to older and disabled people, and to community organisations in the west London borough.
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