Sheffield has introduced new travel budgets for families that have children with SEN to aid transport fees in post-16 education.

Sheffield City Council’s Freedom to Travel, Skills for Life programme will bring in Personal Travel Budgets – PTBs – that aim to empower students to develop essential travel skills which will ‘foster greater independence’.

Officer Mark Sheikh, Head of Service, Resourcing, and Business Planning, spoke at a meeting of Sheffield City Council’s Education, Children and Families Policy Committee on May 7.

He said: “It is preparing them for adulthood and making sure they have the necessary skills ready for when they are going out into the wider world.”

PTBs will be provided as an extra optional choice for existing post-16 SEN students or Year 11 students currently accessing SEN support.

Gaynor Stevenson, a parent who was invited by the council to speak, has a 20-year old son Robert who before travel and transport training had never been on public transport on his own.

She said: “For Robert, if you asked him, it has improved his confidence, its given him a sense of self worth and its enabled him to go to university. “

The council proposed that families will have the flexibility to either opt for PTBs or transport and that Independent Travel Training may also be offered if appropriate.

It will become the first offer for students not currently accessing SEN travel support, with alternative transport options if necessary.

Gaynor said: “Its going to open Robert’s life up socially, it going to enable him to have those job opportunities, those further education opportunities that would have been very difficult to access.

“This scheme has made a huge difference to his life, its a win for us, its a win for him and its a win for the council.”

Transport budgets will include fuel or mileage costs, public transport fares, paying a family member or friend, or any other travel related costs.

This programme is expected to equip young people with the ‘confidence, skills and knowledge required to travel independently on public transport, supporting their transition into adulthood.

The council have discussed with the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority – SYMCA – for funding to recruit 12 Travel Training and Assessment Officers for a two-year period, which will enable the council to test how effective the model is at preventing the need for individual travel packages to get to school.