Progress of the implementation of SEN Transport Planning Software

Transcription

1 S CHILDREN & FAMILIES SELECT COMMITTEE 30 October 2008 Progress of the implementation of SEN Transport Planning Software PURPOSE OF REPORT: Performance management This paper is to update the committee on the progress being made in meeting the delivery milestones within the project plan for the implementation of Trapeze. SUMMARY: The 2006 business case for the Transport Coordination Centre (TCC) demonstrated the advantages to be derived and efficiencies (both financial and environmental) that journey planning software would deliver. The County Council s Executive gave approval to the purchase of this software in December The supplier is Trapeze. PROGRESS The Transport Coordination Centre (TCC) was set up in 2006 and is progressively taking on the role of becoming a one stop shop for the organisation of the County Council s transport functions covering several Services within the Council. It was initially responsible for the organisation of Special Education Needs (SEN) home to school transport of SEN students both within Surrey and to educational establishments outside Surrey. This followed the reintegration of that function to the Council from Atkins Transport Management. The TCC has already taken on a role in organising home to school transport for mainstream school pupils who do not have easy access to scheduled public transport. The TCC has started to take on the transport arrangements for adults, including some day centre routes. Clearly the transfer of additional responsibilities will need to be completed in a phased way and in partnership with Services for Families. Page 1 of 6

2 The TCC has also begun to expand its work with Community Transport operators. Community Transport operators adding value to their operations and delivering a cost effective transport solution for the County Council have secured a number of contracts. Although the integration under one roof of all these transport planning functions has delivered savings and is expected to avoid future costs, to deliver further savings/future cost avoidances, it was deemed necessary to take advantage of current technologies to drive further efficiencies into the business. For many years the transport planning and scheduling process has involved TCC staff using their local knowledge, experience and expertise to manually schedule passengers travelling to common destinations onto a number of vehicles, with the aim of keeping the number of vehicles and mileage operated to a minimum, while achieving standards for maximum journey time, arrival by any particular deadlines, and other appropriate factors. The information on passengers is kept on a database called ETRANS, which is now approaching ten years in age and was not designed to cover either the number of contiguous users or the scope and volume of data manipulation required to maintain the network. These are the same processes and databases that were used by Atkins Transport Management when this activity was outsourced. It had become clear that this is no longer an appropriate way of managing the TCC s work. The ETRANS database is ageing and becoming ever more fragile and unstable, and the realistic possibility of serious, and potentially unrecoverable data loss exists, with consequential impact on passengers carrying the potential to put children and vulnerable adults at risk. Commercial software systems can plan passenger/vehicle/destination requirements and interactions far more quickly and more efficiently than can be achieved manually, no matter how experienced the member of staff. Several other local authorities similar in size and scope to Surrey County Council had already introduced such software systems to plan transport, and have delivered savings. Also as the County Council moved forward with the SPUR/CPT project, it was clear that the TCC s ownership of the stand alone ETRANS database of passengers was no longer appropriate. A new software system for the TCC was needed to integrate with the County Council s central databases, crossreferencing residents with particular transport needs. The new software system aims to deliver three stages of improvements. a. Stage 1. The system will efficiently plan the TCC s core transport provision function, transporting passengers for whom the TCC is directly responsible: SEN students, mainstream students, etc without easy access to public transport, and increasingly users of day centres. This part of the system will also be able to take bookings, in advance, for ad-hoc trips (e.g. patients to/from hospital, students to/from respite care etc). Page 2 of 6

3 b. Stage 2. The system could be expanded to include partner transport organisations such as Borough and District Dial-a-Ride schemes. The TCC could act as their call centre, or their vehicles could be offered work identified as suitable by the TCC. c. Stage 3. The system could be expanded to include Mobile Data Communication systems, with vehicles undertaking TCC work equipped with IT systems allowing them to: Report progress on their jobs (picking up or dropping off passengers, for instance) on a live basis. Be tracked by the TCC while they are at work. Be identified as available for additional work on a live basis. Receive instructions electronically for additional jobs (who is to be picked up, how to get there, etc). The procurement process allows these stages to be purchased in a modular fashion, noting that Executive approval was given for stage 1 only. Whilst it is fair to say that this is a small market arena, there are nevertheless a diverse range of products on offer, and considerable research was necessary in order to shortlist those products whose specification could meet the output requirements produced by the TCC on behalf of the County Council. An EU restricted tendering process was used due to the low numbers of companies able to supply an appropriate product in the timescales necessary. It was necessary for a contract to be in place for April before the start of a new school year, therefore, this could not be put in place for 2007/08. IMT also identified that it was unsuitable for the software to be held in the Council s network as a result a solution needed to be contracted for. The process to acquire this software was complex due to the high cost value of the comparable systems available, each of which were evaluated by a specially formed project team involving officers from Passenger Transport Group, Procurement, IMT and Legal Services. Service for Families was invited to participate on the Board and received all Board papers. The Executive approved the award of the software contract to Trapeze on 18 December The Implementation of Trapeze is following a Project Plan to ensure that the data migrated is validated, officers are trained and that there is parallel running to ensure service continuity at all times. The existing ETRANS system will be switched off in September It was of the utmost importance that transport would continue business as usual ; as such the project is being implemented as a phased delivery. Page 3 of 6

4 In line with the project plan the first batch of data comprising 8 of the 22 Surrey Special Needs Schools; this involved the transport of 655 pupils on 173 routes was migrated to Trapeze on 14th May Over the summer period the transport for these students has been rescheduled using the new software, the number of routes for the first batch of students following review under Trapeze is 146. The timing of the first review of transport was such that any changes would take effect at a time of year when the whole route network is traditionally reviewed. The timing was crucial in order to minimise any concern from parents. On 23 September 2008 the second batch of data was migrated to Trapeze this comprised the records of all Mainstream home to school transport pupils using contract coaches and bus and rail services, as well as Special Needs students attending a further 14 special needs schools in Surrey, (some 811 pupils). These students existing transport provision will be replicated in the Trapeze system ready for a further review and analysis after half term (November onwards). At the same time that Trapeze was being delivered the Passenger Transport Group working jointly with Procurement has also been taking forward Block Tendering of whole school transport. This was subject to an Executive report on 23 July The review of contracts with Procurement aimed to achieve the following objectives: Improve the consistency of service delivery by using fewer providers per SEN School Allow for increased performance monitoring of these providers Ensure competitive pricing of services by selecting through an electronic tender process and gaining benefits from economies of scale Encourage a closer relationship between the SEN Schools and their providers Where possible, facilitate increased cost certainty and control of route/pupil cost changes As a result of this review, it was agreed that the best way forward to achieve these objectives would be to tender for all home to school transport responsibility to a single provider for each SEN school. Following full consultation with operators and analysis of operator bids and information, PTG and Procurement are proceeding towards the award of 3 schools solo operators. At the time of this report procurement are in the final stages of analysing the cost savings achievable by contracting under a block arrangement to the proposed suppliers. Two schools The Ridgeway in Farnham and Walton Leigh in Walton on Thames are scheduled to award to solo suppliers with effect from October half term The third school Pond Meadow in Guildford would follow in January This school has been delayed to allow for school relocation to a new site. It would be unadvisable to proceed to solo supplier at a time of great upheaval for the school and parents. Page 4 of 6

5 The issues of Block Tendering and introducing route scheduling software are separate. However, the process of Block Tendering has added to the complexity of the software introduction as the latter stages of the block tendering process rely on information provided by the new software. FINANCIAL AND VALUE FOR MONEY IMPLICATIONS An analysis of the financial impact of the review of the first 8 schools is in progress. Procurement is in the final stages of analysing the cost savings achievable by contracting under a block arrangement to the proposed suppliers. EQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS None identified. CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS None identified RECOMMENDATIONS: None. NEXT STEPS: There will be a further migration of all remaining students attending all other Special Needs schools around the Country and Special Needs Units within Mainstream sites in addition to Mainstream Taxis, this will be the final migration of student data, this phase will be delivered by September The public facing enhancements such as vehicle tracking and live bus communications delivered in 2010 and There continues to be a substantive body of work to be done fine tuning the road speeds in Surrey at different times of the day, this information is used by Trapeze to calculate route timings, and will allow more accurate pick up and set down times to be provided to parents and carers. Page 5 of 6

6 Trapeze reschedules transport within parameters set, such as minimising route mileage, minimising cost etc by optimising transport resources (such as escort provision). The initial review of 8 schools has highlighted that there is a dichotomy between reorganising transport in a cost effective way and satisfying existing expectations of parents with regard to issues such as escort provision, pick up times that fit around other siblings and work arrangements and child minding. With knowledge of the issues that have been highlighted by using route scheduling software on the first 8 schools, the TCC are keen to work with colleagues in Children & Families to ensure a consistent approach to the review of further schools as changes made to routes to achieve savings are often unpopular with parents REPORT AUTHOR: Michaela James CONTACT DETAILS: Michaela.james@surreycc.gov.uk Sources/background papers: Transport Coordination Centre Transport Planning Software - SCC Executive on 18 December 2007 (PART II) SEN Transport Contract - SCC Executive on 23 July 2008 (PART II) Page 6 of 6