What was your favourite thing about returning to school as a child? Do you remember? For many parents, children, and educational leaders, September and the start of a new school year can be full of confusing emotions, and much of that unease can be caused by even the slightest changes within the environment, surrounding support personnel, or general disruptions to a daily routine. This is especially true for children with special educational needs and their hardworking guardians, who require and deserve additional software and support to manage the stress, excitement and anxiety that can accompany Home to School Transport – this is the reason we created our platform.
Safeguarding and Compliance
Safeguarding has always been a critical concern for parents and schools, as the responsibility for the care of children transfers between the parent/carer and the Council when approved transport is commissioned. Here at 365 Response, safeguarding has always been a crucial priority for us. Safeguarding can mean different things to different people, but at its core, we have designed tools and technology that controls safety and security through every step of the journey. We have worked hard to ensure the system captures driver records, DBS checks and vehicle compliance so everyone can see, in real-time, that standards are met – every time.
Our digital dashboard gives a clear view of compliance across drivers, guides, vehicles and equipment automatically flagging any vehicles or drivers that have compliance issues that need attention. Additionally, when a passenger is in transit, the digital platform ensures that only the approved and relevant travel information is shared with the appropriate people, and only for the duration of the journey, to ensure all passengers are kept safe. Information relating to individual care plans is securely held during the journey with role-based access permissions, giving parents and carers peace of mind that any comfort steps and care plan summaries are known to the staff and can be dealt with in the best possible way.
We want to provide our customers and service users with the peace of mind that high standards are adhered to by all, which is why we help Local Authorities maintain full compliance on SEND, school bus and Adult Social Care transport services with a host of fantastic tools and features. The intelligent software stores all of the required documents relating to the level of training, security checks, and the required certifications for each contract, all within the system. This is accompanied by easy reporting, enabling any concerns to be quickly raised and addressed with real-time updates, and all of this helps provide a full audit trail, should any concerns or complaints be raised by the community.
Integrated Applications for Home to School Transport
The 365 Transport Management System for Home to School Transport features rich functionality for school route optimisation and integrated apps that help support pupil safeguarding and the wider vision for a safer, greener, smarter school run. That’s why we created the 365 Driver App, which works in tandem with the system and other apps to enable the driver to register daily journey checks, and log important timestamps for each stage of the journey, always keeping the parents, carers, schools, and Councils informed on the exact status of the passenger in real-time, every time.
“Excited for the App. When can we get it? It will make it so much easier knowing what time little one is due back, especially when I have my others to collect, and so on.”
– Parent & Carer Forum Attendee
In addition, the unique 365 Parent & Carer App gives access to parents and carers who desire real-time, critical information at their fingertips. The new app presents up-to-date information about the child’s/children’s driver, vehicle, passenger assistant and route information. Access to this level of detail gives the control back to parents and carers and allows them to adequately prepare their SEND child/children for their daily journeys. Advanced access to future transport bookings and personnel changes is crucial to the wellbeing of the young person, as even minor changes can result in distress for those involved.
Meet Jennie, our Subject Matter Expert
Our Subject Matter Expert in Home to School Transport, Jennie Lucas, has years of experience advising Local Authorities on their transport needs (specifically SEND). Jennie advises on the development of our Home to School Transport software, including our innovative Parent Carer App, is a regular contributor to the Department for Education, and works closely with the Department for Transport on policies and processes.
Jennie has worked with some of the largest Councils in Europe and is also a member of the Association of Transport Coordinating Officers (ATCO). With Jennie’s help, we can make significant improvements to your Home to School Transport by offering our consultancy services as well. We’ve used years of in-depth transport experience in Local Authorities, NHS and government sectors to develop our software and have worked to co-design all of our amazing features and system with the real people who use it – day in, day out – making it super simple and effective in getting complicated transport right.
We can also offer full policy and process reviews, presenting actionable recommendations to drive safeguarding, time, and cost improvements to your service. We can deliver software with or without additional services, and have been designed to support you as you grow and change – we know flexibility is key. As a team we specialise in supporting SEN, Adult Social Care & Mainstream School Transport, supporting Education, Social Care and Integrated Transport Teams to work in line with DfE and DfT guidance and policies, whilst also working to understand the way in which your organisation works best.
The Future of Home to School Transport
With a growing demand for UK school transport provision to match the level of innovation and traceability that the private sector has, Local Authorities and schools are now working closely together to rapidly implement digital transport management systems that can meet the needs of all involved in booking and managing the Home to School Transport experience.
We are proud and pleased to be at the front of these exciting changes across the UK and invest heavily in research and development to make sure we are always offering innovative, digital solutions to drive improvements and efficiencies – would you like to know more? Book a demo today or chat with our friendly team at [email protected]
