People with disabilities could be among those encouraged to walk or get the bus to attend health and social care services under a new West Dunbartonshire policy.
The policy is to save £20,000 and promote independent living" and will apply to all adults and children, including unpaid carers, requiring access to health and social care services.
Transport provision, which is expected to cost more than £1 million by the end of the year, is provided to people with learning disabilities and the elderly who require access to day care support. It also benefits children and their families using respite services.
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As it stands there are more than 200 people benefiting from internal and external transport. The new Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) policy will launch next month.
The issue was raised at the most recent committee meeting.
An officer said: “Fundamental to our vision as a HSCP is ensuring our vision can prioritise independence, choice and control.
“This transport plan is fundamental to the delivery of all those things. The HSCP spends around £1 million on transport every year on a mix of internal and external transport.
“If you want to go on a service we provide you have to go on a bus we provide at a time we dictate and there is nothing empowering about that and it certainly doesn’t meet our vision.”
Within the new policy, five objectives have been set out.
They include equality - providing transport where it is not possible for the person to use public transport. It also looks at health – encouraging people to be physically active as much as possible and - affordability -examining whether a person can afford to pay for their own transport.
The policy also looks to promote independence - allowing the person to be as independent as possible and examines eligibility - where assistance with travel or transport should only be considered after all the other options have been explored.
The HSCP officer added: “We have no policy at the moment so the provision of transport is inconsistent and that raises an issue of equality. It would be wrong not to highlight that there is a budget efficiency associated with this paper.
“We are proposing a 10 per cent saving but we think we can achieve that through purposeful and proactive work with our service users in order to provide them with greater opportunities.”
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