Haringey’s Travel Buddy service supports children and young people with SEND to travel to their place of learning independently. The service has now been brought in-house and will be run directly by Haringey Council.
This means that all existing Travel Buddies will be transferring to direct employment with Haringey. Bringing services back in-house helps strengthen the council’s own organisational capacity and further develops the skills and knowledge of the workforce.
One of our key drivers is to maintain all existing relationships between children and Travel Buddies as we recognise the importance of these relationships for many of the children who use the service.
Bringing the Travel Buddies service in-house will also ensure they are part of the wider SEND Transport service which works closely with the other teams within the SEND service.
This will help with improving the service as we will be able to manage staff, provide regular training and oversee all safeguarding requirements directly. We’ve recruited a new Independent Travel Manager to oversee and improve our independent travel operations, including travel buddies.
With the new team in place, we are confident that communication between the council, parents, carers and schools will continue to improve as the service grows. There should be minimal impact to current arrangements as the vast majority of Travel Buddies have transitioned to council terms and conditions. We have confirmed the new Travel Buddy arrangements with all the parents and carers involved.