Acting on social isolation

James Day visits Jim Freeborough at Voluntary Action Rutland, who explains how the smallest county in the country is still a challenging but rewarding environment to operate in

Voluntary Action Rutland (VAR), based at the Rutland Volunteer Centre in the town of Oakham, provides vital transport for the isolated communities in the county’s many villages and hamlets. It is challenging operating territory for any transport provider, and an area where mainstream buses are few and far between.

Jim Freeborough, who has managed the operation over the last seven year, has made use of his background in transport to help grow the organisation. While it remains a small group, with three vehicles actively in service, it is very busy and makes use of a large team of passionate volunteers.

Jim began his career in the military, where he was in the Royal Corps of Transport/Royal Logistics Corps for 25 years.

“I’ve always had a transport and logistics background,” he explained.

“After leaving the army I worked for a few transport firms, including ATS. I felt one of things I was lacking was commercial experience, particularly on the truck side, so I decided to try my hand at it.

“Then the job at VAR came up. I thought I could put some of the knowledge I had gathered over the years into making it a more successful community and social transport provider.

“It was undeniably a successful before I arrived, but [wlm_nonmember][…]

[/wlm_nonmember][wlm_ismember]it is certainly busier now. There is greater demand and the logistics and management skills I have learned over the years have helped with that.”

Fleet and structure

VAR makes use of a trio of vehicles. There are two wheelchair accessible minibuses – a 13-seater and a 16-seater – along with a seven seater MPV with folding chairs in the back to allow for a wheelchairs – the so-called ‘VAR car.’

The 16-seater Peugeot is a brand new vehicle supplied by Minibus Options and the most recent addition to the fleet, replacing a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. It was secured through the first round of the Community Minibus Fund and arrived just before Christmas in 2016.

“It is replacing one of our aging minibuses, which we’ve had for a few years after getting it second-hand,” Jim said. “It has done us proud.

“The new minibus will hopefully raise the profile of VAR, with it being a brand new vehicle.

“Because we were successful in round one, we did ask for another wheelchair accessible car in the second round, but we were told we couldn’t bid for it because of our success in the first round. But not to worry – we can survive with the vehicles we have.”

The minibuses at VAR are available for registered charitable non-profit making organisations in Rutland.

“There are approximately 400 registered individuals and organisations for the community car scheme alone,” Jim stated.

“This ranges from academies and volunteer schools, music clubs and the Health and Leisure club which is run from the volunteer centre where we are based.

“VAR is intended for use by these small groups who have got together and rely on their members for funding. If they would like to go on a day trip, even if it’s shopping, they come to us and we help them out with low cost transport.

“The cost of hiring a coach can be quite expensive, especially in this area with no coach operators to speak of, and is beyond their control.

“We allow them to go out on these day trips and charge mostly to reimburse the cost of the fuel used.”

Provided by volunteers

Aside from Jim, who is VAR’s only paid employee, the scheme is carried out entirely by volunteers. It currently makes use of around 78 volunteers, who are able to commit varying amounts of time.

“I have about 12 dedicated volunteers on the community vehicles who drive on a regular basis,” Jim said.

“About 56 drivers are registered on the social car scheme and work on a regular basis. Some might do two drives every day, some may do one or two a week. Over the last seven years we’ve always had around 50 drivers for this purpose, but it’s the highest it has ever been at the moment.

“For recruiting, the best method we have had is by word of mouth, rather than advertising, or through holding events to raise money for charities within local area. Often a piece will go in the paper when we’re holding a raffle and we’ll have a line letting people know we’re always looking for more volunteer drivers.”

In keeping with the community spirit of the operator, many of its volunteers are family members of people who use the service, having learned about it through the assistance it gives to their loved ones.

“Word does get around,” Jim added. “People using our service will pass it onto a friend, and a member of their family will think it’s something valuable to do in their spare time.”

A busy service

The fleet at VAR is kept busy throughout the year. Each minibus drives between 10 and 12,000 miles annually, with the VAR car contributing a further 8-9,000. These figures represent around 1,200-1,300 journeys by minibus and 500 by car.

“As with most community services across the country, there are ebbs and flows,” Jim said.

“You have busy periods and quiet periods.

“The vehicles are kept quite busy – we carry out around two trips per day per vehicle.”

It is also becoming increasingly important for the fleet to cater for wheelchairs: “What we are finding is that more and more people require wheelchair accessible vehicles in Rutland. I know the council is asking local taxi firms if they can accommodate that when they invest in new cars.

“There are people in the area with their own mobility cars, but not all of them can go down that route. A lot of people live on their own and need a friend to go with them, and some people can’t afford it. We’re available to take them to hospital appointments and so on.

“We may take someone to a group session for the day, or may just take them to see their family who haven’t got the facility to transport them.

“There are more people we’ve seen recently who are getting wheelchair bound. The demand for the service is on the increase.”

While many people rely on the service, Jim stressed that it is not the only option available and just seeks to provide for people who would otherwise be completely isolated.

“We’re not the be all and end all for everyone’s problems – we’re there to help a fill a little gap for the minority who really need our assistance,” he explained.

“Grants are being cut left right and centre and people are having to self-fund to enable them to carry on living a normal life. We provide a lifeline.”

A public transport void

Rutland is the smallest county in the UK, with around 38,000 residents living within a 147 square mile area. It is also the county which consistently has the smallest number of bus journeys per head of population in the Government’s National Bus Statistics – one of the only regions with figures in the single digits.

There are four operators regularly seen in the area – bus services from Centrebus, Delaine and Mark Bland, along with the Welland Callconnect service. Between them they cover the school transport and local bus routes in the area, with Welland Callconnect providing some Dial-a-Ride services. However, none of them have depots in the county, an inevitable barrier to any commercial bus service there as vehicles have to travel further to get on route.

“You would have thought there would be an enterprise for a bus operator based here,” Jim suggested.

“Someone must have looked at it and decided it wouldn’t be cost effective.

“What we tend to find is that our clients tend to be a bit disillusioned with the bus services.

“They get on a service at 0800hrs, go to their destination and have a hospital appointment at 1000hrs. They might be in and out in a hour, but can’t get back until 1600hrs because of the gaps in the service.

“There is an issue within Rutland because it is so geographically spaced out. There are a lot of hamlets and small villages.

“The business that we run, for frail, elderly, disabled and vulnerable adults, we try to fill that gap for those who can’t use the public transport.

“We can’t always do it – sometimes no drivers are available or the service is booked – but we help out where we can.”

Geographically, Rutland is a challenging area to serve with public transport. In the centre is the large Rutland Water reservoir and aside from three main roadways, most of the county is served by minor B roads. Many bus routes have struggled to survive.

“Due to cutbacks, some bus routes have been shortened, so providing a transport link to these isolated areas has become a priority for VAR,” Jim said.

“Rutland County Council did put on a bus which just travelled around Rutland Water, but the funding was cut. Uppingham also had a local hopper which they funded themselves, which went on for nearly 12 months but again had to stop due to lack of funding.

“A problem they have in Uppingham is that the doctors surgery has moved from the centre of town to the very edge. Only one bus per day goes down that particular route now.

“Some people don’t have a problem getting to it, because it is downhill, but it is very hard for them to get back.

“It has created a little bit of a problem, but people rely on us together with a neighbourhood car scheme in the town which also helps out, along with the taxi service.

“A lot of the challenge is not the funding as such, but the shape of the county and how small some of the settlements are. Some hamlets in Rutland have between five and 10 people living in them, with the next village along having 50 or 60.

“It’s an old farming community and can be quite a challenge for anyone providing transport. You’ll never please everybody.”

One of the key challenges is the Catch 22 of area coverage vs speed. Jim highlighted that one of the routes between Oakham and Stamford can take over an hour to travel the 14 mile distance, but to shorten that time would mean missing out many settlements on the way.

“A lot of buses don’t go direct and need to stop and pick up and a number of villages on the way, but to cover every single village would not be cost effective for anyone,” he added.

“I often have conversations with the transport department at Rutland County Council and they’ll explain because of how spread out it is it is difficult to keep everybody happy. They do the best they possibly can and you’ve got to provide public transport of some description.

“The council have had consultants in to have a look at this particularly issue. We had a look at it ourselves with the view to providing some bus services to fill those gaps, but we found it wouldn’t be cost effective.”

Good working relationships

Jim praised the volunteers working for VAR: “When you’re managing unpaid volunteers you need to handle them in a certain way. If you’re fair with them, they’ll be fair to you, and they are. I take my hat off to them. They want to give something back and they love doing it.

“It makes my job easier because if they’re happy, there’s no problems. They are a good bunch of people.”

The organisation also has close ties with the county council, and regularly helps to provide socially necessary transport which it struggles to cover by itself.

“We have a good working relationship with Rutland County Council, which has been outstanding for a number of years,” Jim continued.

“They might have need to transport children who are in isolated areas and excluded from transport provision. They then approach us to see if we can help them out.

“We also take some disabled children to college from various locations throughout the county.

“For social and welfare transport the council often approach us as well.

“It’s good to have a working relationship with the council because we can help each other out. It eases a problem for the council of dealing with a population so spread out. If they can’t provide for any particular reason, they will come to us and we’ll see if it’s feasible.

“We often get requests from Leicestershire County Council too. We don’t have too many dealings with them because they are an entity in themselves with their own volunteer services, but if they have someone on the social services network who lives in Rutland but is registered with Leicester, they approach us to help them out.

“From our point of view they are a Rutland resident. Although they may have to go to Leicester for their daycare or group sessions, we want to help.”

CTA membership

Jim had some positive comments to make on the Community Transport Association.

He said: “They’re very good. If you ever have any questions, they always come back with a positive response. I attend their general meetings when I can.

“We’ve also signed up to the community contact webpage, where people can log on and find their local community transport scheme.

“Bill Freeman the CEO is a very clever man. He’s got that fire in him and wants to do well.”

Future expansion

VAR is very cautious about the rate it expands. A common problem facing not-for-profit transport firms is expanding too fast and not being able to run efficiently anymore. This is something Jim being sure to avoid, though the organisation will acquire more vehicles when it needs to.

“If the local groups increase in membership and demand does increase, we would have to re-evaluate and see if we need another wheelchair accessible car,” he said.

“At the moment I am having to turn business away or reschedule to a different slot because we’re so busy. A lot of people are good about changing times and we try to adjust where we can.

“With expansion comes a cost. The minibus we got from the Government on this occasion is of great benefit and allows us to use funds we already have on the back burner, so we have a pot if we need it.

“If one of our minibuses goes off the road, we have to find the money to get it back into service. We’ve been lucky so far and the vehicles are looked after very well.

“We’ll expand if the need arises. It’s a big problem if we overexpand too soon and the vehicles are not getting used.

“When I first arrived here, we had three minibuses and over a six month period one of the minibuses never turned a wheel. It wasn’t feasible and we had to let it go.

“We’re always looking at whether we need to expand, but it’s a case of where needs must.”[/wlm_ismember]