James Day meets Dai Powell OBE, Chief Executive of HCT Group, for an update on the social enterprise’s exciting recent history
It has been three years since CBW last paid a visit to Hackney Community Transport (HCT) Group. In that time, the social enterprise has been moving at quite a pace. The organisation now has an annual turnover approaching £70m, approximately 1,400 employees and over 600 vehicles in its national fleet.
With the recent announcements of other organisations coming under its wing, along with further movement into the commercial market, I felt it was a good time to meet up with HCT Group’s Chief Executive, Dai Powell OBE, to learn more.
Derbyshire Community Transport
One of the most recent developments at HCT Group is its merger with what is now called Derbyshire Community Transport (DCT).
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The organisation joined HCT Group in April 2018, under the name Community Transport for Town & Country (CT4TC). This brand was formally changed to Derbyshire Community Transport (DCT) on May 4, 2018 to better fit the wider group. This was a suggestion made by service users, stakeholders and staff, who each felt the new name would better reflect the organisation’s location and work than ‘a jumble of letters and numbers.’
“It’s a very nice operation with great people,” Dai said. “They want to expand into more demand responsive transport, so they are very keen.
“They approached us and asked if we could help them. I think in the medium term they could not expand the way they wanted to.”
The launch of the new brand attracted considerable attention, with Sir Patrick McLoughlin MP (Conservative, Derbyshire Dales) and Nigel Mills MP (Conservative, Amber Valley) in attendance, along with a number of Derbyshire County Councillors. DCT will also be gradually rolling out a new livery across its fleet.
DCT covers Amber Valley, north east Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bolsover and north Nottinghamshire. It is the largest community transport organisation in Derbyshire and has been operating for over 30 years.
I was able to speak with Mike Usherwood, Chair of DCT, about the new developments. He explained: “We sought to merge with HCT Group for three main reasons. The first was financial – the effect of years of austerity has been well recorded and we have been looking to become a social enterprise in response.
“We also felt we needed to future-proof our organisation as a response to the current DfT dialogue and consultation surrounding Section 19 and 22 permits.
“Lastly, we felt it would be a great opportunity to launch a new range of services to complement our existing bus services and support the council’s remit for social care.”
Metrobus
After it was approached by First West of England, Bristol Community Transport (BCT), part of HCT Group, was announced as the operator of the M1 services on Bristol’s Metrobus rapid transit system. It was also announced that BCT would be acquiring a fleet of Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL) Enviro400City-bodied Scania gas buses to run the service, which will mark the first time HCT has operated such vehicles. They will be based at BCT’s Badminster depot, where they are expected to create 60 driver and support jobs. The fuel will be supplied by Gas Bus Alliance.
“You have to have a fair size operation to run a gas fleet, and it’s not something Transport for London (TfL) is particularly interested in for the capital,” Dai explained. “We wanted to run the most environmentally friendly vehicles we could within the cost envelope. The gas buses seemed to be pretty good.
“First approached us because they were short of space and wanted a subcontractor which fit the bill. It’s good for them and good for Bristol.
“We’ve ordered 21 vehicles and are awaiting their arrival. We expect the infrastructure to start being put in either later this month or next month.”
Manchester
Manchester Community Transport (MCT) joined HCT Group in October 2017. Similarly to DCT, the £4-5m turnover organisation approached HCT Group itself in order to help facilitate its growth plans.
“It’s a new area for us to work in,” Dai said. “It’s an attractive area and MCT has a lot of plans for Manchester. We’re keen to be there.”
MCT has been operating since 1980, and provides community transport services throughout Manchester alongside some contract bus services on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). At the time of the merger with HCT Group, it had 109 employees and 67 vehicles.
Dai said that MCT and DCT are not the only organisations to approach HCT Group: “We get approached quite often – usually three or four times per year. Sometimes we’re approached out of financial necessity, and more often than not we can’t do anything, but there are others who approach us because they have a vision themselves but do not have the resources, backup or infrastructure to deliver it.
“We’re approached by some private companies too. I think that’s partly a life cycle issue. There might be a family firm started in the 1980s where the next generation is not interested in the business.”
A CT support programme
Later this year, HCT Group will also be launching a new support programme for community transport operators. Currently in development, the programme will design support packages for smaller community transport organisations which are independent of HCT Group.
“The programme will provide vehicle, back office and business development support, with the potential for some grant and loan funding. It aims to increase the impact of independent community transport organisations and their ability to deliver – at the same time as growing the social impact of HCT Group without increasing its size.” Dai explained. “We’ll be announcing more details about the programme soon.”
Ex-offenders
“There is a driver shortage which is not going to get any easier over the next few years, so there is a commercial reason that we do it as well as a social reason.
“We have been recruiting ex-offenders and training them up to be bus drivers. They’re good drivers – we have found that they want to make a go at it.
“We work with a partner agency which works in prisons, and it’s about giving people who want to make something of their lives another chance.
“The results we’ve had have shown they are certainly no worse than any other driver, and in quite a few cases they are very reliable and keen. For most ex-offenders, their first job will likely be entry level minimum wage stuff. If you can train them to do something above that with a level of professionalism and responsibility, they thrive from it.
“We’ve only been doing that in London so far, but this year we’re hoping to roll it out in Manchester as well.”
Travel Training
Along with the ex-offender programme, HCT Group has also started providing ‘travel training.’ The aim of this is to teach people with disabilities to travel independently, so they are less reliant on Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport and taxis.
“We started this about nine months ago,” said Dai. “We’re working in three boroughs at the moment – one in London, one in Norfolk and another in Surrey. We have teams of trainers assessing and training kids and enabling them to use public transport, which increases the life chances of the child hugely.
“It means they are no longer on the ‘special bus.’ They have the chance to go to college, university and into employment independently.
“Our competition is not big bus companies. It is isolation and loneliness. That’s what we’re all competing against.”
The travel training scheme has drawn the attention of mainstream media, with an article appearing in The Guardian in early April this year. In the article, Dai estimated that a quarter of the children and young people transported by HCT Group would not need escorting if they were taught the skills and given the confidence to use public transport.
Jersey & Guernsey
HCT Group’s operations in Jersey and Guernsey have been a great success so far. In Guernsey, bus ridership is at its highest level for 20 years, and in Jersey, ridership is up by around 42% since the organisation entered the islands’ market five years ago.
“What we have been able to deliver there gives other local authorities and private operators the confidence that you can deliver under a contract,” Dai said.
“We believe that being community-focussed as a CT should lead naturally into being customer-focussed as a mainstream bus operator. This has proved to be the case in Jersey, where our LibertyBus operation won top prize at the island’s Customer Service Awards last year and has been instrumental in our latest venture – we have been awarded the contract to run Jersey’s Visitor Information Centre.”
Section 19 & 22
Although the consultation and legislative changes surrounding Section 19 and 22 permits is unlikely to affect HCT Group, Dai still feels compelled to campaign for the preservation of the community transport sector.
“It is going to be very hard for a lot of community transport operators,” Dai said. “What a lot of people are not looking at is how to enable disabled people to get out and about – what is the alternative?
“It’s fine focussing on whether community transport is making a profit out of these services, but the question that needs to be asked is if we don’t have community transport, what as a society do we do?
“As it stands, there is going to be an awful lot of people who can’t get out. I don’t think the people concerned ever thought that through. It’s alright to say we can’t do something, but look at the impact that creates. What we need to find is a way to support elderly and disabled people and isolated communities to interact and do the things we all take for granted. That has to be the starting point, and then we can think about how we deliver it.”
Dai touched on a project HCT Group has worked on in London together with a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), called Social Prescribing. The project took people out on trips on a Sunday purely to reduce the numbers going to a GP’s waiting room.
“The CCG worked out that 40% of people in the doctors’ waiting room had no clinical reason to be there,” he explained. “They were just there because they were lonely and hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone over the whole weekend. We were commissioned to take them out to help prevent this.
“If you multiply that level of loneliness across the country and ask how we are going to stop that happening, one thing we cannot do is decimate community transport. If you do, the problem is going to get worse. It’s irrelevant if the services are commercial or not – it’s about improving people’s lives. If you can get the reasonable people around the table, they will see that.”
Pro franchising
During meetings with the Transport Select Committee ahead of the Bus Services Act, Dai confirmed that HCT Group is pro-franchising.
“What we want is the system that works best for the public, and franchising is a system which I believe is geared to achieve this,” he said.
“If you look at the big players, they all operate quite happily in franchised markets, whether it is in London or abroad.”
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