Sutton District Council - Case Study 

Sutton District Council is a borough located in the south of the capital, and forms part of Outer London. It is the 80^th largest local authority in England and according to Census 2021 it has a population of roughly 209,600 people.

The Borough has an excellent record in education and their schools are regularly rated as some of the best in the country with majority being rated either good or outstanding by Ofsted.

What service does Sutton District Council deliver to children, young people and their families?

Sutton District Council arrange assisted transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They currently deliver the service to 700 children and young people through approximately 221 different routes across the borough. The council has a duty of care to all the children that receive the service, with children’s safety being their highest priority.

This was even more essential during the pandemic and post-pandemic when regulations regarding children coming to schools were everchanging. It was their responsibility to inform families of these changes such as a change of vehicle or drivers and prepare efficiently to still deliver the service to the same standard and be complaint to government guidelines.

The challenges Sutton District Council faced:

Similar to all councils, Sutton struggled with the cost of home-to-school-transport rising each year and the long waiting times for transport suppliers and providers to get back to them. These challenges often led to local authorities spending days dealing with and sorting admin.

It was key therefore, for Sutton to find a new framework that could attract new suppliers and drive competition in procurement.

The Outcomes:  

Since working with us, our solution has delivered a variety of benefits for Sutton District Council including:

1) An increase in provider base

One of the first things Sutton District Council experienced when they started working with us is an increase in their provider base. More and more providers were placing bids for the required home-to-school-transport routes. On average they obtain 14.4 bids per route compared to 4.5 previously.

The provider base went from 17 to 32 providers and has allowed Sutton to deliver their service to more children and young people.

This increase in provider base therefore has helped Sutton Council achieve their aim of creating a great place to live and allows children of all needs to thrive in their education without any discrimination.

Access Adam fully supported us with the research, communications, events and the day-to-day hand holding to create an effective supply base.

Liam Roberts, Commissioning Manager, Transport

2) Reduced Costs

Sutton found that by using Access Adam Care Commissioning they were able to adopt a new approach to pricing. The open information on the supplier position in the route bidding process has increased price competition routes and help identify the true cost of provision.

A report presented in 2019 to the People Committee showed that Sutton had reduced their average cost per child from £9.9k to £7.7k. This generated over £683,000 worth of savings.

3) A larger uptake in provider activity

One of the most rewarding benefits Sutton District Council experienced was an increase in the number of providers being able to supply various types of vehicles and support across the area including: taxis, minibuses, and wheelchair accessible vehicles, with or without Passenger Assistant support. This allowed the ability for all children’s needs to be accommodated more consistently regardless of their needs.

The solution was set up across 3 London boroughs and with our help Sutton were able to cover a large area of South West London in a very short time. Sutton were keen to support the local SME  Market and found 79% of all routes tendered were placed with providers based within Sutton.

This has been a great achievement for them and has really helped to reach their main aim of providing children and young people with the best opportunities possible.

Sutton wanted to make sure both the service and its quality were consistent. Working with us and our Access Adam Transport solution enabled a comprehensive process for providers to ensure safety. Providers and their bids had to be inputted onto the solution to be checked against safety and quality standards.

This ensured that even with more provider activity and with the ever-increasing amount of bids for routes, the safety and the high quality of service that every child or young person got delivered remained the same and standards did not slip.

It has been great to see how our Access Adam Transport solution has helped Sutton District Council grow and provide endless opportunities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, whilst still delivering a safe and reliable service.

Sutton District Council have achieved a variety of outcomes since working with us in 2019 and we cannot wait to be see how their journey with us progresses further.

Working with Access Adam Care Commissioning will provide Sutton with even more opportunities to improve the efficiency of their service and we are looking forward to continuing working with them to see how their journey with us develops further.

For more information on how our Access Adam Care Commissioning solutions can help improve both the safety and the quality of your service, discover our solutions today and contact us for more information.