Independent travel training

Travel training helps support young people with different disability needs to travel to school independently.

This support is in place until everybody involved feels confident that the young person can travel on their own.

The training is flexible and tailored to their current skills, needs, knowledge and confidence.

They will learn skills such as:

• road safety
• stranger awareness
• social and communication skills
• time management

There are 7 steps to independent travel training.

1. Referral

A referral is when somebody puts themselves forward or their parent or carer recommends them for travel training.

The form can be filled out by yourself or your parent, carer or school.

2. Assessment

Once the young person has applied or been recommended for training, they will be assessed.

This assessment will help the trainer understand which skills the young person needs help with.

3. Classroom

The young personwill spend time in the classroom learning the skills needed to travel on their own.

This includes safety, problem solving, time management and communications skills.

4. Group travel

The young person will then have the opportunity to travel out and about as part of a small group.

This will improve their skills in real life situations such as using public transport and reading timetables.

5. Accompanied travel

The trainer will then work with the young person to find a route between their home and school.

Every step of the plan will be explained, and the trainer will assess the young person's understanding of it.

6. Repeating and shadowing

The young person will then travel with the trainer following a short distance behind them.

This step will be repeated as it will help the young person build confidence.

7. Independent travel

The young person will then have the skills to travel on their own.

This will only happen once everybody is comfortable with the young person's skills.

It will happen slowly to avoid any stress and make sure the young person is ready.

You can apply for independent travel training online:

Apply for independent travel training

If you have any issues accessing the online form, please contact us by email: travel.training@southtyneside.gov.uk

Working Tax Credit

If you get the maximum level of Working Tax Credit, you need to provide proof of this to support your application.

You can email your proof to travel.training@southtyneside.gov.uk

Or post it to:

Transport team, South Shields Town Hall, Westoe Road, South Shields, NE33 2RL.

If you have applied online, we will email you to tell you we have received your application.

We will review your application and will contact you if we have any questions and to discuss what happens next.

This can take up to 10 working days to process.

Applying for the 2024 / 25 academic year

If you are applying for transport support for the 2024 / 25 academic year, you will be notified of the outcome by e-mail in August.

The deadline for the 2024 / 25 academic year was 5 May. If you apply after this date, we cannot guarantee the support will be in place for the start of the year.