Mobile provision: Children’s services on the road

All over the country double decker buses and coaches are getting a second lease of life as organisations working with children and young people convert them to deliver support where and when it is needed. There are youth buses fitted with gaming equipment, therapy buses containing art studios, as well as vehicles delivering education and careers advice, sexual health services, mental health support, early education and play, and crime prevention. If there is a service for children and young people there is probably a bus delivering it.

Mobile provision is sometimes thought of as a way to extend services to rural areas that lack facilities but it can also mean targeting people who are less likely to visit a family centre, health hub or other official building. Essex’s SOS buses provide medical support and a safe haven on Friday and Saturday nights in the town centre, aiming to defuse trouble and reduce ambulance calls and A&E admissions. When the service was shut down over lockdown the organisation lent its buses to the NHS.

The last few years have proved difficult for mobile services and in some areas there is a move away from this method of provision. Factors include the soaring cost of fuel, local authority funding cuts and a pandemic-driven adoption of virtual service delivery. “Local authorities have been moving away from commissioning mobile services and this trend has accelerated due to the impact of Covid,” says Emma Bowman, director for Barnardo’s South East region. “The running cost and logistical challenges of using vehicles to provide mobile services has greatly increased in recent years and the reality is there are now better and more cost-effective ways for communities to receive targeted family support.”

Surrey County Council is consulting on moves to axe its bus-based Mobile Family Centre, delivered by Barnardo’s, which has running costs of £69,000 a year. The council says the number of visits the centre has made has plummeted from 13 a month in April 2018 to two in July 2019 and that it has not been used at all since the pandemic. It argues a rise in virtual delivery of some services together with a move towards delivering more intensive interventions in families’ own homes has rendered the mobile centre less effective.

Another disadvantage when it comes to mobile delivery can be accessibility for children and young people with a disability, especially with double-decker buses. Bringing activities and resources outside with gazebos and awnings can help to make some services more accessible.

Other organisations, however, are returning to mobile services. When it first launched, Essex charity Bar ‘n’ Bus delivered services from double-decker buses converted to mobile youth centres but moved away from this model in 2016 towards a multi-faceted approach, delivering street-based detached youth work, working directly with schools and using “pop up” sports facilities in parks. It intends to use a £167,788 Youth Investment Fund grant to move back to mobile provision with the purchase of a new, single-decker vehicle.

“We always felt the buses were a great resource and provided an excellent space for young people, and we have continued to talk about ways in which we could reintroduce use of mobile units as part of our delivery,” says Bar ‘n’ Bus chief executive Jamie Sawtell. “In many areas we work in there is a lack of suitable community buildings to use, or nothing in quite the right location, but the new vehicle could provide this. For example, if we were looking to run a music production programme with a particular group, the vehicle would be deployed in the right location for the group with equipment set up inside as needed.”

SIX TOP TIPS FOR SETTING UP MOBILE SERVICES

1. Visit other mobile services. When planning a new mobile service, it’s a good idea to visit others and check out their vehicles and delivery models.

2. Involve children and young people. Involving young people in the design and contents of the bus is crucial to ensuring they use it. Together for Children asked children and young people in Sunderland to come up with the name for its youth bus Wear Here 4 You – a pun on the name of the river that runs through the city.

3. Work in partnership. Partnership working can spread the costs – could other agencies be involved in the project? Another way to save money is to have drivers play a dual role. For example, Sandwell Youth Bus is currently recruiting a youth worker/driver.

4. Get permission. When planning locations, make sure you have permission from the landowner or relevant authority to park and deliver your service. Try to be flexible – if a larger vehicle is not appropriate, make alternative suggestions. Hackney Playbus has a cargo bike which can be used for smaller pop-up sessions while At The Bus can deliver sessions from wheeled boxes.

5. Think about safety. It is vital to consider the safety of staff if you are providing a service in the evening or in areas of high crime. The Wear Here 4 You bus works with police officers to ensure staff safety, although officers keep a low profile to avoid putting off young people.

6. Research logistics. Will it be more cost effective to buy a (probably second hand) vehicle, employ your own driver and pay for fuel and maintenance or to hire a vehicle and driver for a period of time? Voluntary organisations could try to do a deal with local transport depots or garages for free or reduced cost maintenance, suggests Sandwell Youth Bus’s Russell Allen.

EARLY YEARS HACKNEY PLAYBUS, LONDON

Hackney Playbus has been delivering play opportunities and support to disadvantaged families for 50 years. Over lockdown it replaced its previous bus with a recently decommissioned double-decker and it is now ready to head back out on the streets, delivering five or six sessions a week.

The Playbus aims to provide play and learning opportunities to under-fives, many of whom are living in small flats or hostels, connect families to support services, improve parenting confidence, and build community cohesion. There are plans to visit some new locations including three homelessness hostels. “For us the purpose of having a mobile provision is to go where the need is,” says director Claire Kelly.

During a session staff set out gazebos, mats and play equipment such as trampolines and water play outside the bus. Upstairs is a carpeted area with more toys including a play kitchen and dressing up clothes. If children and parents can’t access the upper deck, the team can bring resources down. “Staff are sensitive and attentive to the needs of children, parents and carers,” says Kelly. “We have a lot of sensory play resources and quiet areas both inside and out that work well for children with special needs.”

There are usually three staff and a few volunteers at each session. There is information available on local activities and support while professionals from other agencies, such as speech and language therapists and dieticians, sometimes join the team. Parents build friendships with each other and the Playbus team, who can pick up issues and signpost to further support. “By making it a nice experience we try to encourage families to come regularly,” says Kelly.

The Playbus service costs £200,000 a year to run, with around 80 per cent going on salaries. Most funding – around 80 per cent – comes from grants, with 10 per cent from paid-for bookings and 10 per cent from donations.

In a survey of 110 participants, the charity found 100 per cent of parents felt their children have more opportunities to play and learn because of the Playbus, 98 per cent said they had learned new parenting skills and 87 per cent said they had gained new ideas about ways to play with their children at home.

EARLY HELP WEAR HERE 4 YOU, SUNDERLAND

Together for Children, set up to deliver children’s services on behalf of Sunderland City Council, has come together with a range of partners to deliver mobile prevention service Wear Here 4 You. Other partners include 0 to 19 health service Growing Healthy, Northumbria Police, Public Health, Sunderland City Council, Sunderland Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and All Together Youth Consortium.

One of the challenges in delivering the year-long pilot project has been to ensure everyone understands its aims and objectives, says Jane Wheeler, early help service manager at the council. “The bus is not there to deliver youth work, it is there as a prevention bus,” she says firmly.

The coach was first hired last summer to deliver the Department for Education’s funded holiday activities and food programme to parts of the city with no provision. It became apparent parents, carers and young people needed more information and support on a range of issues so Together for Children decided to pilot a one-stop-shop mobile prevention service.

Together for Children hires the bus and driver from a travel company and it visits communities where support is most needed, often in the evening or at weekends. Services include one-to-one targeted interventions and themed sessions to raise awareness of issues such as online safety. “We have on average 50 to 60 young people each evening coming for advice and guidance on issues ranging from sexual health and emotional health and resilience to qualifications and training,” says Wheeler. “That preventative work aims to stop them hitting the threshold where they need other interventions. Going to people always gets a better response than expecting them to come to you.”

In the first 17 weeks of the programme more than 2,300 children, young people and their families engaged with the bus. Some 473 young people overall visited the bus across 10 four-hour evening sessions last November.

Positive outcomes have included a young person receiving treatment for an STI after taking a testing kit from the bus. Two young people disclosed they were being bullied in school and Together for Children’s anti-bullying lead is now working with the school.

At present, those staffing the bus do so on top of their regular hours but Wheeler hopes to be able to recruit a dedicated team to help build consistent relationships. Schools have begun to request sessions and can ask for specific services or interventions. “Partners are asking us to extend the programme but it is a question of funding,” she says.

YOUTH WORK SANDWELL YOUTH BUS, WEST MIDLANDS

Stepping inside Sandwell Youth Bus is like entering teenage heaven – not surprising, as young people were heavily involved with the design and contents. “They said: ‘The better it is, the more young people will look after it,’ and that has proved to be the case,” says Russell Allen, senior youth officer at Sandwell Council.

There are six laptops with 4G internet access, which young people use for social networking, games and to catch up with homework. A full DJ workstation allows young people to develop music mixing and production skills and a dedicated games room includes rocker gaming seats, a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Free Wifi is a major draw and there is a space for workshops, group discussions and one-to-one work.

Funded by Sandwell Council, the second-hand double-decker bus was bought and converted around a decade ago to support detached youth teams. It visits areas where there is no building-based provision or there is a need for the detached service because of antisocial behaviour or other issues. “The main benefit of mobile provision is you can go absolutely anywhere so long as you can find a place to park,” says Allen.

The bus acts as a magnet for young people, says Allen. “It can pull up on an estate and five minutes later you can have 30 young people,” he says. “The bus is a tool we use to get young people to our youth workers, who can then identify the requirements and issues of that particular group.”

There are three detached youth workers on the bus plus the driver, who is also a youth worker. The initial outlay was the main cost, especially the conversion, which cost more than the bus itself. Ongoing costs are around maintenance, fuel and salaries. However, the bus, which is on the road almost every day, is more cost-effective than running a full-time youth centre, says Allen.

The main challenge when it comes to delivering mobile provision is logistics. “Our bus did well for seven or eight years but then we started to find mechanical problems and it is tricky to find parts for a 25-year-old vehicle,” says Allen. As the bus is owned by the local authority, maintenance is carried out by the in-house transport team which looks after all the council’s vehicles.

Accessibility is also a challenge – a fold out ramp allows wheelchair access but there is no practical way for wheelchair users to access the top deck. “We are able to transfer any of the activities that are based upstairs, like games consoles, downstairs,” says Allen. Sandwell also owns a single decker bus, which is used to deliver education and life skills and has a wheelchair lift.

The Youth Media Bus offers workshops in social media, film making, staying healthy and safe, and drugs awareness, as well as careers advice, support with job applications and open-access fun activities.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING AT THE BUS, OXFORDSHIRE AND LONDON

AT The Bus brings art therapy to schools to support the education, health and wellbeing of children and young people aged seven to 18. Students come on to the bus in groups of six to eight with each group led by at least two facilitators with a background in teaching, art or psychology. Sessions aim to use art to support young people with complex needs to raise their self-esteem and build their self-confidence, resilience and independence.

Schools refer young people to the project for a range of reasons including anxiety, depression, bereavement, trauma and loss. During the one-and-a-half hour sessions young people are given the opportunity to create works of art out of everyday objects like clocks, vinyl records, trays or chairs.

The session begins in a sofa area on the top deck, with students given opportunities to participate in discussion and gain inspiration from a range of books, images and objects. They are offered food and drink on the lower part of the bus, eating together around a table, then move to the art studio upstairs. While students work, the facilitators offer non-judgmental guidance and support. At the end of the session, students are encouraged to comment on each others’ work to build a sense of achievement and progress.

“We decided we needed to go to the children and deliver in their ‘home environment’ where they feel at ease and comfortable,” says Juli Beattie, founder of AT The Bus, who came up with the therapeutic approach behind the programme known as The Beattie Method. “The bus is attractive and fun – but it is the methodology which is the most powerful aspect, not the bus itself.”

The service is bought in by schools. AT The Bus can also work in a space provided by the school instead of from the bus, running pop-up sessions using easily transportable wheeled boxes filled with resources.