Job title: Independent Travel Training Buddy
Salary: B3 £26,403 - £28,142 pro rata
Hours: 18.5 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Location: Across Leeds
Closing date: two weeks after advert is released
As a Travel Buddy, you will thrive on supporting young people with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) to develop their travel independence and skills, including confidence building, road and personal safety, and using public transport, which in turn helps improve their education and employment prospects.
The role is not about accompanying or chaperoning young people to or from school or college, but about teaching them how to become independent on their journey.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
As a travel buddy you will bring to the role:
- A passion for supporting young people to achieve
- An enthusiasm to share knowledge and skills
- Good communication skills to connect with young people, parents and carers
- A commitment to safeguarding young people
- Accurate and clear recording of information, data, and progress
- A problem‑solving, can‑do attitude with flexibility across a working week
About the role
As a Travel Buddy, you will be central to our vision of empowering young people with SEND across Leeds, supporting them on their journey to improving their confidence, skills, and life prospects, including employment and education.
The main duty of the successful candidate will be training young people through four stages of Independent Travel Training.
Stage 1 focuses on passing on key information such as road safety, being safe on the bus and in public, and how to deal with unforeseen challenges.
Stage 2 involves encouraging the young person to take the lead and put into practice what they learned in Stage 1, with minimal input, to help build their confidence.
By Stage 3, the Travel Buddy will stand back from a further distance, allowing the student to make their own journey as independently as possible.
Stage 4 is where the Travel Buddy judges the trainee’s competence and “shadows” the trainee to ensure the young person is demonstrating confidence and good decision‑making based on previously taught skills.
Throughout all stages, the Travel Buddy will monitor, measure, and document progress using the existing set of paperwork.
The successful candidate will carry out a joint home visit with their coordinator to meet their future student, establish contact, and agree a start date after completing a “dry run” — a real‑time evaluation of the length and duration of the agreed journey.
You are also expected to work collaboratively within the wider team.
This role is integral to the Children’s Transport Team within the Children and Families Directorate at Leeds City Council.
Take a look at what our amazing team do by watching our video here Independent Travel Training in Leeds - YouTube
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
- a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please complete the online application form.
Read our guidance for further advice on completing your application.
If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the roles please contact Lewis Footitt Registration Team Manager by email Olivier.nkunzimana@leeds.gov.uk
Candidates should be available for interview Monday-Friday in April and May
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Job Purpose: To work directly with young people who have special educational needs and disabilities who are participating in Independent Travel Training (ITT). As a Travel Buddy you’ll follow a personalised learning plan to teach them the skills to travel to school or college independently on public transport. This will improve their outcomes and reduce their reliance on the council and others to transport them to school, college or to make other journeys.
With safety at the front of your mind, you’ll give learners increasing independence by gradually reducing the supervision they receive while travelling in a planned way. You’ll then feedback on each child’s progress to the ITT Co-ordinator, parents and school as appropriate. You’ll be an advocate of ITT, promoting participation in the scheme and gaining the confidence of young people, carers and professionals in the field to ensure that young people with SEND have the best possible opportunity to achieve travel independence.
Working closely with an ITT Co-ordinator, you’ll advise when each learner is nearing completion of their programme and close to being successfully signed off as an independent traveller. You’ll assist the ITT Co-ordinator in prioritising which young people will enter the scheme and support continuous monitoring, recording and evaluation of the scheme. You’ll be flexible around the needs of learners, frequently working at the time children need to travel to and return from school and working on a pattern of annualised hours according to the seasonal needs of the service and the needs of young people.
Responsibilities:
- Establish and deliver Independent Travel Training programmes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and disabilities (SEND).
- Teach young people the skills they will need to travel independently
- Observe and monitor young people’s independent travel and prepare written reports of their progress.
- Liaise with and provide professional advice to, parents/carers; and other professionals involved with the child.
- To liaise with carers, school teachers and others as appropriate, and prepare reports that will support young peoples’ transition to independent travel.
- Ensure the safeguarding and protection of young people and assist management in doing so as appropriate.
- Work with high levels of accuracy for tasks such as checking documents and recording information.
- Advise, instruct, check work and assist in the induction/training/mentoring of staff
- Use own initiative and judgement where appropriate, promoting positive outcomes and solutions for children and young people.
- Work on your own, manage your own workload and use your initiative to adhere to time scales and deadlines.
- Analyse and collate data and use it to support the production of travel plans, risk assessments and reports.
- Understanding of, financial, audit, confidential and operational requirements of Children & Families services, and the impact on its day-to-day work.
- Work flexibly and working across the city, depending on service demand.
- Support and motivate young people by showing awareness of their individual interests and preferences, by introducing them to a range of different experiences through independent travel
- Communicate effectively and professionally verbally, non-verbally and in written form, including the use of IT.
- Work directly with young people in accordance with ITT plans and education health & care plans.
- Engage and motivate young people for independent travel when they are transferring to other settings.
- Work with ITT Co-ordinators in contributing to reviewing and amending travel training plans, risk assessments and maintenance of files and other administrative tasks.
- Maintain a record of each ITT candidate’s daily progress.
- Work co-operatively with colleagues to ensure an efficient and effective service.
- Liaise and participate with other professional groups involved with young people.
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade
- Participate in appraisal, training and development activities as necessary to ensure up to date knowledge and skills
- Improve own practice through observation, evaluation, discussion with colleagues and development programmes.
- To work collaboratively with colleagues, knowing when to seek help and advice.
- Contribute to the overall ethos, work, and aims of the service by attending relevant meetings, training days/events as requested.
- Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures e.g. child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding and promoting the values, standards and equal opportunities of Leeds City Council.
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment or victimisation and any form of abuse of equal opportunities, ensuring compliance with relevant policies and procedures.
- The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and this role will be expected to work within these parameters.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Qualifications: It is an essential requirement that the post holder holds a Level 3 qualification relevant to work with children and young people or adults in the learning or social care field or if you do not hold this qualification you must be able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and experience.
PERSONAL SPECIFICATION ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements
Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview, and Certificate
Skills Required
- Able to effectively lead children and young people who have SEND through ITT learning programmes
- Able to support the development of children and young people who have SEND
- Able to safeguard children and support them to develop their resilience
- Able to work in partnership with school staff, parents and carers to support children’s learning, development and wellbeing
- A flexible approach to working hours with the ability to change working patterns at short notice as required.
- Able to use ICT packages, including Word and Excel
- Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills with a wide range of people including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills.
- Able to complete risk assessments and implement extra risk control measures under your own initiative as appropriate
- Ability to adapt to changes in working routines with resilience and professionalism, maintaining emotional wellbeing and managing stress effectively.
Knowledge Required
- Of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by Children & Families services, or similar, and being able to accurately record and retrieve information
- Knowledge and understanding of practice in Safeguarding children and Local Safeguarding Board procedures
Experience Required
- Of professional employment in work with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults who have SEN and/or disabilities and their families in a learning or care context
- Of working in partnership with other agencies, parents and carers.
- Of working on your own and using your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines
Behavioural & other Characteristics required
- Committed to continuous improvement.
- Ability to understand and observe Leeds City Council Equal Opportunities Policy.
- To carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health & Safety Policies.
- Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development
- Understand and embrace our values, behaviours and codes of conduct.
