CT24 Conference Workshop Reflections: Building Community Solutions - We Are Life Givers Not Life Savers

In the second of a series of post CT24: The Voice of the Passenger Conference reflections, Development Officer for Wales, Emma Bingham shares feedback and insights from the Building Community Solutions workshop. 

The session on building community solutions held at CT24 was one where we looked at what CT operators do to ensure that all in the communities they serve are heard. If we believe in the title quote above, that the sector is a life giver then it is vital to begin to understand and ask the questions of who and what our community is. It was seen that empowering communities is important to everyone feeling part of the solutions. 

We heard from speakers, Roxane Dacey, Tom Barbour, Rachel Gjmanger and Dr Batul Dungarwalla about how they, from organisations across the UK work with their communities to find out how they can shape services. 

All worked in different ways but the reoccurring theme from all the talks was that one approach does not always fit. The discussions that followed opened this out to the delegates to think about.

The workshops allowed us to discuss how, why and what community engagement is. It became clear community engagement is important to ensure that services meet the needs of all rather than those who ask the loudest. However doing this can be challenging.

The groups of attendees discussed these challenges and how do this work well. They wanted to focus on community strengths, the question then being how do we determine what those strengths are? Working with other partners and stakeholders in local communities, speaking to parish councils or by simply hosting a coffee morning to get people together to talk, were all seen as valuable solutions. 

Listening was a key theme form all the groups. Listening to the community, the passengers, the drivers and the other organisations nearby. It was felt that by actively listening, services can better reflect need and as such services can then thrive. But only by having trust. A key player in this process is building trust so that people will really open up and talk to you.

Fostering positive relationships is also paramount. This underpins every aspect of community engagement. By developing trust your reputation will inevitably be strong, so you can raise your profile and offer greater support. Trust enables organisations to find solutions that fit the need rather than parachuting solutions in that may not work. 

A number of quality tips that emerged on the topic of trust, relationships and reputation are: hosting coffee mornings, leaflet drops, attending local community events and actively take part to build word of mouth reputation.

Challenges around fostering trust and positive collaboration were identified. The capacity of an organisation to do this can be limited and the funding available to be able to engage is often not available especially to smaller CT operations.

It was noted that through collaboration, strides forward can be made but identifying who to collaborate with and how, can be challenging. Alongside the time commitment to do this. By sharing knowledge and learning we can all benefit, if we can take the time to do this.

Throughout the workshop we heard drivers and PAs are vital to understanding passengers needs. They listen, they hear, and they should have a proactive role in shaping services. They often have local knowledge and are able to know what passengers need. One issue highlighted was often services focus on need rather than what may give people joy. This was felt to be important but often overlooked. 

By adopting a flexible approach to what passengers and the community say, CT operators are more likely to have positive outcomes. This can also come from passenger surveys, however it was agreed that actually talking face to face was much more valuable. 

Understanding that community needs change over time must be reflected in operations. This information often will come from drivers and passengers. Being able to react to these changing needs was seen as challenging in the context of funding.

Inadequate or unsustainable funding streams often mean CT operators are unable to facilitate everything a community wants and needs. It is a barrier that is faced by many and leads to the questions:

• What do you do if you then cannot deliver? 
• Does this then erode the trust that you have built up? 
• Saying no is difficult, so does this stop operators asking the questions?  
• Does it limit the ability to engage with a community to find solutions? 

"We do what we are able but we cannot do more due to funding" is a common response amongst our attendees. 

What became clear from the workshop discussions was that 'community is central to building quality solutions'. How to achieve this can be wide and varied. But by collaboration, exploring partnerships and taking the time to listen to all in the community we will ensure that CT schemes are fit for purpose and are sustainable.

CTA would like to thank everyone who took part in this workshop session. Your insight, experience and knowledge is valued. For those unable to join us on the day, you can find the powerpoint presentations from this workshop, here.