Reduction in Taxi card allocation- Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA)

Version Number / 1st Draft
Date Last Reviewed: / 23rd November 2012
Approved by: / David Hodgkins
Date Approved: / 29th November 2012
Next Review Date: / Six months after implementation of the allocation changes
Saved as: / Taxicard EqIA Final
  1. Management of the EqIA

Taxi Card Consultation group have updated information included in EqIA over the 3 month period of the consultation.

  1. Identification of policy aims, objectives and purpose

What is being proposed and why?

The London Taxicard scheme provides subsidised taxi transport for people who have serious mobility or visual impairment and who have difficulty using public transport. Due to cuts in its transport budget, Transport for London (TfL) has had to cap their contribution to the scheme from April 2011, so any growth in the costs of the scheme in the London Borough of Newham (LBN) will have to be funded by LBN. It is important that LBN plan for a reduction in funding, as LBN cannot increase funding to bridge the gap or meet the increasing demand on the Taxi Card scheme. In LBN the maximum journey allocation is above that in other Boroughs – a maximum of 552 journeys per person per year compared to 104 across other local authorities. LBN is proposing to reduce the current maximum journey allocation to 104 per person per year, over a three year period. This would then place LBN on a par with other London Borough offerings.

On the 24th May 2012 The Mayor in consultation with Cabinet was asked to agree a three month public consultation period on the proposal to reduce LBN Taxi Card Trip allocation from 552 trips per year per person, to 104 trips per person per year. This will be done over a 3-year period using a stepped approach. The table below shows how this will be managed.

Taxi Card users can use their trips for shopping /social visits/visiting family and friends/GP and dentist. They can not use it to attend hospital appointments as the Taxi Card was not designed for hospital appointments. Patient Transport can be used for hospital transport. Taxi Card users say that they do not like using patient transport as they can not have a carer with then and they have to wait for a long time to be taken home from hospital visits.

Year / Number of trips
Year 1 / Reduce from 552 to312
Year 2 / Reduce from 552 to144
Year 3 / Reduce from 552 to104

Figure 1

Under the proposed scheme for a tiered reduction, in year 3 no taxi card user will get more then the maximum capped journeys of 104. The funding will be set in advance by TfL and LBN. If a child or adult are "disproportionally disadvantaged" by the changes, the council will look at this on a case by case basis and set out what options are open to the user, such as:

  • Using the mobility component of DLA (Disability Living Allowance) to support travel needs
  • Other transport means they have such as FreedomPass
  • If the user receives a package of care /SDS (Self Directed Support) then a Social worker will conduct an assessment and the outcome may be that they receive additional funding for travel (which they would arrange themselves).

Additional support will be based on assessed needs and considered on a case by case basis.

Figure 2, a breakdown of taxi card usage shows that the majority of users (84.75%) take between 0 and 104 trips per year. Whilst the percentages of users who take between 105 and 552 trips per year is small in comparison, the EqIA will look at how equality groups who would be adversely impacted by a reduction to 104 trips, can be supported.

Taxi Card Usage
April 2011 to March 2012 / Total Trips / Total Members / % of Active Members
Total users who used 0 to 104 trips / 58,028 / 2,657 / 84.75%
Total users who used 105 to 200 to trips / 41,483 / 287 / 9.15%
Total users who used 201 to 312 to trips / 29,521 / 121 / 3.85%
Total users who used 313 to 552 to trips / 28,363 / 70 / 2.25%

Figure 2Source: Transport for London 2012

LBN commissioned BDRC Continental to conduct a quantitative consultation (a survey with a robust base of interviews) with users of the Taxicard scheme to understand the impact on higher users and to ensure the Council fulfils its duty under the Equality Act 2010. Public consultation meetings were also held by Council officers.

*A copy of the consultation report has been appended with the cabinet report.

  1. Scope / focus of the EqIA

The purpose of this EqIA is to help Newham understand the impact of the changes on users and in particular, the impact on each of the different equality groups and understand what mitigations need to be put in place to reduce the impact.

Who took part in the consultation?

There are almost 4,000 active Taxi Card users. The Taxi Card scheme is not means tested and people apply under automatic set criteria or discretionary criteria. Taxi Card members are each allocated 552 trips per year in LBN under the “Door to Door” scheme which includes Taxi Card and Dial-A-Ride. LBN wrote to all 4,000 active Taxi Card users informing them that the consultation was taking place and how they can take part. An active Taxi Card user is described by Com Cabs as someone who has used the scheme in the last three months. For the purpose of this consultation, LBN took a more generous definition and extended this to anyone who had used the Taxi Card scheme in the last 12 months to ensure that anyone who had been in hospital or away for a period of time was not disadvantaged. The Taxi Card consultationopened in July 2012 and closed on 31October 2012. LBN allowed a few extra weeks over the 3-month period to ensure no respondents were impacted adversely due to the Olympics.

What other ways did we consult?

We held twenty consultation meeting during the consultation period. We met with Co-Production groups, Learning Disability groups, Mental Health groups, and older peoples groups. We also held two public meetings and one to one sessions as well as attending GP forums to inform health partners of the proposals.

Participation in the consultation

The consultation was carriedout by an independent research company (BDRC) who conducted an online/paper survey (completed by437respondents) as well as a sample telephone survey of 201 people who are registered blind/visually impaired. In addition, twenty public consultation meetings were held by Council Officers (attended by 509 people). The public consultation sessions included focus groups and feedback sessions with members of the public.

In total, 1,147 users took part in the consultation. The main ways users could participate were:

  1. Post - users could call a free phone number to request a postal survey to complete. The survey was sent to the user along with a freepost envelope (Self Completion)
  2. Online - the survey was available online for users to complete(Self Completion)
  3. Telephone – a sample of 201 people registered blind/visually impaired
  4. Face to face – public meetings

We wrote to all 4,000 active taxi card users informing them that the consultation was taking place and how they could take part. The telephone sample were contacted at random from the Taxicard database and as such, are most likely to represent a broad spectrum of users and levels of interest in the scheme. The self-completion survey was open to any user whowished to take part. This method is likely to have attracted more responses from those with more involvement in Taxicard (either in usage or viewpoint), as they have a greater stake in making their views being heard. These differences are visible in results of the consultation conducted by the independent research company. For example, self-completers have a higher usage of the scheme.

What other councils offer?

The majority of London Councils offer a maximum of 104 trips per person per year. LBN’s proposal to reduce trips to 104 in a phased way over a 3-year period would bring LBN in line with other London boroughs. Some boroughs operate a “Banding System” where they give less then the full allocation of Taxi card trips to those who hold a FreedomPass and /or a Blue Badge. This system is unpopular with Taxi Card users as its heavy on assessments. Some boroughs are moving away from “Banding” as it’s also very expensive to administer. LBN do not intend to introduce banding and will allocate 104 trips to all registered users. LBNwant to ensure that service users can access all modes of transport available to them. Patient transport should be used for hospital appointments and not Taxi Card scheme, as it was not designed for hospital transport. The focus of the EqIA is to look at the possible impact on Taxi Card users, of the proposal to reduce the trip numbers from 552 per person per year to 104.

Protected Characteristic / Assessment of relevance
High, Medium, Low / Evidence
Age / High / The Taxi Card scheme is open to all ages including children. There are 72 children registered for Taxi Card scheme.
The Consultation report indicates that 80% of Taxi Card users under the age of 55 felt that the service was most useful to them.
Disability / High / Taxi Card Scheme is available to people who
1: Receive higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance
2: War pension mobility supplement
3: Registered blind.
People can also be assessed under discretionary criteria, which will be determined by an independent OccupationalTherapist assessment. This includes people with physical disability, learning disability, mental health and older people.
Currently, approx 40% of Taxi Card members meet the automatic criteria. The remainder are assessed under discretionary criteria. There is appeal process in place.
88% of people Learning Ddisability service users who responded to the Taxi Card Consultation ticked that the scheme was “ very important” to them.
Transgender / Low / Taxi Card users are representative of the wider community, therefore no disproportionate impact on any specific group
Pregnancy and maternity / Low / Taxi Card users are representative of the wider community, therefore no disproportionate impact on any specific group.
Race / Low / Taxi Card users are representative of the wider community, therefore no disproportionate impact on any specific group.
Religion / belief / Low / Taxi Card users are representative of the wider community, therefore no disproportionate impact on any specific group
Sexual orientation / Low / Taxi Card users are representative of the wider community, therefore no disproportionate impact on any specific group
Sex / High / 63% of Taxi card users are Female 2% are Children and 35% are male.
Class or socio-economic disadvantage / Low / Medium / DLA nor Taxi Card are not means tested so no data to indicate disproportionate impact
There is no cost to users to take up alternatives such as dial a ride, freedom pass and passenger transport. However, there are a small number of users where alternatives will not be suitable. These people may have to pay for a taxi to meet alternative trips.
  1. Relevant data, research and consultation

Relevant data and Research obtained from TfL

TfL have provided data that indicates that the majority of service users registered for Taxicards do not use the total number of trips allocated.

84% of Taxi Card users use 104 trips or less, of the 16% that use more then a 104 some used a % of trips for hospital appointments.

At the time of screening, there were 4,000 active registered users of the Taxi Card scheme in LBN, each registered user is allocated 552 trips per year. LBN offers the most generous allocation of 552 trips per person per year while other boroughs offer 104 trips per person per year. Some of these boroughs also offer a complex banding system where Taxi Card users who hold a Freedom Pass or/and a Blue Badge only qualify for a % of the 104 trips. It varies from borough to borough.

Average Number of trips taken per active travelling member between January 2012 and June 2012 is 10. 114 and (4.85%) active members used more than half of their allocation in the same period.

378 (16.10%) active members used more than a quarter of their allocation in the same period. The 16% of Taxi Card users who use more then 104 a year are made up of over 65’s and children.

Consultation

A period of three months public consultation opened on the 2 July 2012 and closed on the 31October 2012. All “active” Taxi Card users were written to and advised of the consultation. The consultation was also published in the Newham Magazine and on Twitter. An active Taxi Card user is described by Com Cabs as someone who has used the scheme in the last three months, but for the purpose of this consultation we extended that period to 12 months to ensure that anyone who had been in hospital or away for a period of time was not disadvantaged.

Additional weeks were added to allow for any impact the Olympic Games may have had on people travelling to venues. Taxi card users were invited to have their say by taking part in an online/postal survey. An independent consultation company was commissioned to conduct the survey on behalf of LBN. There was also a telephone survey for the 200 Taxi Card users who are registered blind/visually impaired.

In addition to this, LBN Council Officers consulted with Focus groups/co-production groups including older people, disabled people, people with Mental Health and Learning Disabilities and Health groups. LBN also offered one to one sessions and enlisted the support of Co production groups to assist people with completing the forms. LBN held two open public consultation meetings, one evening and one day time. Three members of the co- production group are on the panel of the Taxi Card Consultation Meeting. We have compiled all feedback from these meetings and will present it as an Appendix to the Cabinet report 13th December 2012.

This meeting takes place every two weeks, and looks at all issues raised at the consultation meetings/risk log/project plan. The meeting is made up of representatives from co-production groups representing disabled service users, Group Manger Commissioning, Finance/research/communications staff and Business change manager who manage Concessionary Fares including Taxicards.

A full report outlining results of the consultation findings from the commissioned company has been appended with the cabinet report. However, the section below provides a summary of some of the findings in the report.

Membership and usage

Consultation results show the overall mean (average) of journeys used is 168, but varies from 113 for telephone respondents to 193 for self-completers. This difference is likely to be a reflection of the bias often observed amongst self-completion surveys towards those with a greater interest or involvement in the area of the survey (as described in section 1.4). In the case of the Taxicard consultation this is more frequent users of the service. Therefore, amongst the overall universe of Taxicard users, average journey usage is likely to be more similar to telephone respondents than it is to self-completion respondents. The majority of Taxicard members indicate they use the service because they need support to travel independently (75%). When asked what they used Taxicard journeys for, the most common response was for ‘healthcare visits/ hospital appointments’ (66%), closely followed by ‘shopping’ (59%). Hospital and other health related visits were commonly accessed via Taxicard journeys. Respondents were asked specifically how frequently they used the service for hospital transport half report using Taxicardfor such visits (80% telephone, 36% self-completion). Taxicard journeys can be used for GP or clinic visits but is not intended to be used for hospital visits.

There was a lack of awareness of how many trips the Taxicard is used for (16% were not able to estimate in the telephone survey). Additionally, LBN data suggests 84% of users would not be affected by the change in threshold to 104 journeys per year, however, just 56% reported falling into the 0-100 journeys per year category in the telephone survey. This suggests users are likely to be unaware of actual usage rates and may need to be reminded of the number of Taxicard journeys throughout the year to understand and manage usage to fit within their allocations under the proposed changes to the scheme.

Reaction to the service changes

Respondents were asked how affected they would be by this proposal. Almost three quarters (74%) felt they will be affected in some way, with half (50%) feeling they would be ‘very affected’, and 24% ‘affected’. Views expressed were marginally weaker amongst the telephone sample.

Females were significantly more likely to claim to be affected at a ‘very affected’ level (53% vs. 43%). There were no other significant differences by equality groups, however, those with ‘learning difficulties’ were slightly higher than average for a strong impact (61%), as were the under 55 age group (56%).