ECT Charity is one of the UK’s leading providers of community transport, safely providing almost 360,000 passenger trips for our communities each year. We operate a wide variety of services, each based on a particular local need: from minibuses for community groups to transport for children with special educational needs and Disability, from door-to-door services for older and disabled people to buses tackling rural social isolation – and many more.
We’ve been providing people who struggle with mainstream transport with safe, accessible journeys since our foundation as Ealing Community Transport in 1979. Now, as ECT Charity, we operate community transport services in the London Borough of Ealing, Cheshire and Dorset.
Much of our work is delivered on behalf of public sector commissioners and partners – including Local Authorities and the NHS. We are able to build strong relationships with those who commission our work as we share the same goals and values – inclusion and accessibility for our service users.
The importance of transport in our lives is a truth so simple that often, we forget to think of it – you can have the best public services and amenities in the world, but it counts for nothing if people cannot get to them. At ECT Charity, we believe that no-one should be without safe, affordable and accessible transport – able to access services, healthcare, friends and family, and the simple freedom to get out and about. As a charity, all of our transport is designed in response to unmet need, often representing the only means of transport for many vulnerable and isolated people, who are frequently older or disabled.
This is the role of community transport. We’re part of a nationwide movement of organisations, each committed to the role that transport can play in taking down the barriers to access – particularly for the most marginalised in our society, helping people access services and bringing people and communities closer together. By improving access in our communities, we’re also helping to tackle social exclusion, loneliness and social isolation, making a real difference to people’s lives.
All of our work creates positive social value for our communities and we are committed to measuring on and reporting on that – and to supporting our peers in community transport to do the same through our Social Value Toolkit.
