Travel Support Access Officer

Cheshire East Council; Crewe; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

34 days annual leave including bank

Hybrid/remote working where possible

Salary sacrifice green car scheme

White goods salary sacrifice scheme

Enhanced pension

Cycle to work

Employee assistance programme

Job summary

Cheshire East Council is seeking a Travel Support Access Team member to assess travel eligibility for children and young people and to coordinate safe, appropriate travel arrangements from Delamere House, Crewe. The role is full-time (37 hours) and permanent, offering a varied workload and opportunities to influence policy and practice.

You will work across education travel support, apply policy criteria, handle complex enquiries and appeals, and contribute to developing guidance and training

Qualifications

• Experience in education travel support or transport or education.
• Experience of applying policy criteria.
• Experience of working in a high-volume operational environment and autonomous decision-making.
• Direct experience of handling complex customer enquiries, complaints or appeals.
• The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice.
• Good ICT skills, understanding of the Council's structure, services, policies, processes and procedures.
• A good understanding of data protection, freedom of information and confidentiality requirements.

Responsibilities

• You will assess and determine on the eligibility for travel support across children's services in line with the council's policies and available budget, ensuring decisions are lawful, consistent, transparent and based on available walking route assessments, risk factors and statutory guidance.
• You will support with reviewing travel support policy, practice and guidance so that it remains effective and compliant with current and emerging legislation, statutory guidance, case law and best practice.
• You will prepare Stage 1 and Stage 2 appeal casework, ensuring evidence is accurate, timely and robust, and representing the service at appeal hearings and prepare requests for information, complaints, FOIs, MP and elected member enquiries on behalf of the service, as required.
• You will coordinate information and advice in relation to service issues such as incident investigation, appropriateness of travel arrangements, behavioural or health and safety issues, working with schools, providers, partner agencies and internal teams.
• You will develop practice notes, checklists, templates and training materials to support and coach colleagues on applying policies and procedures, reasonable adjustments and suitability tests.

Job description

An exciting opportunity has become available to work within the Travel Support Access Team who work to ensure that children and young people receive the right travel support to their education setting through timely and fair eligibility assessments and the coordination of safe, appropriate travel arrangements. The position is full time (37 hours), a permanent position and based at Delamere House, Crewe.

Cheshire East Council transports over 4100 children and young people to over 180 educational establishments each day. The majority are attending mainstream schools within the borough however, more than a quarter of these are children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who may require specialist transport and/or a trained passenger assistant to help them access school/college each day. This is particularly relevant for some of our Adult Learners who are in receipt of post-16 discretionary travel assistance. In addition, we provide transport for children and young people on behalf of Childrens Social Care.

About you

You will assess and determine on the eligibility for travel support across children's services in line with the council's policies and available budget, ensuring decisions are lawful, consistent, transparent and based on available walking route assessments, risk factors and statutory guidance.

You will support with reviewing travel support policy, practice and guidance so that it remains effective and compliant with current and emerging legislation, statutory guidance, case law and best practice.

You will prepare Stage 1 and Stage 2 appeal casework, ensuring evidence is accurate, timely and robust, and representing the service at appeal hearings and prepare requests for information, complaints, FOIs, MP and elected member enquiries on behalf of the service, as required.

You will coordinate information and advice in relation to service issues such as incident investigation, appropriateness of travel arrangements, behavioural or health and safety issues, working with schools, providers, partner agencies and internal teams.

You will develop practice notes, checklists, templates and training materials to support and coach colleagues on applying policies and procedures, reasonable adjustments and suitability tests.

The role is diverse with no one day the same, for more information on the role please view the 'In this job you will' section within the attached job description specification document.

The successful candidate will have:

• Experience in education travel support or transport or education.
• Experience of applying policy criteria.
• Experience of working in a high-volume operational environment and autonomous decision-making.
• Direct experience of handling complex customer enquiries, complaints or appeals.
• The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice.
• Good ICT skills, understanding of the Council's structure, services, policies, processes and procedures.
• A good understanding of data protection, freedom of information and confidentiality requirements.

To find out more about the essential and desirable criteria for the role please view the attached job description specification document.

In return we are able to offer:

• Enhanced annual leave - Start with an impressive 34 days of annual leave (including bank holidays) from day one, and watch it grow to 39 days after just five years of service
• Purchase of annual leave - Want more time off? You can purchase up to 10 extra days of annual leave each year, giving you the flexibility to balance work and life just the way you want (Pro-rata for part-time staff)
• Flexible working pattern - Enjoy a 37-hour standard full-time work week with the added perks of flexi-time and hybrid/remote working arrangements where possible. Your work-life balance just got a whole lot better
• Salary sacrifice green car scheme - Drive green and save green! Lease a brand-new electric or hybrid car through our salary sacrifice scheme. There's no credit checks, no deposits, just significant savings and exclusive offers on a three-year lease
• White goods salary sacrifice scheme - Upgrade your home with ease. Purchase home and electronic items through our salary sacrifice scheme, spreading the cost of big-ticket purchases like appliances, computers, and tech gadgets directly from your salary
• Enhanced public pension - Secure your future with our career average pension, where contributions are built at a rate of 1/49th of your yearly pensionable pay
• Cycle to work scheme - Save up to 25-39% on the retail price of bikes and safety equipment through Income Tax and National Insurance savings. Get fit and save money!
• Employee assistance programme - Access a completely free and confidential assistance service to help manage, reduce, and overcome life's challenges, both at work and in your personal life
• Discounted gym membership - Stay active and healthy with corporate membership prices for Everybody Leisure, including:
  • Gym, Swim and Group Fitness at all 16 facilities
  • Off-Peak Racket Sports
  • Athletics Tracks
  • Sauna/Steam/Spa

Join us and experience a workplace that truly values and supports you!

Cheshire East is an amazing place to live and work. As one of the largest employers in the borough, we are able to offer you a wide range of challenging and rewarding career opportunities.

We are working for a brighter future - together and our commitment to you is that our workplace culture will provide a shared purpose, a well-led organisation with valued people succeeding together as one team and one council to deliver the best service for our customers and communities.

If you want to be part of our award-winning council and contribute to our ongoing success, have the flexibility and drive to enable us to innovate, are committed to working as part of a team and striving to deliver exceptional service wherever you can, we would especially like to hear from you.

As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and want our workforce to reflect the diversity of our local communities so that we can all work for a brighter future - together.

For any technical enquiries please email [e-mail]

Please quote job reference number in all correspondence.

For an informal chat, please email [e-mail] with your contact details.

Interviews will be held on Thursday 22 October 2026.