An introduction to social inclusion

The Department for Transport (DfT) promotes socially inclusive transport and liaises with other Government departments in exploring social inclusion issues to establish the link between transport and social exclusion.

The current Government initiative 'Modernising Government' ensures the needs of different social groups are taken into account in policy development and service delivery in order to ensure there are no disproportionate effects on different groups of people.

We investigate the needs of different social groups, including:

Children and young people: by understanding their transport needs, we produce strategies and approaches that can be used to promote greater usage of existing facilities;

Minority, ethnic and faith communities: by identifying a lack of adequate communication with minority groups more imaginative methods are now being used.  For example, several organisations now use translation software to give travel assistance;

Older people: by being flexible enough to respond to the needs of an ageing population;

Disabled people: by improving transport provision for disabled people - whether as pedestrians, public and special transport users, or motorists - while also improving accessibility in public places;

Socially excluded people: we aim to reduce social exclusion relating to transport by providing funding for better services and by improving security, availability, accessibility and affordability.  Some initiatives include providing free local bus fares for elderly and disabled people, introducing accessibility planning in to the local transport planning system and making accessibility for disabled people a condition of public investment in transport.

Women: by promoting safe and accessible environments.  The Women's Transport Network also encourages women to contribute to policy development through participation at seminars and drafting articles for the WTN website.

Reports covering the work above, plus further information on what we do, can be found on the Social inclusion section of the DfT website.