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Problems with transport provision and the location of services can reinforce social exclusion by preventing people from accessing key local services and undermine government policies to tackle worklessness, increase participation in education, reduce crime and narrow health inequalities. In the current economic climate it is even more important that people can get to job interviews or to work, or attend college or training. In 2003 the then Social Exclusion Unit's Making the Connections report found that much more could be done to ensure the accessibility of public services. Insufficient progress has been made since then, and many of that report's findings are relevant today.
There is evidence that accessibility is worsening, driven by tight budgets in central and local government. Accessibility statistics show travel times to key services steadily increasing over time, particularly for access to hospitals. The Department for Transport needs to focus more closely on improving accessibility as well as on supporting the economy. Existing transport funding could be better coordinated and directed to 'accessibility'-focused initiatives, which will have a swifter impact on people's well-being than large infrastructure projects. The social value of transport and accessibility needs to be explicitly considered in policy-making and in the planning system and should no longer be seen as a second-order criterion.
There is no magic bullet for improving accessibility and it will take time for the improvements that we suggest to make a noticeable difference. We focus our recommendations on improving how government operates, rather than addressing the level of funding. Whilst we recognise that localism offers opportunities for better designed and more locally relevant solutions, central government cannot absolve itself from a role in coordinating action across departmental silos and helping local authorities and service providers to share best practice. The forthcoming Transport Strategy offers the Government an opportunity to set out how new arrangements will work. In a similar vein, the Cabinet Office should include cross-cutting accessibility issues in its regular reviews of departments' business plans. Accessibility planning, introduced by Making the Connections, has had limited success and needs to be re-energised.
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