4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Following the previously outlined strategy, the completion of studies and the consolidated document containing the assumptions, goals and definitions of governance structure and actions to be implemented, the Pernambuco Transports Programme was created by Law No. 14,218 of November/2010, aiming to ensure free special home transport care, for people with a high degree of disability and severe mobility impairments, without means of autonomous locomotion in public transport.
In the same period, with coordinated actions by a steering committee involving stakeholders from all departments participating in the Program, the Logical Framework and the Programme Work Plan were designed, involving activities related to the planning of the operational model.
Between 2010 and 2011 the implementation of the program in the Metropolitan Region of Recife commenced. Initially, the Fire Department purchased 15 vans, adapted for the transportation of persons with disabilities, and was also responsible to provide fuel, fleet maintenance and personnel, with a member of the corporation in each vehicle. At this stage, the Pernambuco Christian Fellowship for Disabled People Support was hired for the management and operation of services.
During this period, the programme was incorporated into the Government's Strategy Map, with adherence to the Strategic Objective on the promotion of citizenship, and the implementation of the programme was rated as one of Pernambuco priority goals.
Also in 2011, working groups were structured to develop manuals and define the service's methodology operation and details of all work processes, as well as all staff training, including drivers and rear personnel, acquisition of mobile communication devices, installation of monitoring and operation central, and installation of the call centre facility, followed by the registration of beneficiaries and programming of initial routes.
The operation begun in August 2011, attending beneficiaries registered in the Metropolitan Region of Recife-RMR. With increasingly strong results, each month more beneficiaries were registered.
In mid-2013, given the acceptance of the program and demand growth, the State Government has defined as Priority Goal the "Expansion of the Specialized Transportation System PE TRANSPORTS". Studies to expand the service program within the RMR and its internalization to Caruaru and Petrolina were then initiated. At this stage, the decision was made to conduct a bidding process for contracting a company specialized in delivering the Programme services. The company should operate and maintain the existing fleet of vans and provide 30 more new adapted ones, being responsible for the fleet custody, maintenance and operation. All necessary management and operation personnel, including drivers, technical and back office staff, computer systems and the call centre were handed to the contractor's responsibility.
Once the bidding was finished, the URJA Social was hired, starting in June/2013 the operation of extended care services.
Even in 2013, the need to broaden the beneficiaries' accessibility to leisure was detected through user surveys. Thus, during this period, following the outlined strategy to extend the accessibility within the human rights policy, leisure routes were introduced on weekends.
With the expansion of the programme spatial coverage, the growth in the number of beneficiaries and the methodological and technological improvements implemented over time, the Programme currently has 40 adapted vehicles, including 30 in RMR, 5 in Caruaru and 5 in Petrolina, serving over 25% of the disabled population with severe mobility impairments and per capita income below the minimum wage in Pernambuco, involving more than 200 professionals and IT tools, presenting real-time results for managers.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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A commitment was made by the leaders of the State of Pernambuco to consolidate and solidify innovative programs to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities, tied to the public policy for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, being endorsed by the demands of society in regional human rights conventions. The State Governor, in early 2010, demanded to the Secretary of Social Development and Human Rights - SEDSDH and the State Superintendence of Support for Persons with Disabilities - SEAD, the development of a door to door, free, comfortable and safe transport programme, for people with severe mobility impairments and per capita income below the minimum wage.
Given the request, representatives of those agencies, along with representatives of other government institutions, such as the Fire Department of Pernambuco, Secretary of Cities and the Secretary of Health, formed a working group to devise the key assumptions and assembly the scope of the Pernambuco Transports Programme, as well as its subsequent implementation. Throughout the process, other actors contributed, such as organs of local governments, non-governmental and civil society organizations, giving structure to the service, as well as providers like the Christian Fellowship for Disabled People Support and URJA Social, which were responsible for operation and management of the Programme implementation, the first between 2011 and 2012, and the latest since 2013.
This working group formed an articulated network to manage the programme, acting in the implementation and monitoring of the programme execution, whose participants were the SEDSDH, through SEAD, the Secretary of Social Development, through the Fire Department of Pernambuco, the Secretary of Cities, through the Great Recife Metropolitan Transport Consortium, and the State Secretary of Health.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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With the programme creation in November/2010, the working group, with public servants from the participants Secretaries, including health professionals, social workers, engineers, administrators and military servants, originally formed for studies and installation of PE Transports, becomes the Managing Committee. This Committee, with 12 members, including the Superintendent for Persons with Disabilities of Pernambuco, took the General Programme Coordination, meeting on weekly basis, managing the development of the actions and the articulation of the actors involved. The Pernambuco Christian Fellowship for Disabled People Support was hired in June/2011 for the programme’s management and operation, with 30 drivers and 10 management professionals involved in services monitoring. Between 2011 and 2012, the institution was in charge of the programme’s management and operation, employing an indicator-based system that was monitored through data collected by automated systems, in real-time, from the door-to-door transport service.
With the programme’s expansion, and the need for new resources, the programme began to be operated/managed by a specialist company, the URJA SOCIAL, hired after the bidding process. This company mobilised 200 professionals, among managers and employees, working directly with the guidelines, coordination and support of servers and managers from the State Government, and with the support of the municipalities where the actions are operationalized.
Within the context of human resources, all professionals involved directly and indirectly with people with disabilities were trained, in order to sensitize them to the conviviality and treatment of these people, and to the technical handling of adapted vehicles. Following one of the Programme’s guidelines, the call centre is operated by people with disabilities, naturally empathic to the attendance of PE TRANSPORTS beneficiaries.
Regarding technical and material resources, the programme is based in the Secretary of Social Development and Human Rights. The head offices in Recife, the State Capital, in Petrolina and Caruaru are installed in URJA’s own spaces, which holds custody of vehicles, operation management and public service. Altogether 40 vans are suited for the transportation of persons with disabilities, 10 remaining from the original fleet and 30 acquired by URJA, all equipped with means of communication. The Pernambuco Transports operates with a specific computerized system for users’ registration, real time monitoring of transported beneficiaries and the related actions and evaluation of results, operating via the web and connecting all head offices and participant municipalities.
In terms of financial resources, between 2011 and 2012 the programme had an annual budget of R$1.2 million for its activities, allocated by the various secretaries involved. During this period, besides the aforementioned budgetary resources, the costs of vehicles, including acquisition, fuel and maintenance, were funded by the Fire Department budget, which also provided corporation staff to act as rescuers for each vehicle. In 2013, with the expansion, the programme received annual budgetary resources in the order of R$14 million, comprising all its costs, including the previously financed by the Fire Department.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Among the main results of the Pernambuco Transports Program, the continued growth in the number of users since the beginning of operations can be highlighted. Even in its first year of operation in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, comprising 12 municipalities, the program recorded a 17% increase in the number of beneficiaries, between August and December 2011.
With the programme continued expansion between 2011 and 2014, there was a 77% increase in the total number of attended people with severe mobility impairments. Likewise, a growth of 81% in the number of attendances (users return trips) was recorded, and in September 2014 a total of 5,400 weekly visits was recorded, attending over 25% of the poor population of Pernambuco with severe mobility impairments and per capita income below the minimum wage.
After PE TRANSPORTS’ implementation other advances were observed, such as the substantial improvement in assiduity and punctuality of attendance to persons with disabilities for treatment sessions, representing 63% of users, who before failed to appear due to the difficulties of transportation, and now no longer miss them.
Also worth noting is the data from health and rehabilitation services, which also points to the best use of sessions offered and the results of treatments carried out by optimizing and increasing their efficiency and effectiveness.
Another important outcome of the program for its beneficiaries is the saving on the cost of public transportation. Program beneficiaries (users and caregivers) state an improvement of about 20% in their disposable income with these savings.
With the basic premise of the service being not only door-to-door public transport, but also focussing on the patient, aiming to ensure their continuous and comprehensive treatment through access and security, also worth mentioning as one of the successful and meaningful results is the accessibility to leisure provided for patients and their families using the program. These routes were created with the expansion of the program in 2013. Routes to beaches, parks, and other public facilities are created weekly.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The Program’s actions are monitored and evaluated in four management levels: i) the service operation level, directly by the management company; ii) the PE TRANSPORTS executive level, by the State Superintendence for Support of Persons with Disabilities – SEAD; iii) the program strategic level, conducted at regular meetings of the PE TRANSPORT Steering Committee, and iv) the Government strategic level.
Monitoring actions use the indicators and targets set, and the results are obtained through information systems developed for PE TRANSPORTS.
At the operational level, the contractor performs the user management records, the availability of automated processes, implementation of on-board solutions, service routing, operation management through an Operational Monitoring Centre – OMC, periodic evaluation of the service , maintaining a web portal for communication with service users and updating and making adjustments in operational and managerial processes. The OMC enables the real-time monitoring of current routes, location and punctuality of vehicles; the real time experience of users during service, classifying them as awaiting transport, on-board or disembarked; also monitors scheduling of routes and driver shifts; the quality of drivers and operational support personnel’s service; occurrences are recorded and resolved, enacting the inspection team if necessary for problem resolution; as well as generating management reports based on predefined indicators to evaluate the service.
At the executive management level, the SEAD systematically monitors the services regarding the indicators and targets set by identifying, addressing and correcting any contractor with observed deviations. This level of executive management is also responsible for monitoring and implementing plans for expanded services and programs.
At the strategic level, the aggregate results of PE TRANSPORT are monitored and evaluated by analysing and correcting deviations between goals and results, also making decisions to refocus and adjust the program design, its indicators, targets and performance guidelines.
As PE TRANSPORTS is part of the State Strategy Map, its actions and results are monitored by the government, in the scope of the All for Pernambuco Model. In this process, which culminates in weekly meetings chaired by the Governor and organized around each Strategic Objective, PE TRANSPORTS is accompanied on the physical and financial results through process indicators.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Among the problems faced, the initial delay for the registration of users stood out. To mitigate the problem, direct links were made to encouraging beneficiaries to deliver complete data and eligibility documents. Actions with the local governments were conducted to expedite the registration of Program candidates, as well as partnerships with the Health Departments of the counties and clinics.
Another obstacle in the initial phase of the process was the delay in document delivery. To overcome the problem, an active search for documents in the candidates’ residences was performed, along with social visits, aimed to streamline the registration of those who met the eligibility requirements, enabling them to use the services.
The delay in issuing medical reports was also one of the obstacles encountered in the implementation. To expedite this, partnerships between the state and the local governments were promoted, aimed at increasing the supply of these services by municipalities. Here, the Municipal Secretaries of Health assumed responsibility for issuing medical reports and promoted the inclusion of rehabilitation treatments in their clinics.
There were still problems with maintenance downtime for 15 adapted mobile units due to high mileage and the difficulties of the Fire Department to promptly perform the services. This reduction in fleet availability entailed the exclusion of new users, as well as cancellations of the service. Another issue concerned the growth in the number of candidates, which in the first 2 years of the program resulted in an over-demand of 255 people. These two problems have been addressed with a fleet expansion of another 30 vehicles and transferring the responsibility of maintenance and availability of the entire fleet to the contractor. Expansions of the offer, although necessary, require budgetary resources, which is always an obstacle for the expansion of public services.
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