Education Transport Officer

What will you be doing?

As a Transport Officer, you will play a key role in ensuring that children and young people can access education and other essential services through the provision of safe, reliable, and effective transport arrangements. 

You will be responsible for procuring transport services in accordance with Cambridgeshire County Council's procurement procedures, contractual requirements. This will involve identifying suitable transport solutions, commissioning services from approved operators, and ensuring that arrangements are established and maintained in line with service specifications and operational requirements. 

Working closely with transport operators, schools, educational settings, parents/carers, and colleagues, you will coordinate transport services and respond to changing needs. You will be expected to build strong working relationships with providers and stakeholders to ensure services are delivered efficiently and remain focused on the needs of passengers. 

The role requires an understanding of contractual obligations and service standards to ensure compliance with agreed contract requirements and work proactively with operators to address issues, maintain service quality, and support continuous improvement. Where minor amendments to existing services are required, you will liaise and negotiate directly with transport operators to agree practical and cost-effective solutions while ensuring contractual compliance and continuity of service. 

Safeguarding is central to the role. You will help ensure that transport services are delivered in accordance with safeguarding legislation, Council policies, and established procedures. This includes monitoring service quality, responding appropriately to concerns, and working with operators to ensure the safety, wellbeing, and dignity of passengers at all times.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Procure transport services in line with Council procurement procedures and contractual requirements.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with transport operators and key stakeholders.
• Coordinate transport arrangements to meet the needs of children and young people.
• Monitor service delivery to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and service standards.
• Negotiate and implement minor service amendments with operators where operational changes are required.
• Investigate and resolve transport queries, issues, and service concerns in a timely and professional manner.
• Support contract management activities, including performance monitoring and supplier engagement.
• Ensure transport services operate in accordance with safeguarding requirements, legislation, and Council policies.
• Maintain accurate records and transport management systems.
• Contribute to service reviews, projects, and continuous improvement initiatives.

About you

We are looking for a proactive, organised, and customer-focused individual who is committed to delivering high-quality transport services and achieving positive outcomes for children and young people. 

You will be educated to higher education level or possess an equivalent qualification or relevant experience. You will be confident managing a varied workload and balancing competing priorities within a busy operational environment. 

You will have strong communication and interpersonal skills, enabling you to establish effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including transport operators, schools and educational settings, children and young people, parents and carers, and colleagues across the Council. 

You will have experience of problem-solving and decision-making, with the ability to assess situations, identify practical solutions, and negotiate effectively with service providers when changes to transport arrangements are required. 

You will possess strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to interpret and apply policies, procedures, and contractual requirements. Experience of procurement, contract management, commissioning, or service coordination would be advantageous.

Above all, you will be committed to safeguarding, customer service excellence, and the delivery of safe, effective, and reliable transport services that meet the needs of passengers.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers