CHANGES are on the way for transport at Worcestershire County Council as part of a plan to try and save £1.7 million.

The council's Conservative leadership has endorsed a raft of key decisions to its expensive fleet operation in a bid to drive down costs.

It includes:

- The in-house courier service, which spends 95 per cent of its time moving books across the county between libraries and care homes, will be handed to an outside operator

- The adult social care transport service is likely to cease in April 2016, with the next 17 months used to encourage people to use their personalised budgets to 'buy' their own travel

- Beyond that date, if some vulnerable adults are still relying on the in-house service, the commercial sector will be used to provide short-term contracts until that need ends completely

- The minibus fleet used for children's services is under review, with a view to finding "a better solution" than keeping the status quo

Vulnerable adults across Worcestershire are now given a transport allowance budget to spend in any way they wish, including travel to specific day centres or trips into town.

The council says that means demand for the in-house transport fleet, a raft of minibuses, is falling.

It also says the courier service, which provides ad-hoc help across the council whenever it is needed but mainly transports books across Worcestershire, is outdated and needs to be provided externally.

Any changes to the children's services transport fleet would also implicate youngsters who use it to travel to school.

The children's transport review is intended at firming up interest and making sure any deal is right for children and the taxpayer.

At the moment only around 516 children use the in-house fleet, and 60 adults.

A total of 6,641 children and 748 adults get transport provided for them under a council assessment, but 92 per cent of services are already provided externally with just eight per cent done in-house.

A new in-house new report on it says there are "providers who would be interested in delivering these services" outside of County Hall.

It also says the council anticipates that any staff affected will have their jobs transferred to the outside provider.

The council has set itself a target of saving £545,000 in transport by 2015/16, £215,000 in children's services and £330,000 for adults - and a total of £1.7 million by 2018.

The Tory cabinet has stressed that it intends to take the changes slowly rather than slice it away on one fell swoop.

Councillor Adrian Hardman, the leader, said: "It will take some considerable time to find the right providers for the right service - we're not moving at a reckless speed to externalise everything."

Councillor Liz Eyre, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "We're moving forward at a measured pace, I think that's most appropriate."