The context​:​​

The Time Travel in Sussex Programme is a development of our successful Get Into Trains (click here to read more in our project archive) pilot project which was delivered in 2019/2020. It is founded on the knowledge that learning disabled adults and those who support them face significant barriers to accessing public transport and visiting local heritage venues, including lack of confidence and independence, fear of abuse in public spaces and inaccessible resources to engage with collections.  This project seeks to directly address these challenges. 

Approximately 42,000 learning disabled adults currently live in Sussex (based on NHS data) and we know that local heritage offers many points of interest for learning disabled people, but support is needed to facilitate access. Museums continue to face the challenge of maintaining visitor numbers and engagement, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a significant decline in visitor confidence and participation, especially amongst those with learning disabilities. In 2025, this impact was still felt with museum visitor numbers shown to be below pre-pandemic levels (according to a report into 5 year trends in Arts Council England’s Annual Museum Survey).

Working alongside staff and volunteers from heritage venues and colleagues from Southeast Communities Rail Partnership, Time Travel In Sussex creates opportunities for learning disabled adults and their carers to explore a range of museums in East and West Sussex, in accessible and creative ways.

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'Our members often struggle to go to museums as they can often be expensive. Our members can also feel too anxious to go to these locations as they are new experiences. Going to these locations with Time Travel Sussex has helped to reduce the anxieties for our members’

Day service staff
 

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The programme aims to::

 

• provide creative and accessible opportunities for learning disabled adults to travel to and engage with heritage venues around Sussex.

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• upskill and support the development of heritage venues to make staff and volunteers more confident in welcoming learning disabled audiences, and making their venues and engagement activities more accessible.

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• co-design and create new resources that provide creative ways to engage with and promote heritage venues and collections.

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Download our co-produced Theory of Change framework here.

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Project impact up to the end of 2025:

 

• 5 disability awareness training sessions delivered across 5 different heritage venues across Sussex, attended by a total of 37 staff and volunteers.

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‘It was really helpful to have time and space to think about these issues without other distractions. It feels like we are at the start of the journey.”

Heritage staff member

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• 34 learning disabled participants involved in the co-design process of the Time Travel passports and associated resources.

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• 5 bespoke Time Travel passport resource packs and bespoke museum stamps created.

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• 6 promotional videos created featuring participants exploring the museums.

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• 102 rail journeys funded to visit different heritage venues as part of the project

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‘The opportunity to travel on the train opened up the day to new adventures - some of the group had never been on the train before. Such a start to the day will inevitably lead to fun times ahead.”

Day service staff
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Download a full participatory evaluation report of the programme here.​​​​

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