NASP report from recent September meeting

NASP meeting held on Monday 5 September 2016

The seventh meeting of the National Associations Strategic Partnership (NASP) was held at the Lighthouse building in Salford kindly hosted by Pearson Vue on 5 September 2016.

Peter Harvey opened the meeting by thanking Julie Hunter of Pearson Vue for the use of their premises for the day. Julie made a short presentation and updated NASP members on the extension to the contract for the theory test, which will now run until 4 September 2020. As part of the deal to continue the contract, Pearsons have looked at where theory test centres are located, and where there have been movements of population. As a result, 28 new theory test centres are being provided, with the aim of almost 100% of the population having access to test centres within 40 minutes’ travel time, or 40 miles for rural areas. The new centres are scheduled to open in September.

Julie said that this year there would be 2.4m car theory tests held, 95% of tests are booked with a 2 week waiting time, and since the start of the contract in 2004 they had conducted over 20 million tests. She said that the main reason for failure was not the Hazard Perception Test, but the multiple choice sections because people did not study the Highway Code adequately.

Code of Practice

Following the decision to update the Approved Driving Instructors Code of Practice (ADI CoP) a number of pre consultation draft documents had been circulated. Discussions took place on the content of the CoP, various amendments were incorporated and agreed and it is hoped that a draft document will be ready to circulate to all ADIs in the near future.

Revised ADI Part 3 Examination

There had been a meeting held on 8 August, attended by NASP representatives with a number of officials from DVSA. It was felt that DVSA had been willing to listen, and an implementation date of October/November 2017 had been suggested. NASP’s main concern had been in the amount of misinformation going out, especially among some ORDIT providers and Mark Magee had agreed to tackle this. Agreement had been reached on how the system would work and the marking, which would follow the same format as the Standards Check.

The main problem was considered to be the provision of a pupil, which could be a full licence holder, but not an ADI. DVSA had said that they felt their examiners were sufficiently experienced to be able to tell if someone had pre-rehearsed a lesson. Part 3s would be available at more test centres, so people could take it in their local area and be in control of the route. Non ORDIT trainers would need to get in touch with DVSA about the future plans.

Mark Magee had said that fewer trainee licences were being issued, and not many people were given a second licence and that he would review trainee licences after the new Part 3 was in place. It was also felt that ORDIT trainers should be judged more on their training standards, and less on premises.

Earned Recognition

A wide ranging discussion took place amount Earned Recognition do ADIs want it, will DVSA do it anyway, will the public actually use it?

The meeting agreed that we need to focus the concept of earned recognition on incentivising and rewarding high performance and that interventions for under-performance should be tackled by other means.

Autonomous Vehicles

It was decided that NASP would produce a collective response to the consultation from DfT

“Pathway to Driverless Cars”.

Those present agreed that whilst NASP was supportive of the overall direction of the proposed changes, we would like to point out our concerns on a number of matters.

Particularly regarding platooning and changes to the Highway Code. Whilst it is clear that the Pathway to Driverless Cars will be made up of numerous small steps and that completely autonomous car are some way off. NASP expressed concerns that drivers were already struggling to fully understand assisted driving functions, and the limits of this technology, in existing vehicles, and perhaps in some cases already abdicated too much responsibility to these existing functions for managing risk.  The Tesla crash clearly proved that even experienced test drivers are over confident of the ability of autonomous cars to manage and mitigate all risk NASP believe that we need to ensure that education about the role and responsibility of assisted or automated vehicle technology is delivered alongside any new vehicle or infrastructure innovation and embed in drivers the vital knowledge that they cannot abdicate management of the vehicle or the drive, regardless of the level of automation provided.

Learners on Motorways

NASP are developing a simple guidance document, perhaps a tick list, to ensure ADIs are confident of the delivery of motorway tuition to learner drivers.

There were also some concerns mentioned about header boards, which lose magnet power in hot weather and could add to possible problems at higher speeds

It was also agreed that the introduction should explain that it was produced in anticipation of learners being allowed on motorways and should map the National Standards.

DVSA

NASP were pleased to see that waiting times were coming down in some areas, though this was not the case across the country.

The matter of a self-booking system for the ADI Standards Check was discussed and it was agreed that NASP should add further pressure on the DVSA to ensure this matter is not forgotten.

List of achievements

The meeting took a little time to look back over the past couple of years and reflect on the work NASP had done and the future direction of travel.

NASP members are confident that by working together they can continue to drive forward a positive agenda for driver trainers and promote professional ADIs.

Next Meetings

It was agreed that the next NASP meeting with the DVSA would be at the start of December in Nottingham.

Present

Present at the meeting: Peter Harvey MSA GB in the Chair, John Lepine MSA GB, Lynne Barrie ADINJC, Chris Porter ADINJC, Carly Brookfield DIA and in attendance: Sue Duncan Minute Secretary. Apologies were received from Gavin Brownlie DISC and Gordon Crosbie DISC.

Aligning with the National Standard

In April 2014, we introduced the ‘standards check’ which changed the way we assessed ADIs; focussing on assessing their competence to deliver effective training in line with the National standard for driver and rider training. (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/377667/national-standard-for-driver-and-rider-training.pdf)

We therefore want to mirror this in the qualification process so that new instructors are trained in this way from the outset.

Why we’re changing

The industry has confirmed that the current fault-based ADI Part 3 test, which relies on pre-set tests and role play exercises, is both unrealistic and restrictive. It doesn’t give trainee instructors enough opportunity to demonstrate the full range of skills that will they need when qualified.

The change will mean that new ADIs won’t need to undertake additional training or learn different teaching methods ahead of their standards check.

It will also enable the test to be delivered at a greater number of test centres and local to where their training has taken place.

The main changes

We’ll be moving to a competency-based assessment. Trainee instructors will be assessed over a single one-hour lesson on the 3 main competencies of lesson planning, risk management and teaching and learning strategies. They’ll also be assessed on an additional 17 sub-competencies.

Also, there’ll be no more role play by a DVSA examiner – trainee instructors must provide a ‘real’ pupil. This could be a friend, family member or colleague.

The lesson will have to reflect the learning goals and needs of their pupil.

To ensure that trainee instructors obtain the required range of skills, knowledge and understanding we’re exploring the use of a log book in which they and their trainer record the subjects covered, the different levels of instruction given and overall progress. Most, if not all instructor trainers already record progress like this and DVSA are happy for them to continue to use or adapt their existing processes.

When will this happen?

We need to produce an impact assessment first, setting out the costs and benefits of making the change. We also need to consider those trainee instructors who are already in the process of qualifying and give trainers time to develop their learning materials. Therefore, we won’t be introducing this change until Autumn 2017 at the earliest. We’ll keep you updated on timing and how we’re developing ORDIT as things progress.

What we’ve done so far

In May this year, we conducted research to identify awareness of this change and how well prepared instructor trainers and ORDIT organisations are to deliver the new training requirements. The research also set out to confirm what impacts and benefits the change might have.

Early findings:

Early analysis of responses indicates that:

We’ll publish the final report soon, and we’ll be undertaking further research with instructor trainers to help us finalise our impact assessment.

Working with the industry

We also met with NASP (National Associations Strategic Partnership) and spoke with some ORDIT organisations (small, medium and large) to discuss our findings and agree the principles of the new Part 3. Reactions were very positive, showing a clear enthusiasm about the prospect of a new ADI Part3.

If you’re not an ORDIT registered organisation, it’s important that you contact DVSA so that your instructor trainer organisation can be included in further work around the ADI part 3 test.