Memorandum from GoSkills (RS
36)
INTRODUCTION
GoSkills are pleased to be able to submit
evidence to the Transport Select Committee's Road Safety Inquiry.
GoSkills is the Sector Skills Council
for Passenger Transport. We represent employers in the following
industries: bus, coach, taxi, private hire, community transport,
driving instruction, transport planning, allied transport professionals,
rail, metro, tram/light rail, airports, airlines, ground handlers
and inland waterways. This response is provided in the context
of the passenger transport sector.
Many of the industries within the GoSkills
remit provide transport services that use the road infrastructure.
Road safety is therefore of paramount importance to the sector
not just in relation to the safety of individual roads uses but
also in relation to the safety of passengers and the safety of
professional drivers. Working with employers and associated bodies,
we set the national occupational standards for driving instruction,
from which are derived vocational qualifications, for which we
also have an approval function. Additionally, road safety has
been a key issue for the Driving Instruction industry and the
industry group has tasked GoSkills with raising awareness
in schools and colleges of road safety and driver education issues.
Our work to date has included working with the Motor Cycle Industry
Association (MCIA) to produce a pack of materials for schools.
GoSkills has recently joined forces with
the Driving Standards Agency to take forward a project on the
development of a qualification for schools across the UK that
addresses road safety.
RESPONSE TO
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
1. To what extent have targets for casualty
reduction been a useful tool for focusing professional activity?
They are an essential national tool. The targets
have helped to drive action and also to raise awareness of road
safety issues with a wider range of organisations and individuals.
The establishment of targets provides a clear message about the
work that is needed in this area. This has been helpful for GoSkills
when we take the road safety message to key partners such
as qualifications regulators and awarding bodies as we are able
to demonstrate government commitment to this important agenda.
2. What further measures need to be adopted
to reduce deaths and injuries arising from drinking and driving?
Education has a role to play. Driving is viewed
as a desirable and essential skill and most individuals, particularly
young people, seek to achieve a driving licence. However, issues
about road vehicle driving and safety on the roads are currently
a comparatively low priority in schools. Skills related to employability,
such as the use of IT and information on personal health such
as nutrition have secured a much higher profile in schools—yet
road safety, which can literally make the difference between life
and death, is not given the same profile. Given the importance
of reducing deaths on the roads, it would be sensible to give
greater attention to driving and road safety in schools and other
full-time learning programmes.
Alongside work to raise awareness with young
drivers, further work is needed with existing drivers. Many individuals
(other than professional drivers) drive as part of their job role;
there is a need to recognise driving as an essential skill that
needs to be embedded in training programmes and constantly updated.
There is a role for all Sector Skills Councils in raising awareness
of safe driving with employers in their sectors.
The question relates to drink driving. However,
a current major cause for concern is also driving under the influence
of drugs. With no coherent means of testing or differentiating
between prescribed/non prescribed drugs, ultimately this subject
has a direct impact on the KSI rates. The education community
has a moral responsibility to promote road safety and the dangers
of drink and drug driving.
3. How does Great Britain compare with other
EU countries in its approach to reducing deaths and injuries?
Although Great Britain compares very favourably
with most EU countries in terms of deaths and serious injuries
for passenger miles travelled, the rate of decrease is slowing.
If one looks at accident rates among young drivers, they are at
a shockingly high level. It appears that we have taken all the
relatively easy steps as a country, but are being caught up by
other countries that are now applying the stricter legal controls
we have had for some time. However, in certain respects our approach
to young drivers is less developed than in, say, a country like
France where driver training is a part of the school curriculum.
4. How do approaches in reductions in risk
on the roads compare to those adopted in other modes of transport?
A key difference in relation to the use of the
roads is that there are far more individuals using the roads.
Drivers/Pilots in rail and aviation contexts are more likely to
be taking control of a vehicle in a professional context; there
are also more age restrictions. The time spent in initial training
is likely to be far longer and to be compulsory-as in aviation.
The period of preparation for a train driver can be a year-a far
longer period in practise than for the initial car driver licence-where
no minimum training period is currently mandated.
5. Are there specific blockages caused by
shortages of appropriately trained and skilled staff?
There is over-supply of driving instructors,
partly as a consequence of entrants` very poor knowledge of what
the job is like in practice and how well it pays. This is partly
driven by the supply side and its promotion of the career, which
at first face would strike people as very attractive, particularly
the appeal of "being your own boss". As a result the
market is saturated; work is scarce and therefore badly paid.
There is no incentive to upskill and quality suffers. Many instructors
are able to train perfectly well on basic vehicle controls, road
signs and the law, plus what the driving test entails, but lack
background in vitally important areas such as driving strategies,
planning trips and driver behaviour.
The process by which individuals learn to drive
is fragmented in the sense that practical skills are developed
through work with an instructor (not always professional) whilst
the theoretical knowledge is developed by the individual, usually
in isolation. There is a clear gap in the availability of training
for the theoretical part of the test. Training towards the theory
element of the test would also provide an excellent vehicle for
enhancing awareness of road safety issues and potentially bringing
about attitudinal and behavioural changes.
In order to offer more pre-driving training,
work will be needed to upskill professional driver trainers who
may wish to take on this work and also to upskill teachers/trainers
in the classroom so that they can contribute.
6. What further policies, not already widely
used, might be considered for adoption and what evidence there
is for their success?
We should certainly consider a compulsory minimum
period of initial instruction through a qualified instructor.
There would need also to be consequential reforms in the preparation
and continued professional development of driver trainers. Work
is currently ongoing to develop the CPD of ADI's.
GoSkills maintains the national PCV driving
instructor register. PCV driving instructors wishing to be considered
for the register have to achieve the driving instruction national
vocational qualification (NVQ) level 3. In order to remain on
the register, PCV driving instructors have to be re-assessed by
qualified Assessors and Verifiers in the Mandatory Units in the
driving instructional NVQ to prove they remain competent. Our
evidence indicates this method of using national occupational
standards is a credible and reliable means of ensuring driving
instructors remain occupationally competent.
7. What should be the priorities for government
in considering further targets for casualty reduction beyond 2010?
In setting priorities and targets, consideration
should be given to addressing pre-driver training as this offers
a real opportunity to bring about changes in attitude prior to
new drivers entering the driving arena. Consideration should be
given to increasing the availability of relevant road safety qualifications
in schools. We also see a need to allow the carrying forward of
credits earned in theory testing through a school-based qualification
into the driving theory test.
We of course would be happy to contribute further
oral evidence if the committee would find it useful.
February 2008
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