We were coming up to some temporary traffic lights, nice straight bit of road you could see half a mile up the road, nothing coming towards us. The lights were red so I thought, ‘he’s going to slow down in a minute, I’m sure he’ll slow down; he’s going to have to slow down pretty quickly’. I hit the brakes and I said, ‘Didn’t you see the lights'’ ‘Yes’. ‘But they’re red, weren’t you going to stop'’ ‘No’. ‘Well why no'’ ‘There’s nothing coming, my Dad says if it’s a temporary traffic light and you can see it’s clear you don’t need to stop.’(Approved Driving Instructor) Staffordshire County Council's Road Safety Unit became aware of tales like the above from the County's driving instructors. Inspired by the DSA's 'Learning to Drive' public consultation, the Road Safety Unit worked together with independent driving instructors to devise a resource aimed at supporting beneficial private practice. The Young Driver Coaching Programme Resource Pack consisted of a learner driver's record book and a supervising driver's information guide. The Resource Pack intended to improve the learning relationships between learner, parent and ADI, and to encourage the active involvement of parents in their child's learning. An evaluation of the early months of the project was commissioned by Staffordshire County Council's Road Safety Unit and carried out by a team from RoSPA and Keele University, funded by BNFL. This process evaluation reports on the success of the Resource Pack in improving the quality of private practice, for instance by resolving conflicts between the three members of the learning team and in updating parents' knowledge of teaching methods and road rules. This report highlights the challenge of gaining (and sustaining) active parental involvement and describes the challenge of structuring conventionally unstructured private practice. (Author/publisher)
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