It is widely accepted in Great Britain (GB) and across the world that those drivers who have only recently become licensed to drive unaccompanied (especially if they are also young) are at a greatly increased risk of having a collision while driving, when compared with drivers who have more experience. In GB the most recent evidence (see Wells,
Tong, Sexton, Grayson & Jones, 2008) suggests that the average driver who begins to drive at 17 years of age is 50% less likely to have a collision after just one year of postlicence driving when compared with their level of risk in the first six months post-licence.
A number of systematic reviews of the driver training and education literature have shown that training and education as delivered in the past for new drivers has been ineffective in lowering their collision risk. Helman, Grayson and Parkes (2010) among many others have suggested that one possible reason for this is that traditional approaches may have been focused on vehicle control skills and other factors that are required to pass practical driving tests but may not be related to collision risk.
With the intention of improving the extent to which learning to drive prepares learners for post-licence driving, the DSA have developed a new syllabus which is designed to be delivered in a ‘client-centred’ style similar to the ‘coaching’ approach used in the EU Hermes project. It is intended that the new syllabus and process will lead to learner drivers taking more ownership of their own learning, and will result in them beginning their unaccompanied driving careers with safer attitudes to key risk-relevant behaviours.