Risk Management
At all times you are responsible for your own safety, the safety of your pupil and the safety of other road users. In certain circumstances, this can extend to taking physical control of the vehicle to manage a safety-critical incident. If you fail in this basic responsibility, at any time, you will fail the standards check.
From a training point of view, you are also responsible for developing your pupil’s awareness of and ability to manage risk (as the driver, your pupil also has responsibilities). This is the objective that is being assessed in this section.
It is NOT a requirement that you mention dual controls, try to keep it real. An examiner might expect if you had brought a new pupil a lot of detail of how and why you might intervene, what the pupil needs to do if you do intervene and what would happen afterwards.
A pupil you had been working with for some time might not need as much discussion as there will be patterns developed over your time together, so it may be as simple as saying you have their back as always and that if I need to intervene I will, and we would then discuss what can be learned from it.
The important thing is that your environment needs to be safe, you must manage that risk and also help the learner how to manage the risk for themselves by transferring that responsibility to them if possible.
Did the ADI make sure that the pupil fully understood how the responsibility for risk would be shared?
The ‘balance of responsibility’ between yourself and your pupil will inevitably vary in different circumstances.
You should work with your pupil to decide the best way of tackling the problem and that might mean a temporary change in the ‘balance of responsibility’. The important thing is that your pupil knows what is expected of them and what they should expect of you.
Under test conditions, there are no circumstances in which you can assume that the issue of risk management has been dealt with. Even if you and your pupil have had discussions about risk before the observed lesson, you must show that you are actively managing the issue for assessment purposes.
Indications that all the elements of competence are in place could include:
- Asking your pupil what is meant by risk
- Asking your pupil what sorts of issues create risk, such as the use of
alcohol or drugs - Explaining clearly what is expected of your pupil and what the pupil can
reasonably expect of you - Checking that your pupil understands what is required of them when there
is a change of plan, or they are asked to repeat an exercise.
Indications of lack of competence include:
- Failing to address the issue of risk management
- Giving incorrect guidance about where responsibility lies for management
of risk - Failing to explain how dual controls will be used
- Undermining your pupil’s commitment to being safe and responsible, e.g.,
by agreeing with risky attitudes to alcohol use - Asking your pupil to repeat a manoeuvre or carry out a particular exercise
without making sure that they understand what role you are going to play.
There are very strong links here to lesson planning.
The important thing here is that everyone involved understands what is expected of them. So, a short chat about interventions with a learner you have been working with for a while would suffice. For example: “as ever I have your back (pointing at dual controls) if I intervene we will have a chat and see what we can learn from it.
A new learner would need a longer chat perhaps explaining how you might intervene and what they should do if that happens. Avoid risk management speeches at the start of the session, that is a waste of time (it’s difficult to manage risk in a stationary car) and examiners hate it. Your lesson planning (small chunks of training – plan, execute, review, new plan) will manage the risk if done correctly
If there are elements of their posed plan that are too risky (not enough knowledge, skill or experience to enable them to be able to complete the plan) then we need to help them put together more sensible plans, an inherent part of the GROW coaching model, this is also good risk management.
You cannot just let the learner do what they want or continue with the original subject if it is obvious to you (the driver training professional) that a change is required. We are responsible for risk management (keeping everyone safe), but we also have a responsibility to transfer that responsibility to them. Try not to over think this area, you will end up with over complicated plans!
Were directions and instructions given to the pupil clear and given in good time?
‘Directions’ are taken to mean any instruction, such as ‘turn left at the next junction’ or ‘try changing gear a little later’. Any input from you must be sufficient,timely and appropriate. It is important that you take account of the ability of your pupil when giving directions. Directions given late, or in a confusing or misleading way, do not allow the pupil to respond and can make weaknesses worse.
Too many unnecessary instructions from you can both de-motivate your pupil and create a real hazard. Remember it is an offence to use a mobile phone whilst driving because this is known to create a level of risk equivalent to or, in some cases, greater than driving whilst drunk. It cannot, therefore, be good practice to constantly bombard your pupil with unnecessary questions.
Indications that all the elements of competence are in place could include:
- Clear, concise directions
- Ensuring your pupil understands what you plan to do and agrees with that
plan - Directions given at a suitable time so that the pupil can respond
Indications of lack of competence include:
- Giving confusing directions
- Giving directions too late
- Giving unnecessary directions
- Failing to recognise when your input is causing overload or confusion.
We should always be aiming to help our learners reach their full potential. A person’s potential can be almost expressed mathematically, it is their performance minus any interference. Interference can come from many sources; lack of confidence, doubting their ability, negative self-talk, lack of self-belief etc.
But a big source of interference can come from mis-timed, badly phrased, or misleading instruction. for example, turn left at the end of the road right, or at the roundabout ahead, go left.
Be sure that your directions are concise and clear and in plenty of time. take the trouble to ask your learners in your normal day to day if they feel you give them enough time and do they always understand what you mean?
It is an area I see ADI’s getting wrong quite a bit of the time. Take the time to analyse if you are good at it or not (you will need feedback from others as you are not best placed to decide).
Was the trainer aware of the surroundings and the pupil’s actions?
This question lies at the heart of your professional skill. You should be able to:
- Take in the outside world
- Observe the actions of your pupil, including comments and body language
- Judge whether those actions are suitable in any given situation
- Respond accordingly
Any serious lapses in this area are likely to lead to a 0 marking.
Once we have a plan in place and are executing the plan it is important that you are taking note of what is happening around you so that you can help the learner reflect and review following a burst of activity. It is also important (as part of the chunking process) that we are alert to, and either prevent, or raise awareness after the fact of any issues that come about from our plan or other issues that can be prevented or brought to their attention after the event if prevention is not possible.
Was any verbal or physical intervention by the trainer timely and appropriate?
Your overall approach should be client-centred, do remember that there is a fine balance between giving enough input and giving too much.
When stationary it would be expected that inputs and interventions would take the form of a dialogue with your pupil. In the moving-car environment you remaining silent and signalling your confidence in your pupil, through your body language, is just as much a coaching input as asking a stream of questions. If we are going to use Q&A it is vital that we do not overcomplicate things or that we
are asking questions without any meaningful response from the learner. Make your questions count.
Clearly the most important ‘interventions’ are those that manage risk in a moving car. The examiner would expect you to point out to your pupil situations in which a risk or hazard might arise. However, direct intervention by yourself to prevent a situation escalating may be needed. This criterion is primarily about your response in those situations.
Indications that all the elements of competence are in place could include:
- Intervening in a way that actively supports your pupil’s learning process and safety during the session.
- Allowing your pupil to deal with situations appropriately
- Taking control of a situation where your pupil is clearly out of their depth
Indications of lack of competence include:
- Ignoring a developing situation and leaving your pupil to flounder
- Taking control of a situation your pupil is clearly dealing with appropriately
- Constantly intervening when unnecessary
- Intervening inappropriately and creating distractions
- Undermining your pupil’s confidence
- Reinforcing yourself as the person who is in sole control of the lesson
Linked inextricably to the previous section (was the trainer aware) we need to try our best to prevent safety critical events from happening, but if this is not possible then we need to be drawing the learner’s attention to it at the earliest opportunity. So, if you have seen it, then say it at the same time, this can serve as a reminder both to you and to the learner that this will be the topic of conversation once we find somewhere appropriate to discuss it. My preference would be at the side of the road, but if the pupil can manage it then it might be done on the move.
For example, if you prevented it, you have seen it, said it, and sorted it, leaving only the sussing of the issue to do (was sufficient feedback given) and then plan what will happen next (lesson plan adapted).
If you are raising it after the event, you have seen it and said it, leaving the sussing and sorting of the issue left to do. No matter where in the cycle of see it, say it, suss it and sort it cycle you enter (determined by if it is prevented or raised after the event) you must complete all four elements. Then agree that this will be our new goal and plan accordingly.
If we have a nice short repetitive route, then it will not be long till the next review point. If you notice anything you must see it and say it at the same time. Then depending on whether you prevented it or are dealing with it after the event will change the conversation.
Was sufficient feedback given to help the pupil understand any potentially safety critical incidents?
If a safety-critical, or potentially critical, incident does occur it is vital that your pupil fully understands what happened and how they could have avoided or dealt with it better. Ideally, your pupil should be supported to analyse the situation for themselves. However, it may be necessary for you to provide feedback if, for example, your pupil simply did not see a problem. That feedback should be given as soon as is practical after the incident.
Indications that all the elements of competence are in place could include:
- Finding a safe place to stop and examine the critical incident
- Allowing your pupil time to express any fears or concerns the incident might have caused
- Supporting your pupil to reflect clearly about what happened
- Providing input to clarify aspects of the incident that your pupil does not understand
- Support your pupil to identify strategies for future situations
- Providing input where your pupil does not understand what they should do differently
- Checking that your pupil feels able to put the strategy in place
- Agreeing ways of developing that competence if your pupil feels the need
Indications of lack of competence include:
- Failing to examine the incident
- Taking too long to address issues generated by an incident
- Not allowing your pupil to explore their own understanding
- Telling your pupil what the solution is and not checking their understanding
- Failing to check your pupil’s ability to put in place the agreed strategy
Having either prevented an issue or whilst raising the issue after the event we need to reach agreement that it is something that needs fixing. We also need to agree if this is to be added to the original plan or replacing the original plan (this will depend on how safety critical it is).
Anything that would result in a mark on the DL25 test form MUST be dealt with. NO EXCEPTIONS.
A very common mistake is to have brought a problem to the attention of the learner, sorted between you why it is a problem and them move away without a proper plan in place about who will do what (generally a lack of an agreed support strategy) meaning you have not demonstrated all the necessary competencies.
A properly constructed conversation about an issue would lead us then back to lesson planning as there will now be new goals (to tackle the issue) and a decision on how we will go about it (was the agreed lesson structure appropriate) and agreeing different levels of support or activities (was the lesson plan adapted)
So, as you can see, contrary to popular belief the lesson planning and the chunking methodology runs through everything that we do. If we do it well then not only is the risk managed but we must be making the lesson fit the pupil’s goals and needs therefore our teaching and learning strategies must be hitting the mark too.