Organisation: Staffordshire County Council
Date uploaded: 24th January 2011
Date published/launched: December 2010
Pass Plus Extra is a scheme providing drivers with the opportunity of completing the DSA's Pass Plus scheme at a subsidised rate. All applicants must attend a compulsory two-hour interactive workshop to receive the subsidy.
In 2005 it was recognised that we were missing an opportunity to get added ‘value for money’ from funding the scheme, so it was decided that we would investigate ways of increasing the benefit that we received from providing the subsidy; not only to meet our objectives, but to provide younger drivers with an increased awareness of road safety. Our way forward was to develop a road safety-based workshop to complement the scheme, which would allow us the opportunity to engage with young and newly qualified drivers at a time when they would most benefit from road safety education.
The two-hour workshop was developed to be interactive and encourage participation, but most importantly it focused on the key areas where young drivers were most vulnerable. The aim was to focus on behavioural and attitudinal issues such as peer pressure, seat belt wearing and drink and drug driving rather than increasing pure driver knowledge such as road signs etc. as this would be a duplication of their driving tuition. Attendance at the workshop is compulsory, entitling the applicant to receive the Pass Plus practical lessons for £60 or less; the subsidy was increased to encourage more applicants.
At the start of the workshop development process there were two other authorities who were presenting ‘enhanced’ workshop schemes, Kirklees and Lincolnshire. Neither of these schemes at the time met our requirements as neither provided a totally interactive workshop and both were PowerPoint-based, which we had decided to avoid in favour of participative discussion. So rather than adopt either of these models we decided to develop our own resource. The workshop we introduced in April 2006 was piloted for 12 months to assess the content, which was then reviewed. Following the initial evaluation of the workshop, changes were made and a professionally produced pack was introduced; we have sold several of these to other road safety units around the country, including Shropshire, Powys and Herefordshire.
The workshop is two hours in duration and has no PowerPoint content, although a few video clips are shown. There are interactive tasks that have to be completed by the clients, with many discussion topics included, where all clients are encouraged to participate using different teaching methods. To begin with the workshop presentation was carried out by road safety officers, but due to workload approved driving instructors (ADIs) were recruited to present the course; all presenter ADIs hold teaching qualifications. All workshops have a maximum of 14 clients in attendance, with all working in pairs, so as not to pressurise any young driver unnecessarily.
For more information contact:
Kevin Wilcox
T: 01785 276617
<: 07949 138201