Conferences and Seminars
Report on Council Meeting
Held at the Village Hotel, Walsall 07/06/08
We held a short but lively meeting before our ADINJC master class led by Professor Peter Russell. If you belong to a local association or are a member of DIG (our Driving Instructors Group) you are welcome to attend such council meetings.
Comments from some of our association members after this meeting included:
• ‘An excellent meeting, well run and very professional'
• 'It is good to talk to like minded people and get ideas'
• ‘Can we have an association page in the newsletter, so we can see what other groups are doing?'
Our council meetings are a way of getting our associations together: we firmly believe that with unity of ADI's we have strength to take your views further. Each association can also vote on any decisions we make at the ADINJC. We discussed several ideas from the new consultation document on Safer Driving as well as fuel prices, which were high on everyone's agenda. Please consider signing the fuel price petition mentioned in this newsletter.
Many members agreed with a comment from Mark Hewison, one of our DIG members, who said he wanted to praise the editor for such an interesting and well written monthly edition and our thanks to Neil Peek, our President, for being its editor.
The terms and conditions that the ADINJC are working on for you to use with your clients are at present being checked over by our solicitor and will be available shortly, certainly by the conference in October. You will all be able to receive a copy.
Nick Ibbott, who is on the working party for CPD with the DSA, gave us an interesting update on the progress being made now we are moving into Phase 2 of the project. This phase is about making ADI's aware of what is happening with CPD, so there will be leaflets, flyers and other information coming out very soon. Each member of the working party has a special task and Nick is studying ADIs who to date have never undertaken any CPD. He needs to find fifteen ADIs who fall into this category, so if you can help him let us know. Other points include how to record CPD and your goals and targets and producing charts and record sheets for us to use in the future for this purpose.
We have been attending many of the DSA conferences held around the country with an exhibition stand and information. As we are all volunteer working ADIs, on the governing committee, it is sometimes difficult for us to attend them all. Some of our associations offered to help if the conference was held near to their area and this would be most welcome. Can anyone assist with the conference in Cardiff this July, please let me know.
Our thanks to all those that attended. We are delighted with the numbers that are turning up for these meetings. Guests are welcome, just let us know in advance if you wish to attend. Our next meeting will be the AGM held after our annual conference on Sunday 5 th October at the Village Hotel, Walsall . We hope to see you there.
Lynne Barrie
ADINJC General Secretary
lynne@lbsom.co.uk
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Has your local group of ADIs discussed the contents of the recent (7th May) Consultation Document about the future of driver education?
For 70 years the DSA and its predecessors have always known how to treat ADIs.
They have known that whatever changes they have suggested the views of the various organisations have always been so mixed that they carry no weight. They simply ignored us.
At the ADINJC we have been very aware that this DSA Consultation Paper is different: very different. For the first time there are no demarcation lines which cannot be crossed. The DSA themselves are saying that they want to change the marking system for testing; they want to change the training methods we use as well; they even want to discuss changing the way new instructors are sucked into the system with no chance of business success.
The DSA need driving instructors to suggest changes to the way we teach to make us more effective; and for those who are willing to listen, to discuss and respond, there is a potential for you and all your colleagues to turn a cottage industry into a professional business. Unlike others who have called the consultation paper a waste of time and paper, we firmly believe that driver training and testing is a partnership.
The ADINJC held a training day last week where we discussed radical changes to the driving test marking system with the Chief Driving Examiner; and we found he was highly receptive to the views we put. More than that he congratulated the ADINJC on the professional way our views were presented and received by members. He also said how unusual it was to attend a meeting of professional ADIs with serious thought and vision for the future. He also agreed with our views on how we should learn how to coach rather than instruct.
The ADINJC invites you, and your association to join us in our attempt to take the best options that are available to us. We may never get this opportunity again.
What do we want? We look forward to a standardised syllabus of training across the country; and we know we shall have a great deal of impact on what this syllabus will contain. We look forward to a fresh approach to driver testing; and we have already had considerable input into this as well.
How can you share in shaping the future ? The simplest way is to come to our Annual Conference in October this year; but if you and your colleagues want to have some instant input into the Consultation paper, we need to have your views before the end of August. Why not call a meeting now and ask one of our council members to come to talk to you about how you can change your association's impact onto our industry and its future. Call us now. You will never get another chance like this.
What can we do to help you? On 7th June we presented a Master Class on Training and Assessment which was well received by the DSA. We can now invite you and your association members a series of short training days to enable you to see how best to cope with the new syllabus and new driving test. If nothing else you will make more money than your competitors who are still lumbering on without even being aware of the changes to be made.
What are the benefits to our members ? We can help train you to become professional driving coaches; we can train you to become new Behavioural Driving Assessors; we can show and support you in breaking into the Corporate Driver training and assessment market. We can give you all the C.P.D. you will ever need.
What do I do next then? Give us a ring or send a letter or an email and we will visit you whenever it suits you. But if you wait to see what happens then your input will never be heard.
President Chairman Secretary
Neil Peek John Neilson Lynne Barrie
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The ADINJC held its 28th National Annual Conference,
“How to be a successful ADI”, in September at the Village Hotel, Walsall.“
The best ADINJC conference I have attended!” Not my words, but those of Keith Hornby, Managing Director of Intensive Driving UK . Charles Morton, the Registrar and one of our guest speakers, commented that it was good to attend an event with so many ADI's present. At other conferences that he had attended recently, numbers had been dropping.
It was good to see John Miller, author of the Driving Instructors' Handbook there. He premiered the new edition; before it was available in stores, and kindly signed copies. Delegates received complimentary copies of the latest adiNEWS together with a conference pack and a gift from the ADINJC. We are grateful to our sponsors, adiNEWS, Oval Insurance and Grade Six Supplies.
ADINJC President, Neil Peek opened the conference. He felt we were on the ‘road to meltdown' with over 40,000 ADI's on the register and many more still training. Unity is strength, he said, and we need strength so as not to become ‘puppets on strings' held by the DSA.
Three presentations followed from the DSA: the Registrar told us that at July 07 there were 41,602 ADIs on the register. He appreciated our concerns at the number of ADIs, but thought the rise in numbers would level out and then start to drop after another 2 or 3 years. Since the start of CRB checks, PDI applications have fallen from 1,718 per month in 2006, to 1,144 in January 2007. Trainee licence applications have also fallen from 532 per month in 2006 to 459 since January 2007. As at 21 Sept 07, there were 2,963 pink badge holders working.
With CRB checks, 8,500 existing ADIs have been checked, about 10% of these have been asked for further information by the DSA, and fewer than 20 ADIs have been removed so far. Charles Morton was concerned that 400 ADIs had not responded to their CRB check: he warned that removal proceedings would be started against such people. From April 08, renewal of registration will require a CRB check. Also Charles used the conference to announce that, from next January, all examiners will have to be CRB checked in the same way as ADIs. This is something for which the ADINJC lobbied and now welcomes.
We were then pleased to welcome Lesley Young, Deputy Chief Examiner, to our conference for the first time. Items she told us to expect are:
- Eco-safe driving in the L test in 2008
- A new motorcycle test
- A new and modern syllabus set out as a log book
- Possibility of ADIs signing off manoeuvres in this log book
- Reducing road deaths amongst 17-20 year olds and amongst those over 70
- Possible partnership agreements with parents
- Tackling the unlicenced and uninsured
- Further improvements to the L test.
Delegates were impressed with the way Lesley spoke. One delegate said “ I was greatly impressed by the frank, open and plain-speaking way she made her guest presentation. It was most refreshing ”.
Finally from the DSA was Brian Young, Chief Instructor at Cardington. He showed a film he had produced to provide an insight into Cardington and what happens there. He talked us through the Cardington Special Test, now to become known as the DSA Special Test as it will be available in other locations.
Nick Ibbott, our Head of Training, then launched the new ADINJC tutors' course. This is a course for those who wish to become ADI trainers. Its aim is to produce the most elite driver trainers. The previous version of this course was taken by well known industry figures such as Margaret Stacey, John Milne MBE, and our Chairman, John Neilson.
Professor Peter Russell, Chairman of the Institute of Master Tutors of Driving, and Founder of the Driver Education Research Foundation was next to speak. He had chosen our conference to launch his new Defensive Drivers' Promise. This is a scheme intended to reduce road deaths amongst young drivers. It involves up to 8 hours further tuition on defensive driving following the L test and PassPlus. The ADINJC support this initiative.
Next was the session on ‘What the Law Will Allow?” given by Alison Gresham and Matthew Catlin. Alison is a working ADI that has studied karate and martial arts for over 12 years. Matthew is a solicitor and also a martial arts expert. They gave us an insight into what an ADI can and can't do if faced with aggressive behaviour from the general public or a pupil. They gave several physical displays of self-protection. This was even more impressive given that Alison is very petite and feminine. Matthew helped us understand what the law means by reasonable force.
Our Road Safety Advisor, Graham Feest then spoke to update us on road safety issues.
The ADINJC thank Graham for his presentation and his input throughout the year.
We were pleased to have the ADI Federation at our conference represented by Barbara Trafford and Ian Green. Ian talked on professionalism. He believes we have allowed this to slide together with the respect we receive from the general public.
The conference finished on a high with Neil Peek's presentation. As one delegate said “the award of the day must go to Neil”. Our president has the ability to engage an audience. He urged us to think positively. He pointed out that we consider ourselves too lowly. A plumber charges £40 an hour, why do we charge only £20 an hour. Don't think you can't get more. Neil explained his own rise through the industry from a small start to a major driving school.
In the AGM held immediately after the conference, the committee were all re-elected. We welcomed James Quinn as a new committee member. He runs Birmingham Driving School which has 20 instructors and trains ADIs himself.
The ADINJC was founded in 1973; it's the third largest national organisation with DSA consultative status. It's comprised entirely of working ADIs and has no salaried officials. All membership fees go towards promoting the interests of ADIs. Lynne Barrie is the ADINJC General Secretary and can be contacted at lynne@lbsom.co.uk.
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