(5) PDI PART 3 RISK MANAGEMENT Risk Sharing

How the Responsibility for Risk should be dealt with.

You are the fully qualified driver! you hold the full driver's licence and although currently a PDI you still need to be responsible for the safety of you, your pupil and all other road users.
You must ensure that the learning environment that you create for your lessons is a safe learning environment at all times.
When your learner is driving there needs to be a transfer of responsibility for risk because they are in charge of the vehicle,
but this risk MUST BE DEFINED AND MANAGED!

WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF WHAT?

A new learner on their first day of driving will not be capable of taking 100% of the responsibility for risk, so the role for risk needs to become SHARED.

As with all the other 16 competencies from the DVSA part 3 marking sheet, all the categories should overlap with each other and be linked to the whole length of your lessons.

If you are giving poor instructions that are not well worded you are increasing the potential level of risk.
If you are not clear and understood when giving instructions you are increasing the level of risk.
If you are taking your pupil on roads they are clearly not ready for you are increasing the level of risk.
If you are distracted and not paying attention to your surrounding and your pupil you are increasing the level of risk.

Not only are you sharing the responsibility for risk but you are building and developing your learners skill in being able to deal with and manage risk.

The statistics of a new driver having an accident after they pass the driving test, are that they are more likely to have one within the first two years of passing.

Is this due to a lack of experience or ability?
Is it because of vehicle failure?
Is it because they didn't get enough practice on particular types of roads?
Were they not familiar with driving in different weather conditions? Maybe they only took lessons in the summer and never dealt with rain, snow or ice.
Maybe they only had lessons in the morning and didn't know how to drive a car at night or were not prepared for things they may see or may not see at night?
Maybe their skills to assess levels of risk and managing how to deal with it was not addressed enough?
In this situation, the question is, did you hold your pupil's hand (metaphorically) on every driving lesson?

By that I mean did you keep them on the same roads most of the time?
Did you always tell them what the speed limits are?
Did you always help them with knowing what lane to use when arriving at a roundabout and what lane to take while navigating it?
Did you literally talk them through everything for the entirety of the training sessions?

If this is how you teach, then how can you expect your pupil to be able to deal with risk when they pass their test.

Once they pass they won't have you sat alongside them telling them where they should be, how fast or slow to take a corner, what the speed limit is etc.
They need to be able to make these decisions for themselves.

So how do we do this?

The Responsibility for risk needs to start from day one of your learners' training.
They need to understand what risk is.
How it is going to dealt with.
And by who.

Independent driving was introduced to the driving test so that an examiner could see that the learner was able to take the decisions to deal with
RISK MANAGEMENT.

50% roughly of the driving test length (approx 20mins) is dedicated to the Independent drive.
The learner must show that they can receive an instruction from the examiner and make all the necessary decisions to deal with the circumstances at the time safely.

An examiner role is to observe the learner, it is not their job to Instruct. It is also not their job (as such) to intervene if the pupil makes a mistake. It is their job to note down the mistake as either a driver fault, serious fault or a dangerous fault.

If a dangerous fault were made, it would mean that the examiner needed to take action to avoid a dangerous situation from happening.

On occasion, unfortunately, the examiner may not react in time (they may have been marking the marking sheet for previous faults) and an accident will happen.

So by building your learners skill set on managing risk and understanding how to deal with it, is a crucial part of their learning.

At the start of each lesson you will discuss with your pupil their goals and needs for the session and will have created a clear an concise objective of what they are wanting to achieve by the end of that session. It is then a joint venture between you and your pupil based on their knowledge, experience and ability to decide who will be responsible for what.

As your lessons progress and your pupil's experience and ability grows the level of responsibility that is shared will reduce,
so that your pupil is responsible for more of the risk.

Ultimately the level of risk "should" be 100% in their control by the time they are test ready.

Therefore you, as the experienced driver need to know how to work out what level of risk you will take care of and what level of risk your pupil can manage, although when trying to create Client-Centered learning this can be a fine line between teaching your pupil or coaching them.

To start with, the level of risk they may possibly be able to manage will be quite small.
Let's face it, most learners will be so concerned about not stalling or the steering so they don't hit anything that their ability to even consider dealing with risk situations will be very limited.
Their focus will be looking out the front of the car to avoid collisions and thinking about what their feet are doing, that they won't be able to deal with anything else.

Using mirrors, knowing how to signal, how to even take their eyes off the road to look at the speedometer, will be tasks that most will find extremely daunting.

So you need to have a discussion with them about what you would like them to take care of and what you will be taking care of.

The conversation might go something like this.

EXAMPLE 1.

INSTRUCTOR
"Good morning Paul. So we've set our Goal for today's lesson and you want to try moving onto real roads and get out of this car park.
Are you still happy to do this?"

PAUL
"Yes I'd really like that, the car park was great for me to build up my skill of clutch control and knowing how much steering I needed to get me around corners, and about how I need to look around me before I move off from a stationary position, but the car park is so spacious that I cant judge the size of the car very well and because it is so spacious it's makes it unreal to know what I'm looking out for when I would be parked in a road. I think if there was a kerb alongside the car I would be able to judge the size of the car and the position of it in the road easier and understand how looking around me before moving off makes more sense"

INSTRUCTOR
"That's really good Paul, car parks are ok to give you less pressure to start with and get used to the pedals steering and a general awareness of your surroundings but are not a true reflection of driving on the roads. Being on the road will make things feel more real as well.
So, what do you think will be additional things that we may have to deal with once we get out onto the roads?"

PAUL
"Well obviously cars! But also pedestrians, cyclists and motorbikes, parked cars, road works?"

INSTRUCTOR
"Great! that's a nice list to start with, I can see you're thinking more about thing other than just cars, well done!
Is there anything else you could think of that might become a concern?

PAUL
"Ermm, not at the moment, I don't think so"

INSTRUCTOR
"OK. So there are other things we will need to consider when on roads, which is why the theory side of driving is important.
When we drive a car, there are lots of rules that we must abide by, priorities to know who can go or who needs to stop in certain situations, Legalities with things like tax, Insurance and Mot's but we can can discuss them later. But there are many things that we must also do as a driver to keep ourselves and everyone else safe. This isn't just while we are driving but also when we are stationary.
Are the anythings you could think about that me might need to do even when are car is stopped?"

PAUL
"I'm not sure"

INSTRUCTOR
" Well, what might happen if when we pull in to finish the lesson, we both got out of the car without looking around us first to see if it is safe to get out?"

PAUL
"Oh blimey yeah! If we open the door without looking, we might open it into the path of a vehicle overtaking us."

INSTRUCTOR
"Exactly! So what things might you think we would need to consider when we slow down coming to the end of a road?"

PAUL
"Errr, making sure we stop?"

INSTRUCTOR
"Yes that is important so we don't roll out into oncoming traffic. Is there anything you think would be important?"

PAUL
"Errr, let people know which way we are going"

INSTRUCTOR
"OK, so how are you going to do that?"

PAUL
"I could put on a direction signal"

INSTRUCTOR
"Do you know how to operate them?"

PAUL
"Yes my Dad's got a similar car to this and I see him doing it"

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok so while we are here, do you want to show me how to put on a left and the a right signal?"

PAUL
"Sure, it's easy. I push this up for turning right and pull it down for turning left."

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok that's great. So thinking about coming to the end of the road and letting other road users know you want to turn left or right, when would you put the signal on?

PAUL
"I suppose as I get near to the end of the road?"

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok. Is there anything else you may need to do before you get to the end of the road before you put your signal on?

PAUL
"Yes, I would need to slow down"

INSTRUCTOR
"Alright so you'd slow down and then put a signal on? Anything else before this?

PAUL
"Ermm I don't think so"

INSTRUCTOR
"So what might happen if we slowed the car down first quite quickly and something was behind us?"

PAUL
"They might hit us"

INSTRUCTOR
"Yes they might. So what else should we think about doing before we slow down?

PAUL
"OH, I suppose I should use my mirrors first"

INSTRUCTOR
"I see you used the word mirrors. Tell me what mirrors you might use then?"

PAUL
"Well I've been watching my Dad quite a lot recently and I always see him use his mirrors when he turns left or right.
He uses the centre mirror and left door mirror before he turns left, and centre mirror and right door mirror before he turns right"

INSTRUCTOR
"That's really good to hear Paul, do you think your Dad is a good driver?"

PAUL
"Yeah, he's been driving years now and is really confident"

INSTRUCTOR
"That's really nice to hear Paul. Would you like to drive like him once you've passed your test?"

PAUL
"Yeah my Dad's a great driver!"

INSTRUCTOR
"So thinking about what mirrors your Dad uses when he turns left and right, do you understand why he uses the particular ones that he does?

PAUL
"Yeah, he says we must be aware of cars behind us and how close they are and left or right mirrors to see that no one is close to us or overtaking before turning left or right".

INSTRUCTOR
"That is really good Paul and it's nice to see your Dad helps with explaining things to you about driving.
So thinking about our initial lesson goal of getting used to driving on real roads and turning left into and out of roads, how do you feel about having to deal with checking your mirrors, putting on a signal and slowing down before you get to the end of the road?"

PAUL
"That's a lot more to deal with than I've done in the car park"

INSTRUCTOR
"Yes it is, so is there anything I could do as we start to introduce this that would make it easier for you to deal with it"

PAUL
"That would be good."

INSTRUCTOR
"Alright, what parts would you like me to deal with for you for now?"

PAUL
"Could you check everything around me is ok before I slow down and put my signal on for me,
just until I'm comfortable with getting used to stopping at the end of the road?"

INSTRUCTOR
"Of course I can Paul. SO if you deal with the slowing down of the car with the footbrake and stopping us as close to the Give-way line without crossing it, and I'll take care of what is behind us as well as to the side of us, and also put on your direction signal when it's necessary. If there are vehicle behind us as we start to slow down I will let you know so that you don't hit the brakes hard, is that ok?"

PAUL
"Yes, that would help me lots, thanks!"

INSTRUCTOR
"So before we move off, is there anything else that you would like me to take car of or advise you on before we get going?"

PAUL
"Actually yes, can you advise me when to start slowing down"

INSTRUCTOR
"Yes of course I can"

PAUL
"Brilliant, shall we get going?"

INSTRUCTOR
"For sure, We'll do a a little lap around this estate turning left, left, left , and left, I'll give you instructions on the way around so that you will know when the junctions are coming up. The route will bring us back to here and we can pull in and see how you got on. If on the journey you are not happy or need any additional assistance please let me know, and if there is possibly something that arises that I think you may have missed I will ensure either verbally or physically I can intervene to keep us safe and we can pull in and have a discussion about it afterwards. Are you ok with that?"

PAUL
"Yep let's do this!"

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok,
So, when it is safe to do so, you can drive on"

This is just an typical style of conversation that you and your pupil may have before each lesson. It create a shared responsibility for the risks that may be encountered based on what lesson subject you may be covering.

As the lesson progresses, the pupil may find that they will be capable of dealing with the introduction of them checking the mirrors. At this stage you need to reassess the sharing of risk between you and them and confirm the new responsibility that they are taking on.

There may be need for Full guidance from you to start with, followed by prompting and the allowing the pupil to make all the decisions for themselves.

The aim for your pupil should always be that the end result is the responsibility for risk assessment and dealing with it is purely down to them.

The timescale for this to happen will be shared between both of you and how quickly your pupil learns.

Some pitfalls that New instructors tend to fall into, is setting up the responsibility for risk with their pupils and then totally disregarding those roles.

When we think about the use of

G.U.I.
GUIDED Instruction
Prompted Instruction
And then Independent driving from the pupil

It is easy for the roles to be set up and the Instructor has agreed with the pupil that they will prompt the pupil if necessary, and then a couple of minutes into the next practice session they revert to fully guiding the pupil.
This is not looked at lightly by an examiner marking you for your Part 3 or standards check and would be deemed as Over-Instructing.

If you set the roles for responsibility then you must stick with them until such time that you agree with your pupil to change those roles.

As your role is to ALWAYS ensure the learning location is safe, there will always be the case that "running in the background" you are always there to step in should the need arise, but with a correctly planned route, a concise set of planned roles and responsibilities, clear instruction when necessary and the level of your pupil's goals have been set that meets your pupils current ability and experience, there should be no reason for you to step in unless some unforeseen situation arises from another road user.

If we just step back a little to the example above, if the instructor is doing their job well they would have listened with intent to their pupil during the two-way conversation while setting up the responsibility for risk.

Things the Instructor should have picked up on, is that the learner has already started to gain a skill of risk assessment in driving.
Did you pick up on the parts where the leaner mentioned :-

"Well obviously cars! But also pedestrians, cyclists and motorbikes, parked cars, road works?"
"Oh blimey yeah! If we open the door without looking, we might open it into the path of a vehicle overtaking us."
"Errr, let people know which way we are going"
"I suppose as I get near to the end of the road?"
"Yes, I would need to slow down"
"They might hit us"
"Yeah, he says we must be aware of cars behind us and how close they are and left or right mirrors to see that no one is close to us or overtaking before turning left or right".
"Could you check everything around me is ok before I slow down and put my signal on for me,
just until I'm comfortable with getting used to stopping at the end of the road?"
"Actually yes, can you advise me when to start slowing down"

All of those little snippets from the example conversation shows that the pupil has some understanding of RISK.

Those snippets just need to keep building and it's your role as the instructor to help keep building them with your pupil.

If ever there is an opportunity to build on an area of risk, then give your pupils questions that may make them challenge their thoughts to grab answers for areas that they might not initially have thought of.

Give them time to think - don't just step in and answer for them.

You know the answers, let them try and find them first before supplying them.

Obviously, if they don't know the answer, you can try and re-word questions in a slightly different manner that may change their thought pattern and evoke a new answer. But if after a few different questions they genuinely may not know or understand your question and an answer may need to be given.

Looking back at the area of Guided, Prompted and Independent.

If you set up these roles you MUST stick to them until it is agreed that you are going to change them.

GUIDED INSTRUCTION

How do I give Guided instruction?

Guided instruction is literally that Guided.

Think about someone who is blind. If you were guiding them, holding there hand and walking with them, you would be letting them know EVERYTHING that is coming up and how to avoid things or deal with them.

Guided Instruction while driving is no different.

Think about just a basic example of turning left into a road.
You wouldn't just tell someone who is new to driving to "turn left here" would you?

They might make it, but no doubt with lots of errors and probably not very comfortably.

So as a fully guided method you would need to talk them through it something like this.
(We'll use PAUL again as the pupil.)

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok Paul, If you look further along this road you'll see a ...object..., Just after it is a road on the left which I would like you to turn into"

PAUL
"Ok"

INSTRUCTOR
"As we get a little closer I would like you to check your interior mirror to see who is behind us, and your left mirror to see who is alongside the car.
Tell me if you see anyone."

PAUL
"No there isn't anyone there"

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok, that's great. So now place on a left direction signal to let anyone else know what we intend to do"

PAUL
"OK Done!"

INSTRUCTOR
"Now, ease off the gas pedal and gently introduce the footbrake and bring your speed down and tell me when you are at 10mph"

PAUL
"OK that's 10mph"

INSTRUCTOR
"And now press the clutch pedal to the floor and move from 2nd gear into 1st gear and raise the clutch back to the foot off position"

PAUL
"OK that's done as well

INSTRUCTOR
"So we are nearly at the turning, look into the road and turn into it using any necessary steering to get the car around the corner and then straighten up the steering to continue into the road."

PAUL
"BOOM! that was great and really easy.

Remember, this is early days when your pupil may not have a good understanding of terminology, so your instructions will need to be earlier and possibly a lot longer. But, the car should be travelling much slower at this stage so you will have time to give these instructions.

As your pupil's ability grows and after a few attempts and stopping and discussing how they felt things went, you might want to change the sharing of responsibility to prompted instruction.

PROMPTED INSTRUCTION FOR THE SAME TURNING MIGHT SOUND LIKE THIS.

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok Paul, If you look further along this road you'll see a ...object..., Just after it is a road on the left which I would like you to turn into"

PAUL
"Ok"

INSTRUCTOR
"What mirrors might you need to use before turning?"

PAUL
"My interior mirror and the left door mirror"

INSTRUCTOR
"Brilliant! Is there anyone behind or next to us?"

PAUL
"No there isn't anyone there"

INSTRUCTOR
"Do we need to signal"

PAUL
"Oh yes, the left indicator"

INSTRUCTOR
"Well done, and what speed should we be at before turning into the road"

PAUL
"About 10mph"

INSTRUCTOR
"And is this gear suitable?"

PAUL
"Nope, I want 1st here as it's quite tight"

INSTRUCTOR
"Is there anything else you need to do before turning?"

PAUL
"Errr, no I don't think so!"

The prompts on this occasion were perfect for Paul to understand what was necessary to carry out the task, Paul had clearly understood what he needed to do and everything went really well.
Again, this can be carried out as many times as is necessary for Paul to cement the process and then you can set the role for responsibility again and offer Paul whether he would like to attempt the same thing but totally Independently.

The Independent talk through will be totally different to the Guided and Prompted instruction,and might sound something like this.

INSTRUCTOR
"Ok Paul, Although you are having a go on your own without any instruction from me apart from directions when I want you to turn, please remember if you need help then ask.
So, I would like you to take the next road on the left, just after the ....object...."

PAUL
"Ok"

Paul copes with everything and no other instructions were required. He did a great job!

When you are allowing your pupil to carry out tasks in a fully independent manner, it means you are transferring all the role for responsibility to them.
This truly means they are in complete control of the car and should not need your assistance.

HOWEVER!!!!!

Remember what was said right at the beginning of this section.

YOU ARE THE FULL LICENCE HOLDER, THE INSTRUCTOR,
AND MUST KEEP THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT SAFE AT ALL TIMES!

Therefore, although the role for responsibility has been given to your pupil, if intervention is necessary you must intervene.

It is possible, especially when Independent driving is introduced in the early days of learning, there is a high chance your pupil will miss something and you may need to step in.

It may be that they missed a mirror, or both, or the signal, or forgot to bring the speed down and change gear.
You can still step in to keep things safe, but you must then pull over at the earliest opportunity and explain why you stepped in.

You can then discuss why it was necessary, but also praise all the things that went well.

You have now affirmed to your pupil everything that went well as well as the not so good bits which they can work on during their next attempt.

Keep working on the independent drive with them, but if things are still getting missed, change the role for responsibility and possibly go back to Prompts or even fully guided if it is necessary.
There is no hard and fast rule to say you cannot step back to prompted or guided instruction, if it is necessary then do it.
But always ensure if you change the roles you get agreement from your pupil so that both of you understand who is responsible for what.

RISK MANAGEMENT 1.

INSTRUCTOR MISCONCEPTIONS

Do you think.
JOB DONE RISK MANAGEMENT COVERED?

WRONG!

How the Responsibility for Risk should be dealt with.

So how do we do this?

EXAMPLE 1.

GUIDED INSTRUCTION

The 17 Competencies (5)

Competency 1

Competency 2

Competency 3

Competency 4

Competency 6

Competency 7

Competency 8

Competency 9

Competency 10

Competency 11

Competency 12

Competency 13

Competency 14

Competency 15

Competency 16

Competency 17

RISK MANAGEMENT 1.

INSTRUCTOR MISCONCEPTIONS

Do you think.JOB DONE RISK MANAGEMENT COVERED? WRONG!

How the Responsibility for Risk should be dealt with.

So how do we do this?

EXAMPLE 1.

GUIDED INSTRUCTION

The 17 Competencies (5)

Competency 1

Competency 2

Competency 3

Competency 4

Competency 6

Competency 7

Competency 8

Competency 9

Competency 10

Competency 11

Competency 12

Competency 13

Competency 14

Competency 15

Competency 16

Competency 17

Do you think.
JOB DONE RISK MANAGEMENT COVERED?

WRONG!