“Sharing the Risks” – Risk Management Section of Standards Check

This is a response I gave on Facebook to an ADI who was making sure he was maintaining his skills and knowledge regarding an aspect of the Standards Check Form.

The section he was referring to was this:
“Did the trainer ensure that the pupil fully understood how the responsibility would be shared”.

My answer was:

“This area, in my opinion, is not about the use of dual controls and those basics solely at the beginning of the SC. What I think a good idea is to swap or replace the word “Risk” for our own word(s). Often people choose “hazards”, “Dangers”, “Problems” etc. Once an ADI begins to get to the nitty gritty of the principle behind the SC Competency in their own terms… it begins to make more sense to the individual ADI who can then begin to incorporate it in their lessons in their own way. 

This risk section, to me, is about how the role of each person (Learner and ADI) changes throughout any given driving lesson. For example – on an example lesson, the main topic for development may be a manoeuvre (recap on SC obviously). There are issues and tasks to allocate to each of us on the way to the practice area… eg pupil might say – “No I don’t know the way – can you give me directions” Or “I know the way, so I can plan my own route”. Technically one aspect of risk is covered. Other areas to be addressed are then about any other issues that the new driver might want help with on route (eg obsvations or talk through, or help with XYZ).

Once at the practice area, the roles and shared tasks might once again change – where the pupil might ask for more support while they practice the manoeuvre etc.

It may change once again while discussing the next topic or the drive back to TC or home etc OR if one of those ‘random’ things happen where you encounter the weird scenario that no one could plan for eg road closures of the normal route back.

 


Another aspect of Risk to be noted is the part where you might help in ‘odd ways’ eg – ADI uses the clutch  (with duals) to ‘help’ complete a manoeuvre while pupil’s responsibility is the steering and the safe observations. It needs to be clear to the learner who does what and why!

One principle is that when people know ‘which bit or bits’ they are responsible for there is less confusion and a clearer mental picture of what is expected of them (and the ADI) at any given time. That will change often throughout every driver training session.

I just realised you asked what I (we) do on a daily basis to monitor this section… my apologies for the lengthy reply that may not be hat you were looking for – but I wrote too much to delete!!! What I do is reflect upon where I got it right. Where the pupil and I knew who was doing what. And when I did not get it right where there was confusion. One time I got it wrong recently was when I assumed the pupil knew the route… not a massive issue but it did leave the pupil feeling like they made a mistake by not knowing. I feel the error was mine by not checking who was responsible for the route planning.”

Basically, the Risk section is about minimising potential dangers in the example above, and dealing with them efficiently when safety critical incidents occur… but that is another section on the SC1 Form.

I like this section of the Form, though it does throw up strong opinions and suggestions from ADIs; especially on Facebook. I believe the trick is to understand the SC1 Form in your own terms, and then make sure you apply your attention to making sure your examiner sees you doing well.

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