Newslink March

For all the latest news, see www.msagb.com
about how to help their nervous students
and are regular speakers at driver
training industry events, as well as being
the hosts of The Driving Confidence
Podcast.
Tri-Coaching Partnership Ltd
– Graham Hooper
Graham is a coach and mentor to
driver trainers and is passionate about
road safety and using
coaching for driver
development to make
a difference to ADIs /
PDIs and their
clients.
He has been an ADI
and trainer for 28 years
and has invested heavily
in his own CPD. He is co-managing
director of Tri-Coaching Partnership, the
number one supplier of ADI CPD.
His presentation will show the four
fundamental skills that an ADI/PDI
should have to make feedback an
effective learning tool, and how feedback
is used to be client centred and on point.
These key skills show how without
effective feedback, both you and the
client can get lost on the journey of
learning.
We hope to see you – online – on the
11th March, from 10am
Want to know more?
You can find out the latest on
the Conference by visiting our
website, at msagb.com
Details of the AGM agenda and
the Conference programme can
also be found at msagb.com
TO REGISTER TO ATTEND,
email us at
info@msagb.com
You will then be sent the link to
the Conference
Warning as DVLA slips behind
on driving licence applications
following a medical condition
ADIs who have been forced to
surrender their driving licences
because of a temporary medical
condition have been warned they face
a lengthy wait before their application
is processed by the Driver and Vehicle
Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The agency is currently failing to
meet its own relaxed targets on
processing applications as it struggles
to get its customer service standards
back on track after the pandemic.
While its target – which before the
pandemic was set at four weeks to
handle a request for a driving licence
to be returned after a medical issue –
was pushed back to handling 90 per
cent of cases in 90 days, it is only
achieving this in just over 60 per cent
of cases. Some applicants have
complained of the DVLA taking up to
six months to review a driving licence
application, with drivers being left in
the dark as contacting the DVLA staff
can be challenging at times.
A spokesman for the Heycar
website, which launched the
investigation, said the problem of slow
processing of medical licence
applications was having a severe
impact on those affected. “These
drivers are often over 70, living in
remote areas, who rely on their cars
as a vital lifeline to attend medical
appointments, do their shopping or to
visit friends and relatives.
“While some may be able to drive
while their application is being
processed, not all can.”
Reasons for th DVLA’s problems
centre on an increasingly fractious
relationship between management
and staff. One spokesperson for the
PCS union, which represents many of
the DVLA workforce in Swansea, said
morale was low and that all
management suggestions were now
being treated with acute suspicion.
Recent industrial action as part of the
PCS union’s national pay and
conditions dispute have not helped
the situation either.
Driving medical checks were
“deprioritised” by the Department of
Health and Social Care (DHSC) during
the pandemic, and as recently as
January 2022 few were being
processed.
The unavailability of experts to give
opinions on complex medical
conditions is also causing difficulties.
To help reduce waiting times, the
DVLA has added new online services
and opened customer service centres in
Swansea and Birmingham which are
focused on medical applications. In
addition, from July last year, the law
was changed to enable healthcare
professionals other than doctors to
complete DVLA medical questionnaires.
One of the other problems the DVLA
has had in responding to queries from
the public is that it has invested
heavily in Chatbot services to speed
up customer contacts – but medical
queries cannot be answer this way.
Notifiable medical conditions for
which drivers need to re-apply for a
driving licence include: diabetes (or
taking insulin); epilepsy; glaucoma;
heart conditions (including atrial
fibrillation and pacemakers); sleep
apnoea; strokes; and syncope
(fainting).
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