The Young Driver Coaching Programme Resource Pack (evaluation)

The Young Driver Coaching Programme (YDCP) Resource Pack was devised by Staffordshire County Council’s Road Safety Unit and launched in August 2009. It consisted of a learner driver’s record book and a supervising driver’s information guide.

The underlying principles of the YDCP Resource Pack are to increase the effectiveness of private practice in conjunction with professional instruction, and to involve parents in the learning to drive process. These principles are supported by findings from international research on road safety, learning to drive, and adolescent development.

An evaluation of the early months of the project was commissioned by Staffordshire County Council’s Road Safety Unit and carried out by a team from RoSPA and Keele University.

Some key findings were:

• In the first four ‘live’ months of the project since ADIs (advanced driving instructors) received the YDCP resource, 17 families signed up to the Resource Pack. Of the 17 learners, nine were female and eight were male. The 17 learners were distributed between 12 ADIs with four having more than one learner using the Pack. In total, 85 ADIs (24%) signed up to the scheme, out of a total of 350 ADIs initially contacted by Staffordshire County Council.

• The YDCP Resource Pack was a widely accepted intervention with ADIs, learners, and parents, understanding, and appreciating, the aims of the scheme. This acceptability was enhanced by the enthusiasm and commitment of the programme designers and developers.

• Despite a wide range of promotional activities, advertising either did not reach many of its intended participants or was largely unsuccessful in its aim to recruit. Instead, ADIs emerged as a crucial conduit of information about the scheme. Successful recruitment did, in most cases, depend on a direct approach from an ADI to a parent. This was not the recruitment process envisaged prior to the launch of the programme.

• Many parents commented that their own driving knowledge had improved. Through using the Resource Pack parents had to learn and accept that their own knowledge and beliefs about driving might not be quite as satisfactory as they once thought.

• The Resource Pack materials were thought by all to be thorough, yet clearly written and easy to use. The information guide and record book were considered “professional” and “well put together”. There were only minor suggestions for how the materials could be improved. These suggestions related to the layout and an over-reliance on text.