There are many ways that CPT assists members who transport young passengers, including its newly-developed Driver CPC module that brings school run training into the 21st century
When it comes to providing transport for children, operators can often find themselves in a minefield with paperwork, policies and safeguarding regulations to bear in mind.
And it’s not just those who run home to school transport that are affected. With school trips and youth groups’ days out, it’s likely that most coach operators will operate this type of work at one time or another.
While it can be a complex process, Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT)’s School Transport Committee is here to help.
With a number of helpful tools available, it has also launched a Driver CPC module called ‘The New School Run’– all to assist its members who transport younger passengers.
Relaying concerns
The School Transport Committee is made up of CPT members who meet to exchange and share best practice relating to school transport.
Its Chairman is Alec Horner from the Association of Trainers and CPT’s Deputy Director of Operations John Burch has supported the roles for the Committee as CPT’s representative – a role since taken on by CPT’s Operations Manager March Purchase in February.
Says John: “Although it is called the School Transport Committee, it’s better described as a youth group as it doesn’t just deal with home to school transport – it’s all issues relating to the youth market being transported by coach or bus.”
When John started working for the CPT in 2005, it had no formal grouping that looked at school transport specifically.
“It became clear that there was an appetite for a school transport working group within CPT,” he says.
“We then moved on from a working group to a formal working committee, which meant we could influence our ruling council and actually have an impact on national policy by relaying the concerns of CPT members.”
Supporting operators
A hot potato in the industry has been the issue of local authorities running vehicles under Section 19 permits, which is something John describes as “a major threat to those who operate school contracts”.
For this reason, the Committee has produced a pamphlet which lists the areas that potential customers – such as parents or schools – should be looking for when they are looking to hire vehicles.
Says John: “We have to make the safety issues clear to these decision-makers. One of these is the differences of maintenance arrangements, driver training, and in some cases, the vehicle type and specification.
“They are available to members, so they can hand them out to schools in their area. And it works – people who had no idea that there was a difference between their local authority bus and their local commercial operator are now starting to ask questions.”
The Committee has also come up with a number of tools and templates created to help operators, such as guidance on safeguarding, policies on CCTV and safely transporting sports equipment.
“We had members coming to us asking for help with things like route risk assessments for school runs, so we have responded by creating templates for this,” says John.
Coach driver safety cards are also available, which provide a handy visual outlining rules and regulations.
All this can be accessed by CPT members on the CPT’s secure website and templates can be customised to meet the operator’s specific needs.
New DCPC module
CPT has developed ‘The New School Run’ Driver CPC module with the support of the Committee Chairman Alec Horner.
The 3.5hr module has been designed specifically for drivers who transport younger passengers and can be linked with another module for a full day of a training.
It supersedes the now-outdated ‘The School Run’ course and portrays a more accurate representation of younger passengers, such as their use of social media and mobile phones.
Says John: “‘The School Run’ had been produced in 2005, so it pre-dates a number of things, not least social media and any modern-day causes of bullying.
“It had become out-of-date and the scenarios are no longer really realistic, which is why we produced ‘The New School Run’.”
The aim of the course is to:
- Inform school transport drivers about where responsibilities lie and how to communicate with the various groups involved
- Better equip them to deal with the kind of issues and incidents they may come across on the school run
- Understand the implications to safety of not being aware of certain issues
- Enable them to make a difference when things start to go wrong
- Enable them to earn the respect of their students.
Video clips showing realistic scenarios that drivers could face are also included. They were created with the help of Taunton-based Berrys Coaches, including the operator’s Training School Manager Dave Hiett and his son Wayne who is a driver at Berrys.
The course pack is available for coach and bus operators to buy and comes with a workbook, trainer’s manual, PowerPoint videos and lesson planning guidance.
CPT members can purchase it at a discounted rate of just £95, otherwise it’s £150 for non-members. There is also a number of supplier members who can run the course on behalf of operators should they not have an in-house trainer.
