Agenda item

·         Appendix C of the agenda was an assessment of how North Devon Council were currently performing against the statutory standards

·         A progress report would be sent to the Department for Transport as well as the publication of North Devon Council’s recommendations of the adopted standards

·         Standards new to the Council included reviewing all existing driver licences against the new standards, as well as mandatory safeguarding and county lines training.  It would be mandatory for all new drivers to sign up to the enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which notified the authority of any changes to a licence so appropriate action could be taken

·         It was hoped to run an eight week consultation on 18 items before the end of January 2021 and report back to committee with the results

·         Meeting with members of the trade would need to be carefully planned so that views expressed were properly representative of the drivers and operators

·         The cost of the enhanced DBS checks would be incurred by the driver

·         The mandatory safeguarding training options would be explored if this was to be provided in-house it would keep costs down but would put extra pressure on officer time.  There was an external training provider who specifically focussed on vulnerable children and adult safeguarding as well as county lines awareness and they would also run refresher sessions.  The costs of these options would be investigated

·         The DBS checks were carried out through an external company and there would be a cost to the Council in staff undertaking checks.  There were over 250 drivers to be checked every six months but it was an easier way to access up-to-date driver information.

·         The cost of the mandatory training might have to be passed onto the driver, but the Police Crime Commissioner may offer a set number of free places on courses.  As North Devon and Torridge District Council were the last two authorities yet to start mandatory training any funding available may already have been spent

·         It was not possible to work jointly with another authority to share these costs as every authority had its own policy in place unlike, for example, the Gambling policy which was set as a national template adopted by all authorities

·         Six-weekly meetings do take place with all Devon authorities to discuss issues.  There is the possibility of another authority authorising our Officers so they are delegated to take enforcement action against drivers operating in our area holding a licence from another authority area

·         The register of refused drivers was a costly item this may be an area we could look to work jointly with another authority, to share costs

RESOLVED that:

(a)  The report be noted,

(b)  Consultation process be carried out on the measures and recommendations, and to the timescales, as outlined in Appendix C of the report,

(c)  A proposed policy be brought back to Committee as a result of the consultation,

(d)  Funding towards the cost of mandatory training for Drivers in relation to Safeguarding and County Lines issues be sought from Devon County Council or the Police Crime Commissioners Office, and

(e)  All drivers undertake mandatory safeguarding training