Code of Practice
We all know by now that DSA approved the proposed CoP produced by John Lepine of MSA and endorsed by ADINJC, DIA, DISC and MSA.
With the mention of 'civil sanctions' in the recently finished consultation a joint communique from Dib-Unite and DIDU was recently sent to the above national associations.
To date we have received no comments from any of the associations.
The communique was as follows;
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has for some considerable time been trying to encourage ADI's to sign up to a Code of Practice, (CoP) by coupling it into signing up to "Find your nearest" on the DSA web pages. As a direct request to split the CoP from the "Find your nearest" it transpired the take up for the CoP was very low, around 13% of the 33,000 that signed up for Find your nearest, (at the time of requested numbers - mid 2012). In effect the DSA's attempt at getting ADI's to sign up to the CoP was an unmitigated failure.
Late in 2012 the (DSA) asked the National Associations to consider the preparation of a Code of Practice (CoP) in the hope that if it came from the National bodies it might be more acceptable. John (MSA) volunteered to provide a draft which all six Associations then went to work on within their own networks to look at the content with a fine tooth comb.
It was quite clear that in its 'base' format it was far too dictatorial and from the outset it did not indicate if this was a voluntary code or if it was to be a prescriptive code; or if the later what punitive measures would or could be imposed to any ADI who broke the code. Indeed it was quite clear that much of the content of the CoP should form a part of the Terms and Conditions (T&C's) but in equal measure, both as to what the pupil could expect from their instructor and what the instructor expected from the pupil. In other words it should be a two way street, fair to both parties.
The CoP as it was developing was nothing of the sort. Both DIDU and Dib-Unite stated that they would not recommend the CoP in its developing format. ADINJC said "….. We don’t object either to the DSA liaising with us on producing it but if it were to become compulsory at some point we would need to revise it again as we see this one as voluntary and wouldn’t want to see it used as mandatory without our knowledge."