UKROEd has been announced as a recipient of a 2021 Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its suite of online behaviour change courses.
In March 2020, the decision to suspend NDORS courses was made by UKROEd – the organisation who operates and manages the scheme on behalf of the police service – in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There was immediate pressure to deliver an online solution as early as possible, and to communicate effectively to police forces, course providers, training professionals and drivers that such a solution was available.
Within seven days of the original announcement on 20 March, a new online version of the National Speed Awareness Course had been developed and launched.
Three further NDORS courses (The National Motorway Awareness Course; Safe, Considerate Driving and What’s Driving Us?) were ready within a few weeks.
The PMIRSA judges commended UKROEd for leading the development of online courses in order to overcome the restrictions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
Within 12 months of their launch, the courses had been delivered to more than 1.3 million drivers, ‘ensuring an effective educational alternative to penalty points and helping to alleviate demand on an overburdened court system’.
HRH Prince Michael of Kent said: “I was excited to learn how quickly members of the UKROEd team were able to develop an online course in response to overcome restrictions caused by the pandemic. The result is this being delivered to more than 1.3 million drivers and riders in the following 12 months.
“What impressed me was not just the speed at which you were able to develop these i-courses, but the organisational ability to deploy them so quickly and to such beneficial effect. I therefore have no doubt that the team responsible deserve my International Road Safety Award.”
UKROEd says there were two key requirements for the academic team who wrote the new courses.
First, they needed to be shorter, so some existing parts of the physical classroom course needed to be amended. Second, the way trainers interacted with clients would have to change for the virtual environment.
In preparing a shorter, virtual course, developers had to prioritise the content and to determine what would be effective online.
Suzette Davenport QPM, UKROEd chair, said: “We are thrilled and honoured to have won this Prince Michael award. The virtual courses were developed and underpinned using the most up-to-date behaviour change techniques.
“Through energetic collaborative working with police forces and course providers, we were able to ensure not only that the online courses were available very quickly but that they would also maintain the highest standards of the educational content provided by the classroom courses.
“It was a significant challenge, but with the ongoing support of so many dedicated people, we were able to meet the challenge and continue to make a contribution to reducing death, serious injury and offending on our roads.”
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