School Minibus Assessments - Important information

Norfolk County Councils Public Health Road Safety Team is here to support schools not just to educate children with road safety, we also offer training for drivers and riders, such as Driving for business courses.

 We also have some fantastic resources and recommended learning to support school staff who drive - see Stay Focused, Stay Safe.

As part of your Driving for Work compliance code / policy, you can book minibus assessments and re-assessments for your staff with our approved driving instructors. Please either contact your assigned trainer direct or if do not have details of your trainer, please email: roadsafety@norfolk.gov.uk

Please ensure you plan when your minibus assessments need to take place and contact the road safety team 3 months prior. This will ensure you secure a date within your deadline. Once your booking has been secured, we will issue you with the relevant minibus driver information pack giving you and your nominated driver time to read before the assessment takes place.

Whilst the road safety team will make every effort to arrange bookings at short notice, please note our trainers are booked up months in advance and short notice bookings are unlikely to be fulfilled. This could impact on your delivery and offers little time for you and your drivers to read the information pack and recommended learning.

Before booking minibus assessments, please remember to check your staff members driving licence to ensure they hold the correct licence category for the vehicle being driven.

For a minibus weighing more than 3.5tonnes MAM weight, your drivers must hold category D1 on their driving licence. If the vehicle weighs 3.5tonnes MAM weight or less, drivers may be able to drive the minibus on their car licence (Cat B) so long as both the driver and vehicle meet the conditions as outlined on the web link Driving a minibus.

It is the school's responsibility to ensure nominated drivers are correctly licenced before booking a minibus assessment with a road safety trainer.

Drivers must also provide their original drivers licence on the date/time of their assessment. Failure to do so will result in the session being cancelled and charged and add further delay.

If you need to cancel an assessment, please provide 5 working days' notice to avoid any charge. Your cancellation must be sent to roadsafety@norfolk.gov.uk stating the trainer's details booked.