North Devon Council receives Home Office funding to provide mandatory taxi driver training

North Devon Council has received funding from The Home Office as part of the fourth round of its Safer Streets fund to provide training to its taxi and private hire drivers via a safeguarding awareness course.

The course will look specifically at the protection of children and vulnerable adults and will be delivered by Karen Anderson, a former Devon and Cornwall Police officer within the Public Protection department.

It has been made mandatory for all licensed taxi and private hire drivers in the district to take part in the training and the council has proposed to get all licenced drivers through the course by early next year.

Public Protection Manager at North Devon Council, Katy Nicholls said: "Unwittingly taxi and private hire drivers may become aware of serious safeguarding issues through their work. In an effort to ensure that both licensed drivers and customers are adequately protected, this training aims to ensure that drivers are alert to signs of an issue and know what to do if they have a concern.”

Chair of the Licensing and Community Safety Committee at North Devon Council, Cllr Louisa York, said: “Through their work taxi and private drivers are very much a part of the community. The delivery of this training will provide drivers with the information they may need to identify and report safeguarding concerns. It’s a simple message, if you see something, say something. We believe that by doing this, drivers can play a vital role in the safeguarding process."

The course training includes:

• Understanding what safeguarding is and your responsibilities

• Awareness of the different forms of exploitation including human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and modern slavery

• Recognising signs of exploitation and abuse

• Knowing who to contact if you suspect a safeguarding issue.

The district's taxi and private hire drivers have been contacted directly by the council.