To consider the above report.

Greg Nelson, Trading Standards/Licensing Lead presented the report to the Panel. Greg Nelson informed the Panel that there were two main providers in the report that could provide the safeguarding training, Personal Checks or Slough Borough Council. Since the Licensing Panel agenda was published, Greg Nelson had met with Achieving for Children (AfC) and they had also offered their services and had suggested that they could provide the training for the borough. AfC had suggested that they would be able to complete the training within twelve months with groups of 60, 90 or 120 per session. The organisation and administration of the sessions would be shared between the borough and AfC. The cost of the training would be covered by the attendee as there currently was no budget held for training.

The Chairman informed the Panel that they would not award any contracts as this not in the remit of the Panel. The Panel could discuss and inform the Lead Member, Councillor Grey who could then recommend to Cabinet. A consultation was required in any event so this could go ahead.

The Panel discussed the effect of Uber on the Royal borough taxi’s. Greg Nelson informed the Panel that Uber had instructed their drivers to work with only one of nine local authorities and RBWM was not one of the nine. Alternatively the drivers could transfer to the Public Carriage Office (PCO). The borough have approximately 200 RBWM licenced drivers who have access to the Uber app. Uber had allowed the borough to have 24-hour access to them.

The Chairman requested that the PCO regulations were checked for safeguarding training to reassure our residents.

ACTION: Licensing Team to check PCO regulations

The Panel Members discussed the following points:

·         The Uber taxis using the borough taxi ranks, the borough could only take action if the taxi was an RBWM licenced vehicle.

·         It was very important to vet the training providers before selection. All checks would be carried out as per council rules.

·         The Panel felt strongly that a test, quiz or assessment be taken by the driver after the training to confirm their understanding.

·         The Licensing Team would look into e-learning as a refresher every three years.

The Chairman summed up the discussion that the Licensing Team would look at all three options again, compare the options including the cost of training per person, the test implications, the numbers of drivers per session, the refresher options, the consultation and the recommendations for the Lead Member to present at Cabinet.

ACTION: A report to be presented to the Licensing Panel at the next meeting to consider before the report be presented to Cabinet. The consultation with the trade needed to be completed and results reported as part of the report.

ACTION: It was agreed Unanimously that the current policy to be amended to include that the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire drivers and operators need to have completed the safgeguarding training. This would be delegated to Officers and the Lead Member.

ACTION: It was agreed Unanimously that the charge for the training should be levied against the driver.

Action: The Licensing team looked into refresher options, this was agreed Unanimously that a refreshed should be completed after three years or if the legislation changed.