Taxi Driver Online

Hundreds of taxi drivers yet to complete child sex abuse awareness course after Rotherham scandal

Hundreds of Leicester taxi drivers have yet to complete training courses on spotting the signs of child exploitation – nearly a year after they were made mandatory.

In November 2015, city council licensing officials introduced compulsory training sessions in the wake of child abuse scandals elsewhere in the country.

An inquiry into widespread exploitation in Rotherham, between 1997 and 2013, concluded 1,400 youngsters were groomed by gangs of men and also found taxi drivers played a "prominent role" in the abuse.

Licensing bosses in Leicester have insisted there was no evidence of drivers in the city being involved in abuse, but said the trade could play a vital role in preventing it in the future.

Drivers were warned their licences could be suspended if they failed to complete the training "without a reasonable excuse".

Now a new council report has said 1,164 cabbies have completed the training, but 800 have yet to attend the courses.

A city council spokesman said a backlog had developed because of the large number of people needing to take the course.

He said: "It takes a certain amount of time to get people through the courses but we hope the backlog will be cleared by the end of January."

He said no drivers had so far lost their licences for failing to complete the course within the required period of three months of gaining or renewing their licence.

The council report said: "The training has received a positive response from drivers, and feedback has been good.

"Once all of the existing drivers have been trained, the number of sessions required will reduce, because it will only be new drivers who need to
attend."

The city council's former head of regulatory services, Mike Broster, previously told the Mercury: "They could be the eyes and ears to help spot the signs of child sexual exploitation.

"The courses will show them how to recognise the signs and how they can go about reporting them either to their managers, the police or our safeguarding people."

Mr Broster said the aim was not to get drivers to inform on each other, but to raise awareness of child sexual abuse.

He said: "We want drivers looking for the warning signs – for example, if they have taken a young person somewhere and thought it was a strange place."

Some city cabbies said they feared the move was designed to turn them into "council snoopers".

Others said the course was unnecessary because cabbies already reported such concerns to the authorities.

Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/hundr ... Y8fcRLO.99

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