Chief Observer blog

You all know that we have a group of people called Observers.  At the very least you’ll remember your observer from your time training to take the Advanced Rider assessment.  Over the years we’ve had various models of observers – how we select, train, and operate.  For the last few years we’ve had Local Observers (LO) and National Observers (NO). The difference is that the former we train and assess in-house while the latter are assessed independently by National Observer Assessors (NAO).  LO can only train associates within their own group whereas NO can train outside the group. To become an NO you had to first be a LO, gain some experience - we usually looked for successfully helping three associates to pass their advanced assessment – and undertake a set of three training sessions, which I ran.

Just under a year ago, IAM Roadsmart announced that this arrangement would change.  From 1 April 2025 there will be only one grade of observer for which qualification would be assessed independently by NAOs.  For want of an agreed title for the new qualification we continue to refer to it as NO.  In other words, all LOs must become NOs if they wish to continue observing.  So this gave us essentially 2 training seasons to convert everyone.  That turns out to be not too much of a problem as we already had about half our observers qualified as NOs.  We have plans to prepare the rest through the remainder of this year and throughout next.  For the last 3 years or so we’ve operated an annual cycle of LO training run with great skill by John Kendall as well as NO training.  We’ve taken pains to ensure that LO training matched the requirements of NO and followed the same syllabus so that it would be relatively easy for LOs to become NOs once they added experience – we wouldn’t actually be asking for any new skills or knowledge, just the ability to apply them.  In fact, this year 3 of our newly trained LOs went straight on to take the NO assessment and were successful.

So, we’ve got the conversion of current observers in hand.  But we can’t relax and especially we can’t afford to turn off our pipeline of new observers.  In general we run at about 30-35 active observers who between them have to manage about 60 new associates a year, plus other tasks such as Pre Test Check Rides, Bike Safe, members refreshers, and training other observers.  So we need new observers.  IAM Roadsmart have raised the bar and we no longer have the relatively relaxed progression of associate to full member to LO to NO.  This means we need to put some more structure around observer selection.  In particular we can’t afford the time to train rider skills; the first criteria to become an observer is that you must have high quality riding skills ideally evidenced by a FiRST, a Masters pass, or some other skills-based training. Anyone who’s taken an NO assessment knows that part of it is a demonstration ride to a very high standard; what Eddy L-S calls “yourSunday-best ride”.

 If you’re thinking of becoming an observer, and I hope you do, from the Spring 2024 session onwards we’ll have some entry criteria:

·       12 months between passing the advanced test and starting observer training

·       During which time some commitment to improving rider skills and knowledge.  This might include: skills days, group rides, Biker Down, RoSPA

·       A pre-qualification ride with one of theTraining Team

These requirements could be by passed based on experience such as RoSPA instructor, DVSA instructor, Police rider training. Oh, and by “12 months” I mean -ish; I’m not going to be counting up to 365!

Now it’s always the case that when new requirements are introduced then some people are caught out on the wrong side of the boundary created.  If that’s you, then I apologise, but these requirements are likely to make your route to observer status more reliable and to increase your confidence as an observer when you get there.

Chris

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