PhD for UKROEd's Research and Commissioning Manager

UKROEd’s Research and Commissioning Manager, Sarah Di Salvo, has been awarded a doctorate in education.

Now officially Dr Sarah Di Salvo, the award follows the completion of her thesis, titled: “A consideration of the professional development and support needs of practitioners working in driver-offender education.”

A five-year labour of love conducted through the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), her research focuses on education delivery through the eyes of our trainers and coaches.

The first three years of her PhD was largely classroom-based, with Sarah attending university one day each month before she was, in her own words, ‘let loose’ on the field-based research.

She says: “Existing research generally looks at the client experience. Being an ex-teacher myself and acknowledging that there are over 1000 trainers and driving coaches, I thought, ‘What about them? What do they go through, what do they need?’

“The very start of my Doctorate coincided with the introduction of the Safe and Considerate Driving (SCD) course being developed. There were some significant changes being made with trainers coaching ‘on the road’ and I wondered how it would impact them. That’s basically what I did my thesis on.

“I was given access to people in the scheme and I knew the research would help my work, but that it would also give something back to the organisation.

“I wanted to use more qualitative methods of research which would involve going out and following the driving coaches who deliver the course, observing and interviewing them, rather than just collecting numerical data.

“I followed three coaches, three clients and had interviews with three course providers. I followed the coaches for 10 months, there were a lot of interviews that would go quite in-depth, meaning I found lots of interesting things I’d not set out to find.

“For example, one client said they didn’t know what to expect from the course and that was down to the communication from the police. That’s something we’re looking at improving now, and there were other things that came out which reinforced what we were already doing, and why we were doing them.”

Sarah left school aged 16 and went straight into work (“I remember thinking I didn’t want any of this further education nonsense”).

Her family had its own business and was very business orientated. She started working at a local Ford dealership but soon realised the importance of learning and education and that, actually, she quite liked it.

So, she signed up for secretarial college alongside her job at the dealership, attending evening classes. In time she joined the Civil Service and also enrolled as a Special Constable for the police – but a lack of training with the Specials saw her again signing up for night school tuition, this time for GCSE law. But there was a problem.

“There was literally only me who turned up at the enrolment for the course,” she says.

“So I was offered a choice of other classes or a refund. I chose to do psychology instead, which I have to admit I found really hard at first.

“But I grew to love it and went on to do a degree and, later, a master’s degree. By this time I was working at the college teaching A-Level psychology and thought ‘what can I do next?’

“I’d thought about doing something at a PhD level but thought ‘I can’t do that!’ I wasn’t particularly great at school – I was terrible at maths and geography, English not so bad – I was probably a fairly average learner.

“In the end I made my mind up that I did want to do something new and at a higher level, but the timing was bad with lots of changes going on in education. I was thinking, I can’t work here all day and then go home and write about it all night.”

By 2016, she had joined the organisation on a full-time basis, quality assuring the delivery of our road offender education programmes as head of Learning and Course Development – a role that evolved further with the creation of the UKROEd Academy in 2019. The doctorate commenced in early 2019, after a lot of contemplation and decisions about work – life balance and which university would be the best option.

More recently, however, Sarah chose to reduce her hours and accepted her current part-time role of research and commission manager which is allowing her to spend more time with her husband, Ross – a UKROEd assessor – at their home near Preston.

Her doctorate was confirmed in February, and in April she will present her findings to her team. Among her conclusions are:

That clients bring different challenges to that of a ‘traditional learner’
They tend to have negative expectations of the course prior to attendance
They may not be in an ideal mindset to take part in the course
That driving coaches are better equipped if they have a good level of emotional intelligence
That driving coaches and clients both report benefits if the driving coach is also the classroom trainer

Sarah highlights that many of the potential improvements she has identified are already in progress and is confident that there is lots of useful information that will make life better for trainers and coaches, and the courses more beneficial for clients.

She is also encouraging other members of the team to undertake similar research, saying: “It seems scary on the outside to begin with, but once you get going it’s really not. I’ve learnt lots about road safety, writing, setting out an academic thesis, and time management – and I got to polish up on my English skills!”

CEO Ruth Purdie OBE added: “I know Sarah has worked very hard to achieve this award and everyone at UKROEd is very proud of her.

“I am sure you will all join me in offering our congratulations.”