A guide about driving tuition with South East DriveAbility

This information relates to your upcoming driving tuition. It’s important that you read it carefully before you arrive. Hopefully it will answer any questions you may have but please do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything you are unsure about.

Eligibility criteria

As part of our ongoing service to disabled drivers in Kent, Medway, East Sussex and South East London, we are happy to offer driving lessons to clients who:

• hold a current UK provisional driving licence
• have vision which meets the minimum legal requirement to drive - this will be checked from time to time. If corrective glasses are required to drive, these must be worn.
• have previously undertaken a driving ability assessment at a centre accredited by Driving Mobility and been assessed as safe to learn to drive or retrain with adaptations
• have funding agreed in writing by Motability or another external agency, prior to beginning any lessons

Driving lessons are currently only available from our Aylesford centre; however, we hope to offer lessons from our East Kent and East Sussex outreach centres in the near future. Please contact us for availability.

It is expected that you will make your own way to the centre, however, in exceptional circumstances and staff availability we may be able to pick you up from one of the nearest train stations – within two miles of the assessment centre. If you need support to get to the centre please let us know in advance so we can discuss this with you.

Driving tuition

Every effort will be made to accommodate clients’ requirements for a particular instructor, vehicle or time, however, South East DriveAbility reserve the right to change these arrangements if necessary. Lessons are charged at £45 per hour for manual and automatic/adapted tuition. Lessons can be pre-paid in a block of five or 10, or paid per-hour.

Lessons will be carried out in South East DriveAbility’s dual controlled vehicles.

Short breaks of approximately 15 minutes are offered to clients booking longer periods of tuition; these are taken at the centre. Please discuss your requirements at the time of booking.

Drivers with disabilities can sometimes take longer to learn to drive than drivers without disabilities. South East DriveAbility staff understand that learning to drive can be an expensive process and are keen to ensure that clients are making progress towards their DVSA test. Clients will undertake a free review assessment after 10 hours of tuition, which will be carried out as part of their driving lesson, with an ADI driving advisor and a clinical driving advisor/ occupational therapist.

Following the review assessment, a report will be forwarded to the client outlining the assessment team’s recommendations. If necessary, a case conference will be arranged with the regular instructor, the assessment team, the client and family (if required) to discuss future progress.

After six months tuition, the client will be strongly advised to apply for their DVSA theory test, if they have not already done so. Clients should be reminded that they must pass their theory test before they can apply for their practical test.

When applying for the DVSA practical test, clients are reminded that they should ensure that their instructor and vehicle is available at their chosen time by contacting the administration office.

Payments and cancellations

Payment can be made by cash, cheque and credit or debit card.

If you need to cancel or re-arrange a lesson, you will need to contact us on 0300 0134 886 at least two working days in advance. Failure to give sufficient notice or non-attendance at your appointment will result in the lesson being charged at the full rate.

South East DriveAbility will do everything possible to ensure that your lessons start and finish on time, however we reserve the right to cancel your lesson or change the start or finish times due to unavoidable circumstances.