Across the UK, National Driver Offender Retraining Schemes (NDORS) exist as an alternative to prosecution for several offences including speeding, mobile phone use or careless driving. These schemes, which are open to all age groups, are excellent in re-educating motorists and encouraging safer driving. 

However, the Police Fitness to Drive Assessment (FTD) is another diversion in the toolkit of disposal options available to Police Forces and is used for certain vulnerable drivers as an alternative to a course for careless driving offences. 

The FTD assessment was developed to give individual help and support to those most vulnerable looking at their needs and requirements, whilst assessing the person’s ability to drive safely and identifying if there is a medical or cognitive issue that may have accounted for the careless driving offence.

The scheme has been running for 12 years and is now utilised by over 20 Police Forces in the country to great success and has been shown to have saved many lives. It is free to any Police Force to take up.  

The following people will be eligible for this assessment as an alternative to careless driving offence:

• Drivers aged 70 and over
• Drivers of any age using specially adapted vehicles
• Drivers of any age where an underlying medical condition is suspected to be a cause of the collision or incident

This presentation will cover the FTD assessment, which was created by Rob Heard working with Driving Mobility, and is now being rolled out to Police Forces cross Great Britain. The scheme has won many national awards and has been highly commended by Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Awards.

Rob Heard, Road Safety & Older Drivers Consultant

Rob Heard is the founder and Chairperson of the Older Drivers Forum and a nationally recognised expert on older drivers, regularly being interviewed by TV, radio and other media on the subject. He has presented at numerous conferences on how we can help and support mature and older drivers to carry on driving safely for longer, but also when is the right time to retire from driving. 

Rob has previously been in the Police Force for 30 years, being part of the Roads Policing department for 27 years. Rob is passionate about road safety and prior to retirement he was the Sergeant in charge of road safety for Hampshire and Thames Valley Police. Rob was a senior investigating officer for road deaths, and instigated the Older Drivers Forum following several serious and fatal incidents involving older drivers. 

The Older Drivers Forum is a partnership approach and since its creation in 2013 has enjoyed great success in reducing older driver incidents and increasing help and support to not only older drivers, but other interested parties. Rob has assisted other areas across the country to set up their own schemes to help and support this vulnerable group.

He is a member of the National Older Drivers Task Force and co-author of the Task Force report published as a national strategy to the UK government in November 2021. 

Rob has won numerous national awards for his work with older drivers, including a lifetime achievement award from Road Safety Support, and winner of ‘Outstanding Contribution to Road Safety’ from the National Police Chiefs Council. In the 2025 New Years Honours list, Rob was awarded an MBE for his work in road safety and particularly mature and older drivers. He now works as a road safety consultant, specialising in older drivers and is a Driver Awareness Trainer for UKROEd.