Safe Vehicles, Save Lives- Monday News Issue 190/ 17th November 2025
- Matthew Paminter
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
“Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations”
Events this week:
November 17th- International Students Day 2025
November 17tt- November 23rd- Road Safety Week 2025
November 19th- World COPD Awareness Day 2025
November 20th- World Children’s Day 2025
Legislation/Regulation of the week
Road Safety Act 2006
The Road Safety Act 2006 is a UK law that introduced new road safety measures, including new driving offenses like causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, and increased penalties for existing offenses. It also implemented a system of graduated fixed penalties and points, revised rules for drink-driving offenders
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Please remember to review this in your policy/legislation review workbook)
Videos of the week
Go Back to Where You Come From
Six opinionated Brits experience refugee life up close in some of the world's most dangerous places. But will their eye-opening journey change hearts and minds?
Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 90 mins)
Event of the week/month
Road Safety Week 2025
Every year, more than 1,700 people die on UK roads. Another 30,000 receive serious, life-changing injuries. The numbers are shocking, and there has been no significant reduction for more than a decade.
At Brake, we believe that every road crash is a preventable tragedy. We believe in a world where no one is killed or harmed on a road. Safe vehicles can help us get there…
This Road Safety Week, we want to make sure that every time we get in a vehicle we are as safe as possible, whoever we are and however we travel.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
Digital Danger and Domestic Abuse: Why Every Professional Must Act
From 25 November to 10 December, the UN Women UK 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign calls on professionals across all sectors to take a stand against domestic abuse. This year’s theme, #NoExcuse, underscores the urgency of addressing what is now considered a national emergency in the UK, where one woman is killed by a man every three days. Domestic abuse includes physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and coercive behaviours, often perpetrated by a partner or family member, and affects over 2.1 million people annually in England and Wales.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 40 mins)
Understanding AI in Education
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to technology that can perform tasks like learning, problem-solving, and decision-making, things usually done by humans. In schools and colleges, AI is already being used in tools like chatbots, learning apps, and automated marking. These tools can help personalise learning, save time, and support students in new ways.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 10 mins)
Supporting Families Through Winter: Understanding Poverty and Taking Action
As we approach the colder months, it's vital for education professionals to be aware of the growing impact of poverty on children and families. Recent figures show that over 4.3 million children in the UK are living in poverty, and more than 500,000 children are in households repaying government loans, leaving families struggling to afford essentials like food, heating, and electricity. These pressures are especially acute during winter, when costs rise and resources are stretched.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Concerns About Staff Behaviour? When is it Appropriate to Refer to the DBS?
You can apply for discretionary barring to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) when you have concerns that a person may pose a risk to children or vulnerable adults, but they do not meet the criteria for automatic referral. This usually applies when you are an employer, volunteer manager, or involved in an organisation that has either a legal duty or power to refer individuals to the DBS.
A discretionary referral can be made when a person has been removed from working in regulated activity (or would have been removed had they not left voluntarily), and there are concerns that they have harmed, attempted to harm, incited harm, or placed a child or vulnerable adult at risk of harm. This can be based on misconduct, allegations, or incidents that suggest the person is unsuitable to work in regulated activity, even if there is no criminal conviction or caution.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Health & Safety
Understanding your 'Right to Choose'
Patients in England often have more say in their healthcare than they realise. One of the most important and often overlooked rights is the right to choose where you receive certain types of NHS care.
Alongside this sits another concept known as shared care, where a specialist and your GP work together to support your ongoing treatment. Both are central to patient-centred care, yet both can sometimes cause confusion or frustration when expectations and clinical responsibilities collide.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 10 mins)
How to care for your skin in winter
For most of us in the northern hemisphere, the cold of winter is well and truly upon us, and unless you're going to where the sun is shining, it will be a few months before you feel the warm rays on your skin again.
But winter can wreak havoc with your skin, leading to itching, soreness, and even infections. So there's even more reason than in summer to give your skin some regular tender loving care.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Looking after your mental health throughout the winter
The change in seasons can be a difficult time for many people. Darker nights and a drop in temperature can affect how you feel. If you find the colder months hard, here are some simple ways you can look after your mental health.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 10 mins)
Wider Curriculum
Stay Ahead of Online Trends
Want to know which apps are trending among children and young people right now? Our KOW app page gives you a clear, up-to-date overview of the most popular platforms, what they do, and the potential safeguarding risks to be aware of. Whether you're a teacher, DSL, or parent, this is a must-review resource to help you stay informed and proactive.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
When flags divide instead of unite, FE must help rebuild belonging
No one can have missed the surge of national flags being flown from bridges and lamposts across the UK.
For some it represents national pride and unity. For others it has triggered feelings of uncertainty, fear, and exclusion – particularly among people of colour and those who have immigrated here. It’s led many to question whether they are truly accepted as part of British society.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Sustainability
Brazil's Amazon rainforest at risk as key protection under threat
The Amazon rainforest could face a renewed surge of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban that has protected it.
The ban - which prohibits the sale of soya grown on land cleared after 2008 - is widely credited with curbing deforestation and has been held up as a global environmental success story.
But powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of Brazilian politicians, are pushing to lift the restrictions as the COP30 UN climate conference enters its second week.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
I fled Ukraine at 13 - now I could help the world to achieve net zero
A 16-year-old who fled the war in Ukraine is now working with top scientists on space technology that could help the world achieve net zero.
Kateryna has been described as an "exceptional and brilliant student" by her lecturer.
The teenager spent 10 months living in a hotel room with her mother and grandmother when she first came to Wales in 2022 but has now become the first school pupil to complete an internship at Swansea University's Centre of Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM).
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)`
