Scheme that helps young people get a driver licence fears funding cut

The people behind a scheme that helps young people learn to drive and get a licence are worried the government might cut its funding.

NZTA Waka Kotahi introduced community driver testing officers in 2022, helping thousands of people access driver training and testing.

Funding for the programme is due to run out in 2026, and some community providers were worried it was no longer a priority for the government.

Capri, 18, told First Up that if it was not for an NZTA community testing officer, she would not have a driver's licence.

"I wasn't really keen on getting my restricted, to be honest, until I had my baby," she said.

She decided she didn't want to risk being pulled over with her baby and being in trouble. "I knew that I could go get it. I just was scared to go get it."

People from her area of central Hawke's Bay sat their tests in Hastings or Dannevirke. That was not possible for Capri, but luckily she qualified for a testing officer to come to her.

NZTA introduced the community driver testing model in Northland, Eastern Bay of Plenty, East Coast and Hawkes Bay in 2022.

So far nearly 6000 people have passed their practical driving tests under the scheme, which gets $1.5 million annually in government funding.

Connect Youth and Community Trust in Hawkes Bay had helped hundreds of people like Capri get their driver's licence.

General manager Kelly Annand said having a community testing officer makes it easier for the trust to do its job

"This is a service that's set up for those people that might be a little bit more vulnerable, are presenting with anxiety, need a little bit more love and coaching, need to be able to get compliance with the court system or the police system or things like that, so they can't wait months to be able to sit a test."

Under the NZTA scheme, community providers like Connect got a dedicated testing officer for their region.

"The exciting thing is, if you've got a community testing officer based with your organisation, not only do you have the ability to train people to drive, make them safer, but then you also get to to do the testing and complete the process with them. But let me say that the people who do the training and the people who do the testing are not the same people."

Connect also offered local high school students driver safety training at a discount price to help them with employment opportunities after school.

Annand said their community's testing officer was someone who had been working with the trust for a long time.

"He was a driving instructor. He took the opportunity to do the training to become a tester.

"He's just an average normal bloke that works hard and wants to give back to community."

But funding for the programme will run out in 2026 and despite its success, Annand had no indication from NZTA whether it will continue.

"With leadership change, not only with the government, but also with an NZTA, it felt like all of a sudden that in the Community Driver Testing Officer programme was no longer a priority and so I started to get a bit nervous and then I wasn't able to get a new person that I had employed, trained to be a tester.

"They kept telling me 'no' and they couldn't tell me when the when the next course was and that's when my alarm bells went off."

Ted Jarvis ran the Silver Fern Motorsport Trust in West Auckland.

He had been training youth offenders and people from low socio-economic backgrounds to sit their driving tests since 2010.

He also saw the community testing model offering the pastoral care and support that his students desperately needed.

"We went to Pukekohe the other day and we had they do like nine tests a day. We had all nine. We had our own testing officer and everything like that and we were able to pull those people through."

NZTA will not say if funding for the model will continue beyond 2026.

Earlier this year, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced changes to the driver's licence system in a bid to curb a nationwide backlog, which meant some Aucklanders were waiting more than three months to sit a driving test.

Annad believed the community model had the potential to fix wait times for good, and should be funded under the government's surge testing scheme.

"It's a bold statement, for I really believe that if we do it and do it well and we'll never have the wait times again - we can fix this."

But in a statement, NZTA said that initiative came under a different category.

"NZTA contracts VTNZ to provide driver testing services, and to lead the recruitment and training of temporary testing officers as part of the Surge workforce. To support 'surge' testing , community driver testing officers and community organisations can be contracted by VTNZ to provide driver testing and contribute to our efforts to bring down wait times."

Wendy Robertson heads the Driving Change Network, an advocacy group made up of 480 community organisations that provide driver education, training and licensing.

She said she was reassured that NZTA is looking at taking the community testing scheme wider.

"We have been advocating for it to be a business as usual type initiative as opposed to a short term programme. While they haven't committed to that, committing to it until 20266 is a positive outcome. They have committed to looking at extending it beyond the current providers, which is excellent."

But she said advocates of the programme were prepared to take things further if NZTA did not deliver on its promises.