Driving
Need Advice or Help to get back to driving after injury or illness. Are you safe to drive?
Learn more about our Driving Centres, including advice about assessments, frequently asked questions and general information about what you can expect from Herts Ability. Our Driving Centre page also includes information about how to be referred and some of the conditions we commonly see and help with.
Driving Assessments
The assessment is first and foremost a safety assessment. We want to check that the driver can maintain physical control of the car and interact safely and appropriately with all the other road users.
Vehicle Adaptations
If you have a physical impairment and you want to try driving with a different method of vehicle control, you will be given the opportunity to drive vehicles fitted with adaptations.
Theory Test Support
At Herts Ability, we have a team of highly trained Approved Driving Instructors, supported by Occupational Therapists who can offer one-to-one or small group sessions tailored to the individual.
Driving Lessons
Our highly trained Approved Driving Instructors have the knowledge and experience to help learner drivers with individual needs. These individual needs could be physical or non-physical.
Need advice or help to get back to driving after injury or illness?
Are you safe to drive?
The Driving Centre has been part of Herts Ability for 21 Years. It is a member of an organisation called Driving Mobility. This is a nationwide network of independent organisations which offer advice and assessment to people who need to gain or retain independence through mobility.
As this would suggest, the Driving Centre at Herts Ability seeks to help people decide how they can manage to travel around their community in the safest and most appropriate way.
This can mean finding ways they can continue or return to driving in the face of an illness or disability or to find alternatives, such as community transport schemes, public transport or even assessing the suitability of a mobility scooter. Our assessments are recognised by the DVLA so if you are safe you can reclaim your license.
Driving Assessments
People drive cars for many reasons. For some, it is a pastime and pleasure in its own right. They love cars and love to drive them. Most of the time, however, it is simply a way of getting from A to B.
It maybe the need to get to work, to go to their local hobby group, to go shopping or simply to visit friends or relatives. Driving also helps them to go to a hospital or doctor’s appointment. Whatever the reason, driving is likely to be an important part of their lives.
We can help
If they have an illness or disability that affects their physical or cognitive abilities, it can also affect their ability to drive safely. This is where Herts Ability can help by providing a driving assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to give an independent and expert opinion and recommendation regarding their driving, and most importantly, their safety.
Whenever possible, we want to help them continue to or return to driving and we will help them explore the options for achieving this.
How to get referred
People are able to refer themselves to Herts Ability for an assessment. Sometimes, their doctor or therapist can do this on their behalf. The DVLA also refer people for driving assessments as do Motability if people are on or eligible for the Motability scheme.
If people refer themselves or are referred by a doctor or therapist then a fee to cover the costs will apply. This currently ranges from £55.20 to £90 depending upon the type of assessment required.
People attend assessments because of concerns about how their medical condition or disability might be affecting their ability to drive. The list of medical conditions that can do this is huge, as one might imagine!
Some of the most common medical conditions Herts Ability sees
- Dementia
- Stroke
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Limb loss or impaired limb
- Neuropathy (often in association with diabetes)
- Spinal injury
- Arthritis
- Head injury
- Motor Neurone Disease
- ASD
- ADHD
- Cerebral Palsy
- Poliomyelitis
- Complex regional pain syndrome
- Long Covid
- Spina Bifida
- Achondroplasia
There is a legal requirement for anyone with a driving licence to notify the DVLA if they are diagnosed with one of a wide range of medical conditions.
Failure to do so can result in a prosecution and possibly a substantial fine. Further guidance on which conditions this applies to and how to do this can be found on the DVLA website at www.gov.uk/driving-medical-conditions.
Local Transport
If, because of a medical condition or for any other reason, you do not drive and are not sure what local transport options are available to you, ask Herts Ability. We hold information on local schemes which may help. This is a free service.
Other Assessments
The Driving Centre can also provide assessments and advice regarding other aspects of personal mobility. These include the following:
- Car access assessments
- Mobility scooter assessments
- Wheelchair and scooter loading assessments (coming soon)
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, some of the clients we see are not suitable for driving, and make serious mistakes whilst on the road. We therefore only use our own, dual-controlled vehicles for the assessment.
We have a range of vehicles available, including manual and automatic transmission, and vehicles adapted to help you overcome a disability; for example fitted with hand controls to control acceleration and braking, or a left foot accelerator pedal. We will not expect a perfect drive during the assessment, and you will be given as much time as you want to familiarise yourself with the vehicle and the controls.
No, but we can give you details of suitable, local installers.
No, but we do have a patio area where you can eat your own food, weather permitting, and a microwave oven that you can use to heat pre-prepared food of your own. We can, of course, provide hot and cold drinks while you wait.
We can provide tuition to novice drivers who are learning to drive for the first time, or experienced drivers who require familiarisation lessons using new controls. There may be a waiting time to provide lessons, but all Instructors are Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency approved, and specialise in teaching people with disabilities.
No, we welcome referrals from all areas. Our farthest travelling client to date, was a man who travelled from Inverness for a driving assessment and who is now back on the road, enjoying his independence again. We also have an office at the Disability Resource Centre in Dunstable where we can provide assessments for those clients travelling from the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and the Northamptonshire area. If you are in the Middlesex, Berkshire or Buckinghamshire areas, we also offer assessments from our centre in Hillingdon.
Anyone aged 3 or over who currently receives either the Higher Rate of the Mobility Component of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Enhanced Rate of the Mobility Component of the Personal Independence Plan (PIP), War Pensioners Mobility Supplement or the Armed Forces Independence Payment, and has at least 12 months award remaining, is eligible to lease a car from Motability.
This includes a parent/guardian who can order a car on behalf of a child aged 3 or over who is receiving the ERMC of the DLA and non-drivers who can name up to 2 other drivers.
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Herts Ability could not exist without support from the local community and valued volunteers. For ideas and ways to support us, click on the boxes here.
