Driving a kid in your car??

[BigAnts]

I work for a PRU, often supporting students in their own homes at first until they are ready to come to our base. A colleague has been driving one of our students into the base and teaching her there to "help get the student used to the site". But she's been driving her, unaccompanied, in her own car. Isn't that madness? Against safeguarding guidelines, etc?

I've now been contacted by my line manager this afternoon and asked if I'll do the same. Drive to student's house, collect them in my car and drive them to the base. It's my car, my petrol (no travel expenses given), my insurance, my reputation, etc and er... it seems wrong to me.

Can anyone tell me either (a) it's fine and I'm worrying about nothing (b) reasons I can give to my manager for politely refusing this request. She has actually cc'd my rule-breaking colleague into the email so it makes me feel awkward saying I think it's a bad idea!

Have name-changed because this is obviously v outing!
Thanks for any advice you can give...

I work in a special school and we rare able to drive children in our own cars, but only if we have business insurance. Without business insurance you would not be covered.

That said, if you are driving to student's houses in your own car for work then you would probably need business insurance for these journeys as well - regular insurance usually only covers you for driving to your main workplace and so if your job requires driving to different locations during work hours it is quite likely you need business insurance.

She's going to be expecting an answer, so apologise and say you're sorry but you don't have business insurance. It might make the other teacher have a rethink about what she's doing.

When we do it, it's usually 2 adults. If we can't do that then we usually pay for a taxi so there is another adult present.

That said, it's fine for dbs-ed taxi drivers, for social workers and other youth/support workers so I wonder why it's different for school staff?

I have business insurance and have to give copy of my insurance to the school.

Yes I think safeguarding is a red herring. I often do 1:1 catch up with students in labs etc, If I take the school minibus and it is a late return, and I just have sixth formers for example I would be happy to drop kids off on my way back to school and possibly just end up with one student wanting to go all the way back to site.
If you are uncomfortable with it then pull the business insurance card, otherwise do it.

Safeguarding isn't a red herring. It's the very reason why so many schools don't lile staff doing it

Safeguarding is as much about staff protecting themselves and keeping themselves from allegations as it is keeping childre safe.

I run a PRU and I wouldn't. It's not just a about the insurance it lives you completely vulnerable with the student.