Emily Cherry Blog: Moving Into a New Financial Year
2021: Challenge and Opportunity
As we approach the end of the financial year, we remain optimistic that, with the vaccine roll out and the commitment to ensure education remains open, that the future for Bikeability is brighter. But we are also under no illusions that, even though we hope the worst of COVID may be behind us, the disruption, financial impact, stress and worry it has caused will be with us for some time.
We are open and listening at the Trust to your feedback and we continue to strongly lobby for positive change for the industry. We hear your frustrations and concerns. We are grateful for your patience, as negotiating change takes time and we have to work within central Government rules. We appreciate that this is difficult for you, as many of you have written to tell me.
The Department for Transport have been incredibly supportive over the last year. I ahve worked with many Government departments over the years and the DfT’s commitment to the industry is unparalleled. I understand many of you feel frustrated with the level of Government support offered during national lockdown and the evidence we have had to ask for, as we are audited on every COVID grant claim. We have had to work within central Government rules and I stand by the belief that the Trust has worked really hard on your behalf to offer flexibility, to secure grant funding to pay instructors and securing support where we can. This has not been easy and many sectors have been hit even worse, as they did not have the same level of support.
We also hope that the Bikeability industry recognises just how stretched we are at the central level. COVID has dramatically increased the team’s workload, and created new workstreams and issues to work through. As we move into the 2021 financial year, I wanted to take the time to share more of what we have done to focus on getting the best package we could for Bikeability.
Last year we launched our new vision for 2025 to reach 5 million children and thousands of families through Bikeability training. We set ourselves five strategic goals focused on:
- Securing the funding to offer a Bikeability for All programme
- Ensured high quality delivery of Bikeability for All
- Securing partnerships that give more children the opportunity to take up Bikeability by removing barriers to cycling and learning this life skill
- Encouraging more children and adults to cycle more confidently, more often
- Demonstrating the impact of cycle training for improved road safety, improved urban mobility, education curriculum importance, individual health and wellbeing, cleaner air and the environment
These will be our guiding goals for all the work that we will undertake with you over the coming year. But in addition to the Trust’s mission, when we were negotiating the Bikeability programme funding for 2021/22, our fundamental principle was a simple one: stabilising the industry. It’s through this lens that we secured:
- A larger total pot of grant funding
- A grant per head rise across all courses
- Reducing the number of courses to Core, Balance, Learn to Ride and Family
- Launching a new instructor bursary (details to be shared in April)
- An enhanced level of admin grant funding for the Bikeability Trust
Please remember that we are aiming to secure some publicity about the grant funding, so please do not share this with media yet. We will confirm when this will happen.
Programme Funding
The reduction in Plus courses has been focussed on ensuring as many Y5/6 children can access Bikeability as possible. We’ve only ever run small amounts of Plus module funding and our current focus has to be on Core for the moment whilst we negotiate on future Bikeability for All funding. We know we can catch up those children in the earlier key stages, whereas we do not want a lost Y6 cohort. This really matters and I’m grateful for your support. Some of you have written to me about Bikeability Fix. We love Fix and those of you who have taken part in Bikeability for All sessions know we are thinking about how to bring it into the core offer. However, for the next year, Cycling UK have record amounts of Dr Bike sessions and are delivering this in schools – far more funding than we could have put to Fix. We value our partnership with Cycling UK and there is still opportunity to apply for funding.
The impact of the grant per head rise has meant that we’ll still only be funding just over 50% of children. We have around a 15% increase in delivery, but I know that you locally often receive messages regarding courses you cannot run because of funding. None of us want to turn away schools or children, but this is a reality of the current funding secured. We’re looking to the Autumn spending review process to be able to increase this and make larger steps to every child.
Trust Staffing and Support to Industry
I am really pleased to have secured an enhanced level of admin grant from DfT for the Trust, in recognition of the need for the Trust to do more to support industry. Alongside increasing the operations, development and comms teams, we are also launching a brand new role: the Bikeability Industry Business Manager. This role is designed to work alongside training providers as a business advisor helping to plan, grow and scale up operations. We have written our business plan for the year and some of the objectives we have set are:
- Raise the profile of Bikeability and ensure that its benefits are better understood and appreciated
- Complete a review of website and launch new marketing materials
- Enhance the level of central support offered to Bikeability providers to enable them to stabilise and scale up
- Strengthen Quality, Effectiveness and Impact
- Promote Bikeability as the leading National Standards Cycle Training programme
I’m determined that over the next twelve months we can offer more to you. For example, we’re working on a wide range of resources you can use to raise quality, as well as continuing our support and mentoring options for training providers. We’re lobbying hard to DfE to ensure that Bikeability is a key part of the ‘Recovery Curriculum’ and I’ve written to Sir Kevan Collins and Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP with Dame Sarah Storey to call on them to ensure its included in the wider portfolio of what schools are asked to ‘catch’ children up on. We’re also working on new content and new films explaining Bikeability that will be shared on DfE channels directly to schools. We’re continuing the refine the Link platform to improve reporting of delivery and grant funding
We are making some changes in staffing. Isobel Stoddart is changing roles at the Trust, and will now be focussed on securing us new partnerships to generate more Innovation Funding. I’m delighted she can take this on as her experience and knowledge of Bikeability is so valued.
David Shannon and Julia Youens have done a fantastic job on the thinking and the stakeholder engagement on Bikeability for All. Sadly, their time is coming to an end and they will leave the Trust at the end of March. They have completed the first phase of this work, engaging over 1000 of you in the thinking through webinars and surveys. We are now moving into the analysis of that evidence and this will be done by DfT Research and Impact team, with some support from the Trust Development team. We remain committed to continuing to engage you in this thinking and more opportunities will exist once we have confirmed with DfT the focus and timescale for this continued work. Our ambition remains the same: the principles we have set for a true Bikeability for All programme remain and I am deeply grateful to David and Julia for getting this work off to such a flying start. They remain committed and supportive of the programme and I know will continue to offer their expertise over the coming months.
We want your feedback
We are committed to being the strong voice for industry as we focus on stabilising and preparing for scale up, and that means we will keep listening. I welcome direct contact about any aspect of the Trust’s work and this really also helps me to be the strong voice on the issues that matter to you: emily@bikeabilitytrust.org
The one thing I hope is always coming across is just how grateful we are to our whole Bikeability industry for all that you do. It’s genuine and heartfelt but thank you for your commitment and dedication to ensuring as many children as possible can access Bikeability. We’ve got so much more to do, but I hope you can see the changes we are making are to support and strengthen. Bikeability works. But we have to do more in this next period to more effectively demonstrate we have the confidence, coverage and consistency to secure a greater investment. This is our challenge and opportunity for 2021 and I hope you will work with us to make this happen, so we don’t have a lost generation of children choosing to cycle with confidence for life.