Emily Cherry Blog: Securing the Future for Every Child
It has been wonderful to see and hear from so many of you that training has fully restarted, and you are experiencing greater demand than ever for Bikeability.
I thought it would be helpful to write another blog post about some of the decisions we are taking at the Trust and our reasons why. I hope you can all see how committed we are to listening and engaging; this is at the core of our whole team approach. We want Bikeability to be best it can be and we are determined to continue working closely with you to make this happen.
Often in the conversations I have with industry, I hear how you think we are simply adding more administration to your already heavy workload. I want to reiterate that we are committed to being more flexible where we can and providing more central support. However, we simply have to demonstrate greater evidence of the impact of Bikeability in order to secure future resource. This includes showing how training impacts active travel, as well as demonstrating how we are addressing barriers to accessing Bikeability by collecting rider characteristic data.
Without this evidence, I am very concerned about the ability to secure what you tell me is needed to deliver our collective ambition of reaching every child. So, I would implore you to work with the Trust to secure the future of Bikeability. Revenue funding is incredibly hard to secure and in these uncertain economic times, we are under a greater level of scrutiny to evidence the programme spend. If we are to secure the right level of funding to offer to every child, remove barriers to access and provide a Bikeability industry that is fully funded with realistic levels to attract quality instructors and training providers – then we simply have to do more to show the impact. We can’t do that alone at the Trust and every single person working in Bikeability has an important voice and evidence to share to make this joint vision happen.
Contacting the Team
If you need to contact our central office team then please email us on contactus@bikeabilitytrust.org. The inbox is checked regularly, and a member of the team will get back to you. If you need to phone us and we are unable to answer, please leave a voicemail. Our team deals with hundreds of queries each month, so please be patient if we don’t respond immediately. We are in the process of building a new website, due for launch in Autumn, which will provide you and the public better information and answer FAQs more effectively.
Support for Training Providers
Lucy Renwick has started a great series of conversations with training providers to build a picture about the type of support the Trust could offer you. If you haven’t reached out and have ideas, I would encourage you to email lucy@bikeabilitytrust.org – no ideas are off the table! We are looking at how we can provide support to training providers who do not have contracts with grant recipients. We are stretched as our funding currently does not cover this, but the requirement to register with the Trust will remain in order to offer Bikeability under brand licence.
Link
We are sorry for the teething issues that we have experienced Link. Anke and the team have worked hard to support you during this time and most issues are now resolved, or in the process of being resolved. With a new system comes challenges, and sometimes it’s hard to anticipate all the issues. We are committed to regular Link communications, informing you of the changes we are making to the system ahead of time, and we have produced some guides on how to use Link. These are available on our YouTube channel.
We are already seeing a huge improvement as a result of the introduction of Link, which now allows us to accurately:
- report on all data (numbers of instructors, training providers, grant funding, delivery statistics and more)
- run all grant funding processes
- have an audit trail for each delivery (training provider, instructor and number of children)
Link enables us to do more than before, and we are still considering options to help provide a national booking system that could be used locally, but this is subject to securing funding. Ultimately, all the work we are doing will strengthen our bid for future funding and give the DfT confidence that everything is in place for the Bikeability programme to run smoothly and successfully.
Grant Payments 2020/21 and Waiting List
The last run from the grant programme for 2020/21 has now passed and no further claims will be accepted. For those of you who have requested additional funding, we will be in touch regarding the waiting list in due course.
Instructor Qualification Routes
We are still working through changes to the RPL route and, as previously communicated, if this is working for you and your instructors please continue and you won’t be asked to do something different. If they have concerns, please ask them to pause whilst we consider how to refocus the balance on practical and academic elements. We are also reviewing the Level 2 and Level 3 qualification routes and listening to feedback. Again, please bear with us whilst we take the time to consider the feedback. We don’t want to make big changes, but we definitely want the process to work more effectively for instructors and inspire them to be excited about joining and progressing in the industry.
Instructor Bursary
We are nearly ready to share information about bursary amounts and process, pending DfT approval. In order to fully determine where the bursary funding can be targeted, we have asked grant recipients to gather information on the number of the instructors required to reach every child with grant funded Bikeability. The bursary will only be available for grant funded Bikeability provision. Without this information, we will not be able to release details of the Bursary so please gather this information as soon as possible (deadline 25 June).
Partnerships
We will be shortly updating you on a number of new corporate partners working with the Trust. These partners will offer discounts and opportunities for the industry, as well as helping to build funding for future Innovation Fund rounds. We are working on offers that extend the value of Bikeability training and help to demonstrate the wider impact on active travel.
Securing the 2022 Grant and Beyond
All of our current work to strengthen the Bikeability industry is ultimately to put us in the best position possible to secure future funding. In the light of COVID, uncertain economic circumstances and Government priorities on recovery, we will have to do more in order to secure the resources to support every child. Defining what every child means, agreeing a program to offer, and securing the funding is going to take a significant amount of time and cooperation over the coming months. Over the past six months, we have enjoyed listening to over 1000 of you in webinars, focus groups and meetings – and we’re using that feedback to build the offer for the future. We continue to work with the regional networks, IWGB Union, Bikeability Effective Advisory Group, EQA panellists and key partners to build our offer – and, as I have already said, always welcome your thoughts on an individual basis. We want to hear from you, your expertise and experience so that we can build this together.
The Trust Board and staff team are incredibly grateful for everything you do to keep Bikeability happening and the passion of our community always shines through. We recognise how difficult the past 12 months has been on us all. Thank you for all that you do for Bikeability and please reach out to help us build Bikeability for All.