Bikeability Trust Annual Review 2020

 It was a huge surprise when you answered the phone yesterday….. it was incredibly reassuring to know you were there. After another sleepless night we have woken to host our staff meeting and have been met with an abundance of optimism for the future. The ability to claim for those staff members who have no financial support via the Trust has made THE biggest difference to those to whom it applies. Rich and Sue at Cyclewise, training provider The Bikeability Trust has also taken steps to ensure that our own management of the Bikeability programme is economic and efficient. We have: • Updated our policies and procedures and are now fully compliant with fundraising practice • Generated £539k of surplus income (Financial Year ending 31st March 2020)* through careful monitoring of costs and a small, efficient staff team. • Prioritised obtaining value-for- money across the board to ensure maximum reserves are fed back into our Innovation Fund. • Reviewed our accounts every quarter, by a trustee sub- committee, to ensure that we are meeting our objectives. • The programme benefitted enormously from a sponsorship arrangement with Halfords which came to a natural end Although we have not yet finalised our accounts for the year ending 2021, our results will show a very different picture as Bikeability training has been restricted by the impact of COVID-19, which in turn has led to a downturn in sales of Award materials. We also needed to invest in additional central staffing to be able to manage the increased workload from COVID-19 and to enhance our offer to industry. * Our key sources of funds are the sale of Award materials, partnership income and income under a grant agreement with the Department for Transport. PROCESSES TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON DELIVERY PARTNER BUSINESSES The Trust have helped to minimise the predicted reduction of delivery of places during the 2020 calendar year (forthcoming 20/21 statistics). DELIVERY PARTNERS HAVE SHOWED GREAT RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY IN 2020 Sam Cartlidge, the owner of LearnCycling in Shropshire, says this year has been his hardest yet since he started as an instructor in 2008.  2020 has been a tricky year, there have been many changes for Bikeability instructors since coronavirus first hit but we have adapted. The increased per head rate from the Bikeability Trust meant it was viable to deliver smaller courses, schools were really pleased and instructors were happy to work. Letters were sent to schools to reassure them that the training is a safe outdoor activity and we put on summer courses, responding to lower number of available instructors available through the school term. One of the things that made it possible for us to get working is that we’ve got a really good rapport with the schools, building and maintaining those relationships is key to be able to offer reassurance for them. We’ve been working in Shropshire for several years, so you build up those relationships with administrators, teachers, the kids, their siblings and parents as well – we helped make them aware that the training is all outside and is a very safe thing to do. During our autumn courses last year, we noticed that we were getting some really strong groups. I would always ask, ‘Did you use your bikes a lot over the summer and during lockdown?’ Often the children had been out every day on their bikes as a family. They’d had more time on their bikes and were already good bike handlers which is a big head start. That’s a real positive from all the disruption from coronavirus. 21