Bikeability Trust Annual Review 2020

Alison Hill, Chair of Trustees 2020 has been a year like no other. And like everyone else the wonderful, committed people delivering the Bikeability programme have had to adapt and change to the demands of lockdown, school closures, social distancing, and the inevitable changes and alterations to delivery and funding arrangements that resulted. The Bikeability Trust itself has responded and supported the Bikeability industry as it adapted to the new circumstances. In 2020, Paul Robison left the Trust and we appointed Emily Cherry to the role of Executive Director to bring fresh insight and a range of skills and experience beyond the world of cycling. Balancing the development of our future ambitions alongside stabilising the day to day has been testing, but the team have faced this unprecedented time with confidence. The board is grateful to the team for their commitment and energy in supporting the delivery of the Bikeability programme. We also appreciate how the whole Bikeability industry has pulled together to ensure children can still access training. Continuing to see the stories of children completing their Bikeability is the joy we have all needed throughout 2020. Over the last year the Bikeability board, like so many others, has gone virtual. We said goodbye to Martin Porter, Sonya Hurt and Zsolt Schuller, all founder board members, but were delighted to recruit two new board members, Imran Hussain and John Jackson. With Emily’s steer the Board has agreed an ambitious new strategy which will shape our direction to 2025. We will focus on ensuring the Bikeability Trust team have the resources and support to enable 5 million more children and thousands more families take up vital Bikeability training. The team and board will without doubt adapt with energy and resilience in this changeable world, and our vision of ensuring that everyone has the confidence to cycle and enjoy this skill for life will guide all we do. Phillip Darnton, Honorary Patron Just about 90 years ago, when almost everyone got about by bicycle, the Government was urged to add learning to ride a bike to the school curriculum. That way, it was argued, there would never be a generation that lost the ability to cycle. A quarter of a century later in 1958, a national basic training programme called “Cycling Proficiency” was introduced to encourage primary school children to learn to ride. After decades of decline, however, in 2005 Government began to recognise the importance and value of cycling as a convenient means of getting about locally, and started “Bikeability”. Bikeability has been continuously but modestly funded to allow just about half of primary school children to start to become cyclists. It is still a postcode lottery for schools, and 8 lessons definitely isn’t a competent rider, even on quieter roads. It fell far short of our ambition that “every child should have the opportunity to learn to ride”. To achieve this basic objective, and to eliminate the risk of a generation lost to knowing how to ride, Government has at last committed to funding Bikeability training for all primary school-age children. It’s a commitment made last summer in the Prime Minister’s “Gear Change” document, and backed with funding pledged for the next 4 years. It is hugely significant. And never has it been more timely. In 2020, sales of kids’ bikes exceeded 1.2 million, almost 30% higher than any year in the past decade. Children love to cycle, and once they’ve learnt, they have a skill for life. It’s the first careful change from being dependent to becoming independent – where to go, how to get about, meeting friends. Bikeability is so much more than basic training – it’s a rite of passage. I have been involved with Bikeability from its start and have the pleasure of being Patron of the Bikeability Trust. I’m delighted that, after so many years of lobbying, Government is now going to fund the Bikeability Trust to be able to offer every child the chance to realise this life skill. In fact, it makes you wonder why, 90 years later, learning to ride a bike still isn’t on the school curriculum. 3