·    Core Project: Cycle Training for children

The new National Standard for Cycle Training supported by Cycling England has been introduced particularly aimed at young people.  Building on the former cycling proficiency test, the National Cycle Training Standard has been developed by over 20 expert organisations including Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association (LARSOA), RoSPA and CTC the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation in response to public demand for a modern, nationwide scheme that caters for today's road conditions. Training to the National Standard can give parents the reassurance that their children have the necessary skills and confidence to cycle in today’s road conditions, and particularly to cycle to school.

For the first time, Cycling England will be able to provide funds for local authorities and schools to pay for National Standard Cycle Training.  It is intended that during the three years of funding any local authority or school will be able to apply for funds.  In the first year (i.e. the financial year 06/07) grant distribution will be for those authorities and schools which could immediately use funds to train additional children to the National Standard.  A national grant scheme will be in place by March 2007 and at that time any local authority or school can apply. Applications will be assessed against a set of criteria agreed with DfT and DfES. Details of the scheme should be announced by January 2007 (some additional information in Annex 1 below).

Over the next three years, Cycling England will continue to work towards giving every child the opportunity to have access to this standard of training. Cycling England’s vision is for no child to leave primary school without having had access to the National Cycle Training Standard and Bikeability award scheme.

      ·    Bikeability launch and pilot

Cycling England has worked with a number of partners to develop a public brand for the National Cycle Training Standard – a modern version of the ‘cycling proficiency’ updated for the 21^st Century. Extensive market research on name and design has led us to the development of ‘Bikeability’. It will provide appeal and incentive for children and parents alike to undertake quality cycle training (to National Standard levels 1,2 and 3) to ride safely and well on modern roads.

Following a September announcement by ministers in Merseyside there will be a 6 month ‘gearing up’ period.  During this time we will work with a number of local authorities and other training providers to make sure that all elements of the scheme are working and in place for a national rollout in the Spring of 2007.

Cycling England has set up a Bikeability Steering Group with membership across a wide range of bodies including the Local Authority Road Safety Association (LARSOA), and the Local Authority Cycling Association (LACA) representing the interests of road safety officers and cycling officers.  Research was also undertaken into many of the best local authority cycling award schemes.  The ‘gearing up’ period has been designed so that we work very closely with a number of local authorities already training to the National Standard with in-depth feedback and evaluation procedures.  Any comments, feedback or suggestions you may have on Bikeability and its delivery during the gearing up period are welcome.  Please email all professional comments and suggestions to the National Cycle Training Helpline. More general details will be on the new web site for the awards www.bikeability.org.uk.

      ·    Training for special needs children

Cycling England has recognised a gap in current provision and will therefore be appointing a contractor to manage the development of training modules for disabled children, and consider the need for any specialist modules needed for children from ethnic minority backgrounds.  Pilots of such materials and courses will ensure their suitability and ultimately make it easier for any child who would like to develop their skills to have the opportunity to do so.

·    Improving access to National Standards for training scheme providers and local authorities

The Cycle Training Reference Group (CTRG), the recognised professional and standards body for cycle training has been working alongside the National Standards Capacity Building Project managed by CTC to understand what opportunities and barriers exist to making recognised best practice training available to every child in England. In particular it has been taking feedback from local authorities who are enthusiastic about the standard but have yet to start their implementation.

As a result CTRG has agreed to accelerate a plan which will make the National Standards more accessible to current training providers and enable them to access the additional funding in these proposals. A breakdown of the CTRG work plan to March 2007 is attached as Annex 3

This will also facilitate the entry to the National Standards process of bodies like British Cycling (see below).           

Cycling England will be co-ordinating the following investments to ensure they are linked to schools and local authorities investing in cycle training and the core programme above.

      ·    Infrastructure improvements

Integrating training with better cycling infrastructure, from safe routes to school to secure cycle parking is also important in ensuring that parents encourage children to cycle independently once they have been trained.

Building on the investment already made by DfT and Cycling England in the Links to Schools scheme delivered by the sustainable travel charity Sustrans, Cycling England proposes £5m further investment over three years. 

Coordinating investment in cycle parking at schools which have cycle training and safe cycling routes to school is also vital to ensure that children are able to safely leave their bikes on the premises.

For those schools which have already benefited from new safe routes this project will ensure that investments already made are maximised over time for each new generation of trained school children.

      ·    Bike It

‘Bike It’ is a scheme designed to work directly with schools in order to increase the number of young people cycling. The project is funded by Bike Hub - the cycle industry body, and backed by Cycling England with the support of the DfT.  Bike It seeks to address all the barriers to children cycling to school, coordinating the provision of cycling facilities such as safe routes and cycle storage, encouraging school champions, getting pupils trained to the National Standard for Cycle Training and getting parents and the wider community involved in events and activities to promote cycling.

Extra funding will enable a further doubling of the programme with up to 10 extra Bike It Officers working in around 200 extra schools. Schools will be selected to best integrate with other areas of the programme.

      ·    Go-Ride

Go-Ride, run by British Cycling, integrates club development, coaching activities, youth participation and talent identification programmes for young people into one single programme, which supports the creation of a network of school and community based cycling clubs that are trained, resourced and skilled to meet the challenge of integrating young people into a recognised club structure. Go-Ride facilitates the delivery of school and community based cycling opportunities for young people and the development of local partnerships with a shared vision of more young people, more active, more often in cycling.

It is planned that part of this new funding will enable, for the first time, Cycling England to work with British Cycling to join cycling for sport with cycling as a means of transport with Go-Ride clubs adding to the range of providers who can deliver National Standard Cycle Training in England.

      ·    Bike to School Week

 In 2006 Cycling England established Bike to School Week as an annual event in the calendar and gained significant press coverage.  Building on this success it is 
 proposed that, as with the official Bike Week, funds are used to support the development, planning and running of events and activities in schools for Bike to School
 Week 2007.  This would be in addition to money already planned for marketing of the week in 2007.

A leading theme of Bike to School weeks will be cycle training with lots of promotional opportunities such as launching Bikeability schemes and presentation of awards to pupils.

Proposed Spend Profile for the new £15 programme

ANNEX 1: TRAINING FUNDING – More information

Support for cycle training organisers and instructors 

Capacity development

Cycling England has contracted the CTC Charitable Trust (charity arm of CTC) to deliver a £950,000 programme to improve access to National Standards, particularly aimed at local authorities.

To access the new funding for training potential recipients should register their interest in National Standards with CTC and consider one of the programmes below.

There are four main elements:

1. Bursaries towards the cost of becoming an accredited instructor, available to all local authorities, other organisations or individuals. Over 1200 places can be funded. Normally matched funding is asked for, but to accompany the new funding this requirement will be removed for any instructors working in areas with significant numbers of deprived children. Funds secured now can ensure your cycling trainers are accredited to the new National Standard before next Spring when significant delivery money becomes available and Bikeability is launched nationally.
    

2. A free consultancy service for local authorities gives access to training experts or enables you to visit other local authorities to help you get on the road to National Standard Training. You can request support tailored to your needs, just ask!
    

3. Some strategic grants are available to organisations who can substantially scale up cycle training at a local regional or national level, for example working with children outside schools or setting up new instructor training capacity.
    

4. An accreditation process is being set up to provide additional quality assurance for approval of local schemes.

Helpline

In partnership with the CTC, Cycling England has set up the National Training Helpline – for more information about any of the above please call 0870 607 0415 (office hours) or email cycletraining@ctc.org.uk or visit www.ctc.org.uk/cycletraining

New funding for delivering training

 Indicative Scheme outline (Precise details are still being developed

A two speed process will be commissioned. 

Year 1 - applications for spending starting before March 2007 for those already committed to National Standards (NS) for training. NS need not be fully implemented at this time but must be in place by March 2007.

Years 2-3 - applications for expenditure between April 2007 and March 2009.

 Who can receive funds? 

• Organisers of cycle training schemes aiming to deliver National Standard level 2 training to children in school years 5 – 7. There are two strands:

 Strand 1: Authority wide grants

Local authorities seeking to expand current training programmes to include more pupils on a co-ordinated basis across a whole authority.

 Strand 2: Local grants

Individual local training organisers such as schools or groups of schools.

Applications from schemes not linked to schools will also be considered under this scheme, for example sports and youth groups if they can demonstrate that they can extend the reach of NS training to pupils not served by school based schemes.

 London and Cycling Demonstration Towns 

There are already separate funding arrangements for training in London and for Cycling England’s flagship “Cycling Demonstration Towns”. Cycling England will be setting up a separate arrangement with Transport for London to agree funding levels for London; CDTs should proceed through their co-ordinator.

 Outside England 

The National Standards have been developed as a UK wide programme but this funding applies to England only.

 Selection criteria

 Applicants will be expected to demonstrate: 

That they are committed to the National Standard for Cycle Training.

That any money claimed is spent on additional cyclist training lessons with National Standard level 2 outcomes.

That they have a strategy for targeting a proportion of money received at areas of deprivation, or pupils within schools likely to be deprived on grounds of income, health or mobility.

 Cycling England will prioritise applicants that: 

Have committed themselves to the National Standards.

Can demonstrate how this funding links to other Cycling England, DfT or DfES school travel programmes including Links to Schools, Bike IT, Travelling to School Project (School travel Plans and Capital Grants), and broader coordinated infrastructure improvements creating a safer travel to school environment.

Applicants must demonstrate that the money will not: 

Be used to replace existing expenditure on training.

Be used to fund administration or overhead costs except actual costs incurred in providing eligible training.

 Amount available

 The total amount of money available is likely to be:

Year 1 (06/07): £0.45m

Year 2 (07/08): £1.8m

Year 3 (08/09): £3.0m

Applicants may apply for up to £40 per new pupil trained per year.

Applicants will have to indicate current cost of training and if the amount applied for if less than £40 they must either apply for the lower amount or explain why additional amounts are being requested.

How will the money be distributed?

For year 1 Cycling England, DfT and DFES will shortly circulate a fast track process aimed at those already participating in the National Standards process. Any organisation that has registered their interest with the CTC Charitable Trust via the National Cycle Training Helpline will be considered but they must have some qualified instructors in place to deliver the training before the end of March 2007.

For those seeking funding from April 2007 details of the funding arrangements are expected to be published in January 2007.

Extra National Standard Training funding Frequently Asked Questions

 1. What does “committed to National Standards” mean?

The organiser has committed to implementing National Standard Cycle Training and making the modification to existing schemes if required to start delivering the Standard and Bikeability awards within the funding period. (It is not essential to achieve the Standard at the start of funding).

 Indicators might include:

The scheme is designed to promote more cycling, more safely with more cycling trips to school as a clearly stated outcome.

The organiser is familiar with the expectations of the Standard and is actively working towards the standards required.

Instructors are being qualified to recognised standards.

The organiser plans to offer Bikeability to trainees when rolled by out by Cycling England.

The organiser has applied for a Cycling England consultant to carry out an initial investigation of their scheme and will apply to the final assessment procedure when available.

 Assessment

An application to the Cycling England Capacity Building Project being managed by CTC for instructor training bursaries and consultancy support will usually provide the evidence that the indicators are being met.

 Monitoring

During the period of funding it is expected the full sign off of NS will occur for each recipient.

 2. Can I implement NS training alongside my existing scheme?

 Yes, up to year 2 of this scheme

But you must commit to change to the National Standard during the funding period and you must have achieved the change so that all training provided (by or on behalf of that LA?) meets the NS by year 3.

 All new training funded must be aimed at NS level 2 outcomes.

 3. Who can apply?

 Details will be published with the funding arrangements, but potential recipients should consider the following situations:

 Strand 1. Local authorities

The current manager of cycle training programmes for the authority must support the application, or authorise other persons such as the road safety officer, cycling officer, school travel advisor to complete the application.

 Strand 2. Local schemes

The application can be completed by any responsible person able to assess the criteria. These might include PE and School Sports Coordinators, school teachers with responsibility for travel, cycling or physical activity, school travel adviser, club organiser, cycling instructor, Bike It Officer etc.

 However the application must indicate one person who will be responsible for organising the overall scheme for which the application is made; dealing with the clients, receipt of the grant, payment of instructors and adherence to any grant conditions. That person must sign the application as the organiser.

 Checks will need to be made that the local authority has not applied for an authority wide grant to avoid double counting.

 For advice on scheme organisation contact the National Cycle Training Helpline.

5. We have not yet started our National Standards process but fully intend to. Can we apply for instructor training, consultancy and a grant as a package?

Yes, we would like to encourage a package approach when details are published.

You will probably only be able to get delivery funding from after April 2007, but you can get your instructor training bursaries and consultancy now so you will be ready for April or beyond.

6. Can I apply for more than one year’s funding?

If you are already committed to National Standards you can apply for funding for the financial years to April 2007 and April 2008 as one application. Funding to April 2009 will depend on demand and you will be required to submit a supplementary application and provide evidence on your initial work.

Annex 2. OTHER FUNDING

How long term funding for other projects including Links to Schools, Bike It and Go-Ride integrates with the core project funding for cycle training is currently being developed. 

Cycling England will be letting all local authorities know how this will work early in 2007.  A pre-requisite of applying for other funding will be a local authority’s ability to demonstrate commitment to the National Standard for Cycle Training.

 Up to March 2007 Cycling England and DfT have engaged Sustrans to fast track additional investment in infrastructure. Local authorities and schools already on a waiting list developed as part of previous funding rounds will receive priority. All authorities/schools approached will be asked to demonstrate their commitment to National Standard Cycle Training and Bikeability as part of the funding agreement. 

ANNEX 3

What is being done to make it easier for existing training schemes to enter the national standards process?

Annex 4

Contacts and supporters

Sources of more information:

www.cyclingengland.co.uk

www.ctc.org.uk/training

www.bikeability.org.uk

National Standard Cycling Helpline Phone number 0870 607 0415, , email cycletraining@ctc.org,uk and web site www.ctc.org.uk/training. 

Press:  press@cyclingengland.co.uk

Supporters

Cycle Training Reference Group.

Department for Transport

Cycling England

Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association. (LARSOA)

Transport for London

Scottish Road Safety

Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA)

CTC- the UK’s national cyclists' organisation

Independent instructor training providers and experts

British Cycling

Cycling Scotland

Bikeability Steering Group

Department for Transport

Cycling England

LARSOA

LACA

CTC - the UK’s national cyclists' organisation

British Cycling

Independent Cycle Training Providers

Transport for London