• The following are notes from the In-house Bikeability delivery surgery from the conference (12 May 2015). This is from two sessions, please feel free to comment, add, amend or embellish. Please let us know your thoughts...


    Advantages
    • Cost effective
    • Integration with wider programme
    • Local knowledge
    • Certainty about training figures
    • Control and manageability – esp. speed of decision-making
    • Relationships with schools – trust
    • Quality and consistency
    • Bespoke solutions possible
    • Long-term strategies easier
    • No procurement process needed

    Challenges and solutions

    1. Team retention can be a problem. We like to keep our talent and build around it. Proposed solutions:
      Best pay and working conditions possible
      Regular engagement (eg regular team meeting, email updates)
      Giving extra responsibility to experienced members
      Offer CPD where possible
    2. How do we employ NSIs: F/T, contract and contractors/freelance. This really is a question of choosing the best solution from the possible one for your LA. Be aware that giving CPD training to some of your team and not others (ie non-mandatory training), can have tax consequences for team and management if you employ freelance NSIs.
    3. Can have a shortage (or a a surplus) of instructors, especially at peak and troughs times of the year. Proposed solutions:
      Smooth the peaks by working with schools to book throughout the year
      If the scheme manager is an NSI, they can pitch in in peaks
      Get instructors to do bike checks ahead of time for future courses in troughs
    4. Balancing deliver and strategy makes for a bigger workload. This goes with the territory!
      Proposed solutions:
      Get a strategy or delivery-minded colleague from another team to meet with you on a regular basis as a sounding board.
      There are various web and IT solution. Use the best you can afford.
    5. Managing costs and getting best value for money
      Proposed solutions:
      Train NSIs or pay to get them trained (some will work for nothing, eg PCSOs, Heads of PE)
      Run four-day courses rather than five
      Use pool bikes to get better attendance (and lower cost per place)
      Consider charging schools for low attendance
      Share delivery of some courses with other authorities
      Approach public health for funding, eg for exercise on referral
    6. Need to create an income.
      Proposed solutions:
      Hire services of team out, eg for Dr Bikes, led rides and workplace maintenance classes.
    7. How do we achieve an uplift in adult training numbers (perhaps a wider than in-house delivery issue).
      Proposed solutions:
      Offer workplace training
      Run adult group sessions for beginners/L1
      Run adult groups for specific target audiences: women/ethnic groups/over 55s
      Offer family training sessions, getting parents to train alongside their children
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In-house delivery of Bikeability: advantages, challenges and solutions

Posted by Avatar for ShannonBall @ShannonBall

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