Cyclist Training Review

This report informed Norfolk County Council Members of the new child cyclist training strategy following an independent review of the county’s Child Cyclist Training Scheme.

Background
Norfolk County Council’s Casualty Reduction Group has trained child cyclists since 1974. This training now involves a road based test for riders aged nine to 12 years.

More than 5,000 children complete the Norfolk cyclist courses each year. There are around 30 paid instructor/examiners and around 200 voluntary instructors who train at most Primary Schools in Norfolk.

In February 2009, Mott MacDonald completed a benchmarking review of the scheme, with comparison of seven other county child cyclist training schemes.

The review also compared and contrasted the Norfolk scheme against the DfT approved National Standards for Cyclist Training.

It also investigated the expectations and satisfaction levels of child cyclist training with the existing customers and stakeholders.

Conclusions
• Benchmarking revealed that the Norfolk County Council scheme was similar to, and no worse than, other local authority cyclist training courses.
• The customer/stakeholder surveys showed that although pupils may feel confident and safer following cyclist training, it did not necessarily follow that they cycled on the road more often.
• Although the National Standards have been introduced, many local authorities (including Norfolk) were already training to those same standards.
• Customers and stakeholders would like to see the existing links between road safety, travel plans and the transportation infrastructure strengthened to promote cycling as a sustainable transport option.
• Parents and pupils stated that they would consider cycling to school if there was less congestion and better cycling facilities.
• The Norfolk Child Cyclist Training level 2 course is estimated to cost £14 per pupil, whereas the experience in London of Bikeability shows that it costs between £80 and £120 per year 6 pupil.
• Authorities with Bikeability managed courses lose direct control of the targeting of training investment and have no records of the venue, number and standard of training sessions taking place.

Recommendations
• Continue with the Norfolk Child Cyclist Training Scheme to levels one and two of the National Standards.
• The Casualty Reduction Group should seek partners to introduce “National Standard” training at level three in High Schools.
• Improve the recruitment and retention of community volunteer instructors.
• Restrict “Bikeability” input to level 3 for High Schools and adults.