More than £1 million available to help children access cycle training

More than £1 million in funding is now available for pilot projects which will help children and teenagers learn how to cycle, the Bikeability Trust has announced.

The Widening Participation Fund is being released to the Bikeability Trust by the Department for Transport to help the Government achieve its ambition to offer cycle training to every child. The money will be used to fund projects that help children who wouldn’t usually learn how to cycle become confident cyclists.

The Fund is open for creative and innovative pilot projects that will help more children learn how to cycle. The Bikeability Trust is welcoming bids from current Bikeability training providers as well as charities, community groups and other organisations which deliver cycle training.

This latest round of investment from Government follows on from the success of the Bikeability Trust’s Innovation Fund, which saw the charity invest £300,000 across 18 cycle training projects for children with special educational needs and disabilities. The fund helped buy adapted bikes for children with mobility issues and develop new training for instructors to help them better support children with additional needs. It also enabled The Trust to pilot new delivery methods across mainstream and specialist schools.

The new Widening Participation Fund will help the Bikeability Trust and the Department for Transport achieve the vision of teaching every child how to cycle. Pilot projects that will help to identify those children who don’t currently access Bikeability, address the barriers to uptake, and seek ways to resolve these, are all welcomed.

Emily Cherry, Executive Director at the Bikeability Trust said: “It is our ambition to give every child the opportunity to learn how to cycle and to gain confidence in cycling. The Widening Participation Fund will help us engage with all children, so they can reap the physical health and mental wellbeing benefits of cycling and experience the joy of this life skill.

“The Widening Participation Fund is open to all organisations which have innovative, creative and exciting ideas for schemes that will get children of all backgrounds and abilities on a cycle. I would like to encourage any organisation which thinks they can deliver something special to get in touch and find out more about the fund.”

The Widening Participation Fund is taking bids until 5pm on 29 October 2021. Full details of criteria can be found here. If you have any questions or require further information please email innovationfund@bikeabilitytrust.org.