The London Borough of Hackney has introduced a new ‘opt out’ system to increase the number of children participating in Bikeability training.
Under the new system, all children in Years 5 and 6 are automatically enrolled in the Bikeability cycle training week at their school, unless their parents/guardian specifically require that they not participate.
Hackney Council says this simplifies the administrative process, without discarding parental consent. Parents are notified of the training taking place and are requested to notify the school only if they wish their child not to be involved.
As a result, since the pilot was introduced in autumn 2024, average attendance across all Bikeability courses has risen to 95%.
Cycle Confident, who delivers the training on behalf of Hackney Council, says it has been ‘blown away’ by the positive feedback and the impact on inclusivity and maximised numbers that the pilot has achieved.
“From the school’s perspective this new scheme is a move in the right direction”, one school said.
Based on the success of the pilot, Cycle Confident is now working to introduce the ‘opt out’ scheme in other London boroughs – and further afield.
The Bikeability Trust’s Level 2 training equips children in Years 5 and 6 with essential skills for riding confidently on suburban roads with moderate traffic, marking their first experience with on-road cycling education.
Before progressing to Level 2, children complete Level 1, a course in a traffic-free setting that teaches core cycle control skills.
Since the programme’s inception in 2007, more than five million children have participated in Bikeability training, a national initiative backed by record government funding to deliver over half a million placements annually.
This seems a sensible approach to ensure a streamlined process with less admin and it’s great to hear that participation rates in Hackney are so high, but I believe that nationally there’s a shortage of Bikeability instructors and so in some areas it may be this that limits children’s ability to participate in the courses.
Equally, I think that in some areas of the country (I’m not sure about Hackney) pupils completing Bikeability does not appear to translate into children making short utility journeys (to school, to the park, to their friend’s house etc.) by bike as they/ their parents still don’t feel that the roads are safe. Largely it seems that this is due to concerns about the behaviour of some drivers, the overall volume of motorised traffic on the roads and the lack of connected cycle infrastructure.
So, children taking part in Bikeability is great from the perspective of them gaining important skills and being physically active during the course itself, but for many children it’s still not enough to help them make short independent journeys by bike – which is a shame as it’s something that a generation or two ago used to be much more common.
Becky
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