Avanti Cycling’s Covid-19 organisational procedures

17 March 2020

At Avanti Cycling, we believe in the power of cycling and travel by bike to create joy, to bring people together and help the planet. However, with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) now declared a global pandemic, we need to put in place procedures that protect our instructors, staff and schools. 

Avanti Cycling is very keen that all its instructors, staff and partners are protected from infection and we hold their safety as our primary focus.

We will work with Government and NHS advice at all times and may therefore change these procedures depending on how that advice changes.

We are basing these procedures on three core aspects:

  1. Instructors and hygiene
  2. Keeping things as normal as possible
  3. Working closely with schools

1 Instructors and hygiene

Clear hygiene procedures are vital for our organisation, instructors and other staff will follow these principals.

    1. 1. Hand hygiene

Wash with soap and warm water for at least 20 secs whenever possible. This means, whenever going into a school or leaving a school. 

Clean hands with sanitizer before and after meeting new people, touching (repairing) bikes and as often as possible.

Where no sink is available, clean hands regularly with an alcohol-based hand sanitiser. (not anti-bacterial as C-19 is a virus).

    1. 2. Instructing

Do not touch people or shake people’s hands. Keep at least one metre, preferably two, from school staff and children, where possible. Use clear language more to describe things to riders. Keep children apart from each other, wherever possible, and pay attention to discipline. One method is to keep the riders riding their bikes, so they have less time to interact closely with each other.

2 Keeping things close to normal

Avanti Cycling believes that we need to keep as close to normality as possible and so we ask schools wherever possible to think about running the Bikeability courses as per usual for several reasons. 

    1. We closely follow the changes in Government advice, and currently there is nothing in that advise against small outdoor gatherings. We feel that often children will be better off in an outdoor environment than closeted indoors.
    2.  There is no need to minimise our cycling and environmental lessons to children, Cycling will always be a valuable life skill. The concern is that if children miss these amazing lessons, then they will never have that opportunity again.
    3.  Schools should, wherever possible, try to maintain their annual slots for cycle training. There is a great deal of demand for cycle training and if schools keep their annual slots, we will be able to return to normal as soon as practical and with minimum disruption

3 Working with schools

Avanti Cycling and its Liaison Officers will work with schools as closely as possible once the agreed Bikeability courses near their delivery date. Each school will have its own procedures and it is important that Avanti Cycling work within the school procedures to help minimise any potential disruption.

Courses should be set up as usual, and then either run, as planned, moved or cancelled depending on school procedures and parent concerns.

Parents may have separate concerns; these will be relayed to schools and may mean that we will not be able to access as many children as in normal years.

Avanti Cycling will, as always, endeavour to do the best for the children in partnership with the schools. During this crisis, we will waive the cancellation fee for the schools.

Summary

Avanti Cycling recognises that the novel virus, C-19, is a completely new phenomenon to the world and advice and circumstances will change rapidly. We are keen to keep up to date with these and will update our procedures accordingly.

However, we are also keen to maintain normality wherever possible as cycling is an important life skill for children.