How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

For discussions within the Cycle Training profession.
nigecole
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by nigecole »

as far as the travel expenses are concerned, I am led to believe that you can claim the difference between what the LA pays you and what the HMRC allow on your self assessment. There is a specific form to fill in. I've never done it myself as I thought the effort probably wasn't worth the money I would get, but maybe I'm being lazy there. Ask at your tax office and they will know which form to give you I'm sure.
davefife
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by davefife »

paid :!: in Scotland we are all volunteers. I train about 150 kids/year to level 2, via local primary schools. As a bike mechanic/pro trainer I train about 10 adults a year for £35/hour and about another 10 via a local sustrans initiative for the same rate.

Cycling Scotland who administer the policy as contained in the Scottish Goverment CAPS document currently have no plans to professionalise the bikeability trainers, I know its not all a scene of calm effeicency down in Englandshire with cycle training, but at least you get renumerated.
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pjclinch
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by pjclinch »

There is a smidge of professionalism in Scotland. For example, P&K hired someone to do their CTA training last year.

But the odd exception like that aside, the idea is indeed to do it all for free, which I don't think is too daft if you've got no real option with current funding levels (bugger all, in real terms), but if it doesn't work then the Scottish Govt. will need to take that on board and do something. And we can point it out at Pedal On Parliament 3, or the like.
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davefife
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by davefife »

I hear what your saying there pjclinch, but I have long argued to Cycling Scotland and Government that if CAPS is to be realised they need to professionalise training, its the only way local authorities will role training out beyond the schools that: have school leadership that wants it; have enthusiastic volunteer parents; have a sustrans resourced I Bike officer; have input from the now ended Smarter Choices Smarter Places. I have had experience of all these as a parent, a trainer and professionally.

Fife is a mixed bag and I always push for the local authority here to do more, whats it like for you in Dundee? See you at the pedal?
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stork
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by stork »

In Norfolk, the local authority delivers cycle training through volunteers. The training falls short of the National Standard. There are some paid staff (Road Safety Assistants) who, I believe, get roughly local authority scale 3 or C (a bit better than minimum wage, probably nearer the £8/hr quoted above). Cycle training is only part of their role.

On the question of mileage, employees can generally be paid up to 45p/mile tax-free, but the employer doesn't have to pay this rate. If they pay more, the excess is taxable. If they pay less, you can make a claim on the difference. However, this is only a claim for tax relief on the difference (i.e. you benefit to the tune of 32% of the difference), rather than a claim to make up the difference in full.

Norfolk County Council do pay the 45p/mile rate, although they do not pay it for all business mileage. For example, they do not pay the full mileage when your business journey starts at home.

It is frustrating that the Government funding is only available to local authorities and SGO's, as this makes it difficult to secure proper training in counties like Norfolk where the local authority is not interested. The funding should be available to all Bikeability providers, regardless of whether they're a local authority.
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pjclinch
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by pjclinch »

davefife wrote:
Fife is a mixed bag and I always push for the local authority here to do more, whats it like for you in Dundee? See you at the pedal?


It's not great in Dundee at the moment. Tayside Police used to run cycle training which was a two-edged sword. On the one hand it wasn't that good (not on-road, for a start) but on the other at least something was getting done in conjunction with Active Schools. The polis pulled out this year and it's been left to Active Schools without too much in the way of resources and with quite a lot of schools who are paranoid about on-road and not wanting much to do with it.

The Active Schools folk are keen to roll out Bikeability out but it's easier said than done. I've volunteered my services to do training of both pupils and CTAs (I work for the NHS/Univ of Dundee but I do a 4 day week and so can use the 4th for volunteer training) and they're keen to take me up on that, though it'll probably help if the weather gets a bit more cycle-friendly! There's a couple of schools clusters where we're likley to be going ahead with getting a set of CTAs set up before the "cycle training season" starts around Easter. The council don't seem very interested beyond letting Active Schools get on with it (I 'phoned up the council asking to volunteer and they didn't know who I should speak to about it, an email asking the same was never replied to, I found Active Schools were doing it via a piece in The Courier!).

It's all a bit make-do at the moment, and IMHO needs to be formalised in to the curriculum. At which point I think a more professional approach (whether that's from inside councils and/or with outside contractors) would be an excellent idea, but if you required pros at the moment you'd just get Bikeability dropped wholesale by schools who would choose to spend the money on something else.

My kids are actually in a P&K school because we live right on the border and it's closer than our catchment school. They do Bikeability 2 in P7 but the school has decided they don't like me and won't have me doing training (for free!), preferring to ignore the instruction ratios outlined in the documentation and leave it to a single CTA. He's good, but there's only one of him and it'll be interesting to see what they do next year when his son has moved on to secondary school.

Fingers crossed that the current parliamentary inquiry gets cycling in to the curriculum alongside swimming.

Pete.
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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

It depends on the course I'm training, and the level, but anything from £50 to £100 per day per delegate, and I'd typically want a class of no larger than in or it starts to get difficult for me and my Safety Officer to manage effectively. The exception is for Search and Rescue groups, where I donate my profits back to my local group.
MIAS L5.1 instructor - advanded road and off road skills, FAST aid and casualty care, defensive tactics, SAR skills, nav, group riding, maintenance, ride and group leader qual'd.
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Si
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by Si »

Blimey, missed this thread (and a chance to gripe about money) the first time around.

Seems we get paid a bit more here than many have reported on this thread. Not that I can remember exactly what we are paid but a normal week in a school can get around £400 from the council. The private training company pays a bit less, well, actually I think that the session rate is more but they only do two sessions a day rather than three. As a mentor I get paid a bit more than as just an instructor, but not a lot more.

The Sustrans pay is pretty low because they pay their sessional staff the same rate thus someone who is an accredited NSI gets the same as a beginner ride leader from what I understand. On the other hand, proper contracted staff get a surprisingly good wage.... I do something similar to what several friends do in the world of heritage and museums and the pay from sustrans is at least twice that for a similar job in the heritage world.
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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

At best I can make 800 sheets in a day, but from that I gotta pay the Safety Officer, my travel, venue hire (unless the customer has their own), training packs and materials etc. Its nice pocket money but it'd be a serious headache to try and make a crust from it, though I know people who do.
MIAS L5.1 instructor - advanded road and off road skills, FAST aid and casualty care, defensive tactics, SAR skills, nav, group riding, maintenance, ride and group leader qual'd.
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pjclinch
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by pjclinch »

Chatting with my cousin's wife last week, who's a primary teacher in Surrey. They get in a pair of instructors for two blocks of a week (1 for L1, one for L2) and each week costs them £850.

Pete.
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Si
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Re: How much do you instructors get paid/expenses

Post by Si »

In England the funding is about £40 per child, so if you work out the ratios and expenses you can find the ceiling of instructors' pay. When you do this it's quite interesting to see if the LA is running it as a profit making venture ;-)
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