Summer 2001

Visit by Lord Whitty Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Our Patron, Earl Howe, invited Lord Whitty to pay an informal visit to SKIDZ in February.

Lord Whitty wrote afterwards, "I was very impressed by the project... I am sure that well run motor projects such as SKIDZ provide a good example of best practice in this field... I have written to Charles Clarke at the Home Office to let him have my views on the project"

Our thanks to all those who also attended and made the day a success.

Monitoring & Evaluation

The independent evaluation of the project by Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College has been completed and copies are available.

A seminar to discuss the findings of the evaluation has been organised by the European Secure Vehicle Alliance, BCUC and SKIDZ on July 5th 2001.

Delegates so far include representatives from DfEE, Home Office, BCC, WDC, Thames Valley Police, YOTs, Probation, Schools and Business.

If you would like to attend this seminar please contact Viv Nicholas on 01628 661887.

City & Guilds NVQ accreditation

In partnership with Haydon Training we have been accredited by City & Guilds to run NVQ Level 1& 2 motor vehicle courses.

These courses will run throughout the year and new courses will start each time there are sufficient students to fill them.

The aim of SKIDZ has always been to offer progression, and gaining NVQ accreditation has greatly expanded the courses we can offer.

To increase our ability to offer courses to the community as a whole we have submitted two bids.

One to the Buckinghamshire Lifelong Learning Partnership to part fund our evening courses, and one to Connexions to fund courses aimed at young people who are probably not excluded or involved with the police, but do need something constructive to do with their time.

The Connexions funded courses, if the bid is successful, will be run in partnership with Youth & Community who will be going out into the community to offer places to young people.

Up until now we have only been able to offer a very limited service to Youth & Community because of funding problems, it is hoped that this will be the start of a long term working arrangement between us that will benefit young people and the community as a whole.

Wheels dirt bike club

We are working hard to be able to start the dirt bike club in time for the summer holidays.

There has been a lot of interest from bikers, industry, councils, police, landowners, residents and the media.

We will need keen, experienced motorcyclists to act as voluntary instructors, if you are interested please contact us.

Thank you

Thank you for your continued support, if you know of anyone who might be interested in the work we are doing please let us know so that we can contact them.