As Bikeworks celebrates its 20th anniversary, we are proud to become an official Action Hub partner with Fatima’s UK Campaign.

The partnership is grounded in a shared belief in the ability and potential of children and young people in and leaving care, and the importance of creating strong relationships, positive experiences and opportunities that can grow over time.

For Bikeworks, it marks the next stage of a relationship that began two years ago, following a chance meeting with Fatima and a ride together on one of our side-by-side cycles.

From a chance meeting to the Action Hub

Following those first conversations, children and young people from Banya Fostering joined Bikeworks and Fatima’s UK Campaign at the Olympic BMX track at Lee Valley VeloPark.

In the summer of the Paris Olympics, the group enjoyed a coached BMX session and received BMX bikes built through Bikeworks’ Charity Bike Factory, which brings corporate teams together to build cycles for community partners. It was a memorable day for everyone and demonstrated something we all know: opportunities matter.

The following year, Fatima and Gina invited Bikeworks to attend the One Voice Summit at Guildhall. It was a powerful gathering of care-experienced people, organisations, professionals and policymakers, united by a shared commitment to improving the experiences of children and young people in care and bringing about lasting change.

We are incredibly proud that Bikeworks is joining FATIMA’S UK CAMPAIGN as an Action Hub partner.

Our relationship has already shown what meaningful collaboration can achieve. Bikeworks has supported our children and young people with 60 bikes and created opportunities at the velodrome to learn new skills, build confidence and experience the freedom, independence and sense of achievement that cycling can bring.

For young people with care experience, these opportunities are about so much more than a bike or a course. They are about belonging, being given a chance and having people and organisations around them who genuinely believe in their potential.

That is exactly what our Action Hubs are about: bringing good people and organisations together and turning goodwill into practical opportunities that can make a lasting difference.

Jim, Zoe and the Bikeworks team have already demonstrated that commitment through their actions. We are delighted to welcome Bikeworks to our growing Action Hub family and look forward to building on what we have achieved together and creating even more opportunities for our young people in the future.

— Fatima Whitbread MBE
Founder, FATIMA’S UK CAMPAIGN

Becoming an Action Hub partner is the next stage of that relationship. Bikeworks is now developing how our experience of inclusive cycling and cycle mechanics can contribute to the campaign, both through practical activity and by adding our voice to the wider conversations about what needs to change.

Why this matters

Strong relationships and opportunities that continue over time matter for every child and young person. Yet access to them is not equal.

More than 80,000 children were in care in England in 2025. The latest figures also show that 40% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 were not in education, employment or training.

These figures reinforce the importance of creating opportunities that children and young people can return to, relationships that have time to develop, and space to build on their interests and strengths.

This is what Fatima and Gina are building through the Action Hub network: bringing together people and organisations with a shared purpose and turning national attention into meaningful action within communities. The voices and experiences of children and young people in and leaving care will shape what that action becomes.

Twenty years of using cycles as a tool for good

Bikeworks was founded in 2006, inspired by the promise that the London 2012 Games would create lasting opportunities in East London.

Twenty years later, from our home at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it feels particularly fitting to be building this partnership with Fatima Whitbread MBE. A world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, Fatima’s own story began in care in East London. Her life and sporting career embody extraordinary resilience.

Resilience has also shaped Bikeworks’ journey. Over the past 20 years, we have continued to develop and adapt while remaining committed to using cycles as a tool for good, widening access to physical activity, wellbeing and connectivity through cycling.

That experience has shown us the different but connected possibilities cycling and cycle mechanics can create. Learning to cycle or finding a cycle that works for you matters in its own right, opening up an enjoyable way to be active, spend time with others and take part regularly.

Cycle mechanics offers something different: practical learning that can lead to recognised qualifications, experience of the workplace and, for those interested, progression towards employment in the cycle industry.

Through the Action Hub partnership, we want to explore how cycling and cycle mechanics can build on the interests and strengths of children and young people in and leaving care, with their voices shaping what comes next.

What Bikeworks brings to the Action Hub

Bikeworks brings together the people, place and experience needed to turn a shared ambition into something practical. Our instructors, mechanics and tutors work across inclusive cycling, cycle mechanics and accredited learning, supported by specialist cycles and established training facilities at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Together, these create the potential for more than a one-off experience. Children and young people could return, develop their interests over time and connect cycling and wellbeing with practical learning, qualifications and future opportunities.

“Cycles connect people. Our relationship with Fatima and Gina began with a conversation and a ride together. It has grown because we share a commitment to turning ideas into action.

“As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we want to bring Bikeworks’ experience of inclusive cycling and cycle mechanics to this incredible network of partners. We know cycling can widen access to physical activity and wellbeing, while cycle mechanics can offer practical learning and recognised qualifications. We will be developing this work with children and young people, building from their interests, strengths and ambitions.”

— Zoe and Jim Co-CEOs, Bikeworks

The next stage will be shaped with Fatima’s UK Campaign, the wider Action Hub network and children and young people in and leaving care. It is an opportunity to bring Bikeworks’ 20 years of experience into a partnership built on strong relationships, shared purpose and a commitment to creating something that lasts.

Want to join our journey?

Find out more about Fatima’s UK Campaign and the Action Hub network.

If your work involves children and young people in or leaving care, and you want to know more about how cycles can be used as a tool for good, get in touch with Bikeworks.

 

Theo joined the Little Wormwood Scrubs All Ability Club with Full of Life, a local community centre, for his first ride on the new Veloplus.

The Veloplus

The Veloplus is a specialist platform cycle for wheelchair users. It allows people to ride without transferring out of their chair, making it one of the most important cycles in an inclusive fleet. Across Bikeworks All Ability Clubs, Veloplus cycles are among the most popular because they open up riding to people who may not be able to use a standard or adapted cycle.

At Little Wormwood Scrubs, the new Veloplus now becomes part of regular weekly provision.

“Our All Ability Clubs respond to the people who attend each week. The team know which specialist cycles are most needed locally and what equipment will widen access. Having a Veloplus permanently based at Little Wormwood Scrubs means more people can now ride as part of the weekly club.”

Jamie Lawson, Inclusive Cycling Advisor at Bikeworks

Full of Life

Full of Life has been part of the Little Wormwood Scrubs All Ability community, bringing local residents to ride, spend time outdoors and participate in a regular club offer. The new Veloplus strengthens what the club can provide for wheelchair users, families and local groups who come to the sessions.

The cycle has been made possible through local partnership between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London Cycling Campaign and Lime’s Share The Joy Fund, with continued support from local stakeholders.

Little Wormwood Scrubs All Ability Club

Little Wormwood Scrubs All Ability Club is a regular community space where disabled people, families and local groups can access inclusive cycling using specialist cycles, adapted cycles and support from Bikeworks instructors.

This is what place-based inclusive cycling looks like in practice: local partners, a regular club, the right specialist cycle, and a community asset which can be used week after week.

For Theo, it started with a first ride on the Veloplus.

For the club, it means more people can now ride using the right specialist cycle at Little Wormwood Scrubs.

By Zoe Portlock, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Bikeworks

Twenty-five years ago, I began my career at a charity supporting people with learning disabilities and their families. I saw firsthand the exclusion faced across every part of life – from education and employment to sport, leisure, and community participation.

Decades later, the story is far too similar. Today, people with learning disabilities remain among the most excluded in society – more likely to experience loneliness, less likely to be in work, and more at risk of poor physical and mental health.

Driven by purpose, in response I established a supported employment and training service that still operates today, and went on to develop two social enterprises – one providing employment through fleet vehicle valeting, and the other, Bikeworks, using cycles as tools for inclusion, wellbeing, and connection.

But despite this – and the determined efforts of many across the years – people with learning disabilities continue to face persistent and systemic exclusion. The data lays bare just how entrenched the inequality remains:

• Just 5.1% of adults with a learning disability known to social care are in paid employment (NHS Digital, 2023).
• People with learning disabilities are twice as likely to be physically inactive compared to the general population (Sport England, 2020).

Why is this still acceptable?

At Bikeworks, we know what works. Our All Ability Clubs and events, and inclusive maintenance training, provide access to physical activity, independence, and confidence building. But this is still seen as niche – something unique, rather than the norm. For real change to happen, we need to scale inclusion, and that requires political will, sustained investment, and better data.

Here’s what needs to happen:

• Better recording of learning disability data across physical activity and health settings, so we understand participation – or lack of it – and respond accordingly.
• Targeted investment into inclusive cycling infrastructure and programmes, building on proven models that enable access and confidence.
• A national employment strategy that includes social enterprise and supported employment models – recognising the skills, talents, and aspirations of people with learning disabilities.
• A policy framework that treats inclusion not as a bolt-on, but as a baseline — embedded across sport, education, work, and community life.

This Learning Disability Week, we stand proudly with our east London neighbours at Bridget’s Café — run by ASL, a social enterprise championing employment and visibility.

Every week, the team rides with us at our All Ability Club. Every day, they show what’s possible when opportunity meets equity.

          

Let’s not just celebrate inclusion.

Let’s fund it, legislate for it, and embed it into our systems.

Because people with learning disabilities are not the problem.

The structures that exclude them are.

And those can, and must — change.

Footnote:

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Bikeworks has seen a marked increase in participation across our All Ability Club programme. At Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, attendance more than doubled in the past year alone — a rise of over 100%. Despite this visible and growing demand, we continue to fight for consistent revenue investment. This increase is not simply about popularity — it highlights a deeper issue: the continued absence of inclusive, community-level physical activity offers that meet the needs of disabled people and those with learning disabilities.