The Herts Motor Project was a Charity originally formed in 1990 by a group of Watford magistrates who were looking for alternative community based sentencing options for the many young people who appeared before them, as a result of vehicle related offending.

Extensive support was received from the Police Authorities, Social Services and the Probation Service but despite the fine intentions, the initiative did not translate into practical activity. By 1998 the majority of the original trustees had resigned and although charitable status was maintained by the remaining two trustees all activity ceased the following year.

It was clear that the Charity whilst formed with the best of intentions needed a radical rethink of what it wanted to achieve and the market at which it needed to be addressed.

During 1999 one of the remaining trustees (the then head teacher of Falconer School, Bushey) decided to reactivate the initiative in collaboration with Hertfordshire Youth and Community Service and Hertfordshire Probation Service. Funds were made available through the Single Regeneration Budget and Falconer School offered premises.

A project Manager was appointed in May 2000 and new trustees appointed bringing a wider experience base than hitherto representing as they did both Commercial and Community life. We were all giving freely of our time and expertise, and came from such diverse backgrounds as two teachers, one of whom was also a local councillor, myself who looked after the finances and statutory returns, a magistrate, a retired self employed engineer as well as the tutors who were bikers who could teach as well as relate to the pupils who came to the project.

The new trustees decided to incorporate the project and assume sole responsibility for the management of the project as this gave them greater flexibility to make and implement decisions without prior referral to the previous authorities whose chain of decision making was not built for speed. That said our ties with the Youth Services remain, and the police authorities continue to provide help and support on a regular basis. They are always well represented at open days and have always assisted when requested on various initiatives.

The new Board converted to Limited Company status in September 2001and in due course took over the assets and liabilities of the previous charity.

The project aims to provide opportunities to young people between the ages of 13 and 21 to participate in motor vehicle and light engineering related activities which lead to formal workplace accreditation. A key feature of the project is to promote social inclusion by addressing disaffection from school, by reducing truancy and by boosting self esteem, with the attendant outcome that participants will be better equipped to take a useful and responsible place in the community.

Four small workshops have been refurbished to provide premises of a high order to meet the requirements of various accrediting organisations and health and safety. The project is recognised by the National Tyre Distributors Association and by City and Guilds.

The modular courses have proved to be an excellent “vehicle” for students unlikely to gain more conventional qualifications. Success can be achieved and recognised relatively quickly. This in itself can be highly motivating to students who have probably previously achieved little or anything through their schoolwork.

The certificates gained are recognised by the motor engineering trade providing an increasing number of students with a direct route into employment or higher/further education.

Structured courses were first delivered during the academic year 2001-2. By July 2002 twenty students had achieved 21 passes. Whilst it is very difficult to monitor students after they have left school (they are not likely to keep in touch with us or respond to questionnaires) we know one specific student obtained full time employment as a direct result of his examination result.

In the year to July 2003, twenty-one students started the course. This year saw material numbers drop by the wayside, which is perhaps not surprising in view of the students involved and those that local schools sent to us. In the event it was only 14 students that stayed to the end achieving 19 passes.

Up to this point we had been operating under capacity but as our successes grew and schools appreciated what we were doing, requests for places exceeded capacity. Tutor numbers had to be increased to 3 in order to cope with demand. It also meant that we could be more selective as to the pupils that we accepted.

The school year 2004 saw 42 pupils obtained 56 full certificates with 5 students either obtaining jobs or progressing to higher education. Two female students were the stars of the year.

To some, the returns may seem small in relation to the effort and indeed cost but the majority of the students were disaffected with school life and we have kept them within the education system and provided them with an experience that is not readily available to them through the normal channels. Feedback from the participating schools reveals a better attitude within this student pool as they see the trips to the workshops as being forfeit should they misbehave. We do not condone this type of “bribery” but can understand it. We do not operate an exclusion policy although normal standards of code apply together with a very strict adherence to the requisite Health and Safety code. It has been known for members of the Board and visiting dignitaries to be asked to leave if codes were in danger of being violated. (Quite right to)

Our successes are such that some schools are sending us students who are actively interested in our courses for there own sake and whilst we are happy to accept them it is not really what the project is all about.

Some might regard our returns as a failure, but this is to miss the point of the exercise. The drop out rate was high in the initial stages but is now acceptable in the light of the area in which we operate. Whilst the students are with us they are neither opting out of school nor being disruptive in their own schools.

In the current school year we are again oversubscribed and have a maximum of 59 students who joined us in September, 6 of whom are full time having been placed with us by Hertfordshire County Council under its alternative curriculum provision for Key Stage 4 pupils.

The project has reached its optimum level but the demand for places from local schools continues to exceed capacity with the result that we are now looking to expand into adjacent vacant premises. The capital spend has been found as has refurbishment costs. Work will start shortly and will be completed by March 2006 when additional full time students will be taken. Ahead of this we will need to take on an additional tutor to add to the part time office administrator who has recently joined us.

In some regards what started as a Charity with good ideas and intentions has become a service industry requiring its Directors to have a wide range of skills, as well as maintaining those ideals of the original trustees. This is a major strength in our team - teachers who understand the workings of academe, working directors who understand about Budgets, forecasts and cash flows together with having the time to meet with the staff regularly to provide the hands on support that is needed for the day to day running of the operation. Those directors who have full time jobs provide input through the regular monthly meetings that are an essential part of keeping the project on course.

All the above provides the background to where we are at this moment of time. It has not been achieved without a large amount of effort on the part of all concerned but primarily the head teacher whose initiative and drive got the project back on track when it looked as if it might fold. This meant a full reappraisal of the scheme including the market we wished to serve. Whilst we have moved away from the original services as providers of income, we still maintain close contacts with the Youth Services and the Police Authorities.

However, as always “Cash is King” and to fund the regular shortfall between Grants/Donations and expenses we have made below cost charges to those schools who use our services, to the extent we now consider ourselves financially secure with guaranteed income through to April 2007.

We do of course maintain short, medium and long term aspirations but they do not need to be expressed at this juncture.

We have needed to maximise opportunities as they came our way and by maintaining our independence we have been able to take advantage of openings that presented themselves. One such possibility came in 2004 when we were made aware of The UK Youth Momentum on Two Wheels (Schools) Holiday Programme, which is a carefully structured course of some 30 hours tuition that we provided at short notice to a rigid module. These courses are delivered in close co-operation with the Police, Paramedics and Fire Service.

Participants are identified by a range of agencies working principally with young people at variance with their local communities. Up to five, 5-day courses can be accommodated each year during school holidays and all participants must attend each day if they are to get a Pass Certificate, (if successful).

In 2004 some 30 participants took part and six months later, which is the latest information available, only one name had appeared in a police nuisance/incident report. Clearly we cannot keep records of such events, and nor should we, but it is nice to have the feed back.

2005 saw us being pressed to take on more courses of this nature but we again had to be selective and 4 courses were run resulting in 25 Certificates being awarded. One individual actually did enough over the course to get a pass but it could not be issued as he was absent on the Tuesday. Nevertheless he did attend Wed/Thur/Friday!!

Have we been successful?

We like to think so in that from humble cash strapped beginnings we are now oversubscribed and financially secure for the next two years at least. There is no reason to believe that we should not continue to provide a service which is clearly in demand and supported by the County Council.

The Directors undertake these duties on a voluntary basis and have been together for 5 years now seeing the infant charity through the usual teething troubles to a stage where it is ready to expand. That unity has been essential with all parties sharing the common goal to try and do something extra for less fortunate individuals. That said firm goals have been set and achieved with hard business decisions being made along the route, as having good intentions is not enough.

The team has worked well together with each member having material strengths in his or her chosen profession, which has been to the benefit of the charity. I had no prior knowledge of the Education System (and still don't by design!). I do not understand motor bikes, or cars for that matter and as someone that managed to fail his scooter test three times, having lost the Examiner on one occasion, clearly I would not be the first choice candidate to be involved in a motor bike and light engineering facility. That isn't important, as I do understand about Statutory Returns and financial matters, which was an essential part of running this charity at the outset. You would be surprised how difficult it can be to restrain good intentions to over commit a business to expenses it cannot afford.

The tutors have an excellent understanding of what is required on the mechanical side, and as bikers in their own right have considerable kudos with the students who are willing to listen more to them than perhaps they would to any other adult. Certainly when I visit the premises the students show little respect to “the suit” and so I have stopped wearing it, and dress “appropriately".

Trials and Tribulations

I was not one of the original trustees, nor did I play any part in the establishment of the garages. The project was funded by S.R.B. monies that covered all Capital and Revenue set up costs. Once that ran out the present trustees were effectively left to their own devices and the project had to quickly find funds to continue the project and on several occasions came close to closure before it had come on stream.

The spread of experience within the Board played a vital part of survival. Contacts were approached and once established left to the Company Secretary to nurture and complete the necessary paperwork in the pursuit of financing.

Some were successful and some were not but whatever the outcome it was time consuming and not for someone in full time employment!

During one conversation with the Charity Commissioners I was told that a considerable number of trustees resign in the first year, presumably once they become aware of the work involved. Clearly a role not for the amateur, however enthusiastic.

For the record until this year (2005) all our trustees/directors remained in place until one retired from full time employment in July and left the district. Committed professionals, perhaps? It was from these contacts that we were able to struggle through those initial traumatic years with support coming from many different sources. We cannot name them in this report but we thank them all.

Despite this support a considerable amount of trustee time was spent on funds finding. We needed larger funds from fewer sources and although we attended many Funding Fairs run by the Hertfordshire County Council where there were many organisations willing to assist charities, none met our needs or the sums we required.

A brief visit to Lottery Funding proved unsuccessful.

We approached several of the Banks through their charitable arms but they did not seem to be able to distinguish between us as a “business", which we are not, and a charity that needed money to support disadvantaged children.

We approached the Limited Company Charity of one major Bank on three separate occasions:

• Year 1: You qualify under our guidelines but with no active history for us to review and only hope forecasts on what is a new project we are unable to help.
• Year 2: Still not seen as a viable project despite all previous budgets being met.
• Year 3: With a weight of Audited Accounts, budgets and forecasts to support a request for £10,000 to meet a shortfall of similar sum when we were already achieving a six figure turnover we were turned down again. This time we were told we should increase our prices to cover the shortfall. They could not see that we would have priced ourselves out of the market had we done so and that we had already been increasing prices by above inflation figures each year.

What really upset us was that they were not even prepared to visit us and see us in operation. We accept that they would wish to ensure that they were not wasting their money on unworthy ventures but it is not as though they expected the money back, which of course would be the raison dtre of their illustrious name sake.

It was at this time that we exercised our prerogative to move our account to another Bank. Fortunately others were prepared to visit, and on the strength of those visits were willing to support us both in terms of cash and equipment.

Although we have only been going for a few years we have won many awards for the work we do with disaffected children and now have a small but effective library of press cuttings. The prize article is when The Lord Chancellor visited his namesake school (Falconer) to present the project with a much-needed motor bike in 2004. A wonderful event for the pupils but also some recognition for the directors.

In drawing this article to a close I can do no better than repeat his Lordships quote to the local press.

What I am seeing here are groups of people who have been learning about bikes instead of going to school and getting help with what's to come. This reduces the chance of them getting up to no good. I presented the group with a bike, which will provide both fun and help them learn about mechanics.

It's good to see the work of groups like this, who are committed to making a change!