The National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA) will be holding an online training course for Volunteer Caseworkers to join our dedicated team. There will be 4 x 2 hour online training sessions, held online on Wednesdays 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th March 2026 from 7pm to 9pm. You will need to attend all four sessions to complete the course.
Sessions include: • What does an NBTA Volunteer Caseworker do? • Applicable law and NBTA’s take on it: Section 17 British Waterways Act 1995; Section 8 British Waterways Act 1983 • Section 13 British Waterways Act 1971; Equality Act 2010, Public Right of Navigation. • Nuts and bolts of doing casework around 6-month licences, refusal to renew without a home mooring, and Section 8 • Introduction to CRT’s Equality Act ‘reasonable adjustment’ process and practice • Implications of CRT’s Licence Review report • Scenarios and role play.
If you want to take part, or for more information, please contact secretariat@bargee-traveller.org.uk or 0118 321 4128 with your Name, Email address and Mobile number.
NBTA Caseworkers help boaters to deal with enforcement by navigation or other authorities. They also assist them to exercise their rights, such as access to healthcare and welfare benefits. Volunteer Caseworkers are at the heart of our organisation, turning knowledge of the law or policies and a commitment to boaters’ rights into a powerful tool to preserve and strengthen our community in the face of harassment, discrimination and exclusion. Recent years have seen an increase in enforcement from Canal & River Trust (CRT) and other navigation authorities in attempts to socially cleanse the waterways of liveaboard boaters – particularly those without a home mooring.
Equipped with in-depth knowledge of the law and current policy as it pertains to itinerant boaters, our Volunteer Caseworkers deal with around 200 individual cases a year – challenging CRTs unlawful enforcement notices, overturning licence restrictions and ensuring that vulnerable boaters or those with complex needs aren’t harassed off the water.
Becoming a Volunteer Caseworker isn’t just about fighting back for the rights of boaters. It’s also about fostering a spirit of solidarity and mutual aid within the tight-knit community that drew so many of us to the waterways in the first place. Life on the water is underpinned by community: looking out for one another, taking care of our collective home, and sharing space, experiences, information and friendship with an ever-changing array of neighbours. Through our Volunteer Caseworkers, the NBTA seeks to deepen these bonds of solidarity, and turn them into a form of collective power that can help all boaters to live with dignity and respect, and to celebrate and build our community.
The NBTA is not a charity or a service. We are a volunteer organisation –- of boaters and for boaters – that seeks to harness, develop and preserve the vibrancy and diversity of our community so that we can continue to pursue our way of life joyfully together. We think that this life is worth fighting for. If you do too, then please sign up to our next Volunteer Caseworker training course and help us to celebrate and defend this special community. Together we are strong!