PETER MANN Chair ISPAL
The next few years will change the face of local authority leisure. The extent of this change will depend on the level of government grant to councils and the priority given to leisure services. As a discretionary service, leisure is
more exposed than other local author- ity services. While the public sector will remain at the heart of leisure, I believe we’ll witness a focus away from direct provision towards a promotion, facilitat- ing and commissioning role. Leisure departments will need to actively promote the benefits leisure and culture bring to a community:
PETER HOWELLS
Leisure Connection Operations director
Leisure Connection is working closely with our local authority partners to look at how we can support them through the tough years ahead. The next three to five years will be crucial, but we expect to come out the other side. For those authorities that have already outsourced leisure I think it will be a time to review how operators are working. For those that haven’t, it could be an attractive prospect. The biggest change in the last 20
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social inclusion, general wellbeing, crime reduction and health. Although undervalued in a difficult financial cli- mate, these can bind communities together during hard times. There will need to be a greater
emphasis on building links with local employers, to facilitate the financial and human resources potentially available via company corporate social respon- sibility programmes. Reviewing the objectives of these programmes may open up new opportunities for compa- nies and councils to work together. Another role could be the purchasing of specific outcomes, activities or time from other public sector providers, such as schools, or new community, third sector or private sector providers. Facility rationalisation appears una- voidable and only the best located,
years of local authority leisure has been the outsourcing of leisure as a non-statutory service. As a result private operators have entered the market and have invested millions in the provision of public access leisure and other cultural facilities. To the end user, the quality of the service has significantly improved. Local authority leisure centres are no longer the poor relation in the industry. Leisure Connection is now broad- ening the scope of the projects we manage. We have, for example, taken on various outreach programmes for sport and the community, and manage numerous theatres, arts centres and arts outreach programmes.
best managed and output-driven facil- ities may survive the cuts. Facilities might be scaled down to a central hub site only. Where local authorities con- tinue providing direct leisure services, they will need to demonstrate they offer value for money, through optimis- ing income, driving down costs and continuing to develop enhanced facil- ities and products which reflect the quality expectations of their customers. ISPAL and ISRM are working with the Privy Council and key stakeholders towards the potential creation of the Chartered Institute of Sport. This new institute won’t solve all the challenges, but it will play a key role in helping us become more adept at managing, pio- neering, facilitating, promoting and commissioning the services our com- munities so urgently need.
For Leisure Connection, despite the spending review, it’s still business as usual: focusing on our swim and gym revenue lines, managing our cost base, especially utilities, and look- ing at where to make investments. In terms of the future, we experience a great deal of interest in our health and community hub in Downham Leisure Centre, managed on behalf of the London Borough of Lewisham. This project houses a state of the art lei- sure centre and swimming pool but also an access point, numerous sur- geries and practices and a popular library. This type of integrated facil- ity could indeed become the future for new provision and services. l
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 35
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