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Facing cuts: Will public pressure prevent ‘an epidemic of closures’, or will there be a rationalisation of facilities?


Ian Cooper


Director, Ian Cooper Associates


In recent years we’ve been able to prove the value of leisure interventions to commissioners of services – especially in the health and adult social care sectors – so I think culture and sport managers are well placed to hold their own in these difficult times. After the golden years of big budgets


and high status in the 1970s and early 1980s, local authority leisure has had to keep evolving, as both budgets and status have changed. The introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering


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at the end of the 1990s heralded the creation of contractors and trusts, with many senior leisure authority managers migrating from in-house teams. The 1990s saw a couple of boosts to


the sector, with the National Lottery and the government’s support for Local Cultural Strategies, while the 2000s have been a period of continuous cost- cutting, endless performance indicators and increasing externalisation, especially to trusts. Good results in Audit Commission inspections and specifi c inclusion as a CPA Core Service boosted service status, but council restructures have led to a serious loss of status for leisure in many councils. However, the third sector has always recognised the value of our services


and we are well placed to support the government’s Big Society initiatives going forward. Leisure departments will need to be led by a well-trained professional, working with an enthusiastic, motivated councillor, to support our services politically. Shared services and strengthened third sector partnerships will be the way forward. More councils will move culture


and sport services to not-for-profi t organisations, including Community Interest Companies. There’s a continuing requirement to undertake analyses of local needs and reviews of service delivery. I think public opinion will prevent an epidemic of facility closures, but I do foresee a rationalisation of facilities and any new builds are likely to be multi-use.


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 47


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