Chief executives are
encouraging partners to create innovative, integrated services
WHAT CHIEF EXECUTIVES WANT DUNCAN WOOD-ALLUM
W
hat do chief executives and top council politicians want from sport and leisure?
There are a number of emerging
themes we’ve encountered on our trav- els as strategic advisers. These themes should provide leaders of sport and lei- sure and their operating partners with a challenge and I hope, a degree of opti- mism looking ahead. Targeted, cost-effective interventions
that deliver outcomes will continue to be positively encouraged. “Give us bang for our buck,” is the chief’s battle cry with a challenge to redirect funding to high- value, high-impact activities. You’ll be expected to dump the high cost, low im- pact services if you’ve not done so already. Innovation gets you to the top table
and keeps you there. Using examples like Birmingham City Council’s Be Active pro- gramme, you can “lead the cross-cutting
Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012
revolution,” where sport and leisure has the potential to act as a pathfinder for other larger directorates in achieving outcomes through integrated services. A big headache for chiefs is the ris-
ing cost of social care and health. For many “public health and well-being is the greatest opportunity” for the sec- tor – our role in acting as a catalyst for enabling behaviour change is key to un- locking longer-term savings in spiralling costs of an ageing and unhealthy nation. The chiefs also want partners who can
deliver outside their facilities as well as operate them. “Don’t just run our leisure centres” is a key challenge I’m hearing. To create an active borough you’ll be expected to animate parks and open spaces, make mass participation events happen, enable schools to open up to the community, engage with citizens in care homes and vulnerable young
people, support sports clubs and inspire major stake- holders to play their part in an holistic approach to sport and physical activity. This is likely to be linked to your wider cultural portfolio of chil- dren’s play, libraries, parks, museums, tourism and heritage. I’m predicting that those operators that step up to this chal- lenge and innovate, will secure the high value contracts of the future. Summing up, there will be differences
in style and politics, but the savvy service heads and operators are taking a steer from the chief – those that do will be seen as part of the future solution, rather than becoming a sitting duck for further ‘efficiency savings’. Quackers. Duncan Wood-Allum is director of the Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy
info@sportleisureculture.co.uk
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