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Developing Effective & Sustainable Community Use Sports Provision. Colin Grogan, Sport, Health and Inclusion Development Manager, Suffolk County Council Duncan Wood-Allum, Director SLC 1 December 2011. What we’re going to cover today. Introductions
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Developing Effective & Sustainable Community Use Sports Provision Colin Grogan, Sport, Health and Inclusion Development Manager, Suffolk County Council Duncan Wood-Allum, Director SLC 1 December 2011
What we’re going to cover today • Introductions • Background to Suffolk CC Community Use Pilot • Key findings, outcomes and learning • Key challenges and opportunities • The Community Use Support Framework • Key considerations • Q+A.
Background • Suffolk County Council’s aspirations for health and wellbeing - ‘More and better services to communities for less’: • Broadening community access to sports facilities on school sites • Improving the quality and consistency of service from community use facilities • Making the management of community use more efficient for schools, operators and funding partners • Asset rationalisation of facilities where there is duplication of provision in a location or over supply of facilities exists • Improving the sustainability of community use in individual schools.
Background • 4 Stage Pilot • 12 Schools in across Suffolk schools in South West Ipswich and South Suffolk – also known as the SWISS pilot area. • Project objectives • To identify the current state of community use of school services within the pilot area • To assess the scale and potential of improvements to community use of school services in the pilot area to develop • To identify efficient frameworks and a programme of improvements to make this happen within the pilot area.
Key Stage 1 Findings • Lettings Based Schools • Inefficient bookings, administration and cash collection processes • Constraints on the limits of community use due to condition, design and location of facilities • Lack of understanding of catchment and target markets • Pricing that is not optimised for commercial or community users.
Key Stage 1 Findings • Community Use Operations • Limited objective setting and performance management • Poor financial performance • Isolation of operational staff – lack of development opportunities • Lack of clear strategy and objectives • Inefficient bookings and administration processes • Pricing that is not optimised for commercial or community users • Lack of understanding of catchment and target markets • Limited or no marketing activity • Limited or poor operational systems and procedures.
Stage 1 Outcomes • Encouraging dialogue • Awareness raised of financial performance • Understanding the wider contribution of community use makes • Staff engaged • Raising the awareness of Community use to Councils and wider partners.
Stage 1 Lessons learned • The need for flexibility • School senior management time spent on community use • Approach with schools • One to one support.
Key Stage 2 Findings • Benchmarking reinforced Project Team’s view • Market Research highlighted a number of opportunities to develop programmes and revenue • Consultation with NGB’s highlighted a number of initiatives and opportunities for schools • Lettings based schools very keen to explore shared booking facilities • Schools enthusiastic about the CUSF, but wary about any additional costs.
Stage 2 Outcomes • Each school owning an improvement plan which they can prioritise themselves • Awareness amongst stakeholders • Positive support from local authorities such as Babergh DC in supporting and funding the CUSF • Increased morale and confidence amongst community use staff • Improved focus of the role Suffolk County Council can play moving forwards in enabling sustainability within community use • Potential creation of a market for social enterprises • Schools started to open up to the process and lose their initial distrust and scepticism.
Stage 2 Lessons learned • The need for flexibility and treating each school individually • Schools often need time to reflect following a review • Some schools began to advocate the process to those still uncertain of the perceived benefits • The consistency of approach and personnel by the Project team was crucial to build trust.
The Community Use Support Framework Lettings Community Use Schools
The Community Use Support Framework – Support Network for Schools • Local Authorities • Suffolk Sports Partnership • Suffolk County Council - Culture, Sport and Communities • National Governing Bodies of Sport • Sports Development and Funding Agencies – Sport England.
How the CUSF operates Community Use Subsidy from School 1 CUSF Budget CUSF operator Draw down Support for 12 Schools Community Use Subsidy from School 2 Schools move to a sustainable operating position within 18 months
Key Considerations • Time - the process can take a long time to get right – its all about establishing trust with schools • Resources – it will take some time for you to see a return on the investment in establishing the Framework, but improvements will deliver better financial performance • Establishing real costs of operating community use can require a great deal of persistence! • Understand that many staff involved are not specialists; you need to understand things through the eyes of an educationalist, initially not as a ‘leisure professional’ • Understand that schools are legally unable to subsidise the community use operation, so business planning and forecasting has to be realistic • There is a lot of support out there for schools wishing to optimise their community use operation. • Finally, the engagement and leadership of the Headteacher is fundamental to success!
Contacts / Further Information Colin Grogan Suffolk County Council 01473 264331 colin.grogan@suffolk.gov.uk Duncan Wood-Allum The Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy 01444 487740 duncan.wood-allum@sportleisureculture.co.uk