Gloucester City Council (GCC) has awarded Freedom Leisure a 15-year contract to manage and operate their facilities, beginning in January 2025.
SLC was commissioned by GCC in August 2023 to support the procurement of a new leisure operating contract for its portfolio of two leisure facilities. Prior to this, SLC had supported the Council in undertaking a management options appraisal for its leisure and cultural services which recommended procuring a new management contract for its leisure services whilst bringing the management of cultural services in-house.
In September 2023 Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust, the Council’s leisure provider, announced that it could no longer operate. This led to facilities being closed and staff being made redundant within a few days of the announcement. Working closely with the Council, SLC devised an emergency procurement process to secure Freedom Leisure as the interim leisure provider in just over 4 weeks. Staff were quickly recruited including approximately 80 former Aspire employees and a phased reopening of facilities began within 2 weeks of Freedom Leisure’s appointment.
SLC and the Council’s Project Board developed a robust procurement strategy which met the Council’s requirements whilst ensuring the opportunity was attractive to the market and would make the leisure service more sustainable. The University of Gloucestershire (UoG) and Blackbridge Charitable Community Benefit Society were included in the procurement exercise as they, along with the Council, saw the potential benefits of having facilities managed by a single operator under three separate contracts.
SLC developed all the tender documents including the service specifications (encompassing the Council’s requirement for a new Active Communities Programme of outreach interventions) and invitation to tender. SLC also supported legal colleagues to develop the Council’s new contract in accordance with the Sport England template and UoG’s own bespoke contract.
As well as providing a harmonised leisure offer across the city, the Council’s contract with Freedom Leisure has a broader remit to help tackle local health inequalities and improve the delivery of neighbourhood-based services. Significant investment has been secured with the Council providing c. £5.9M which will be supplemented by £1.3M from the operator. Despite broadening the scope of services to include a new Active Communities Programme of place-based interventions, the new arrangements will improve the management fee by c. £18M over the 15-year term.
GCC are very pleased with the outcome of the procurement process as shown by this testimonial by Jon McGinty, Managing Director of Gloucester City Council.
“SLC have skilfully supported Gloucester City Council through the last few years, helping us secure the long-term future of our leisure services. They have been brilliant to work with and been exceptionally clear, patient and knowledgeable throughout. SLC completed an initial options appraisal, helped us secure an interim provider under emergency procurement rules and supported our main leisure services procurement process. The way in which they combined the complex requirements of all three commissioning partners into one set of tender documentation has allowed us to create a much more efficient delivery model for our leisure services.”
If you would like further information on how SLC can support your local authority with its leisure and active wellbeing procurement, please contact us at info@slc.uk.com or call us on 01444 459927