Reflections on my first year at SLC: personal development & key learnings

It’s hard to believe that this month marks my first year at SLC!

Over the course of the past year, I’ve grown from being an industry newbie to playing a key role in several major public leisure and active wellbeing projects. This includes the development of an active wellbeing operating and delivery strategy, a management options appraisal, two live leisure procurements, two major capital investment projects and four SOPG diagnostic reviews.

Through these projects I’ve had various opportunities to meet with clients and tour sites across the UK. I’ve not only expanded my knowledge of the industry but also grown my network and been able to meet and work alongside some of the sector’s leading thinkers.

My development has been further enhanced by specialist training with industry leaders. Business report writing with Margaret Webster and presentation training with Impact Factory have been particularly valuable, providing me with skills that will stay with me throughout my career.

These training initiatives have been underpinned by regular opportunities to attend industry relevant events including the GM Moving Conference, Elevate and Rok Skool’s Performance Playbook – Lessons From Music & Sport event.

Most critical to my development over the last year has been the support I’ve received from the team at SLC. It didn’t take long for it to become apparent that I had joined a world-class team of sector experts. Not only that, but they’re great people as well!

That was particularly important when my inability to ride a fixed wheel bike upright at Lee Valley Velodrome left my Managing Director Duncan with the choice of running over my head or crashing out. Fortunately, my head remained in one piece, and we were able to laugh about it having patched ourselves back up again over a few drinks to celebrate SLC’s 15^th anniversary later that day!

Looking back, I’m beyond grateful for the wealth of learning opportunities that I’ve experienced since joining SLC. I’d be confident to say that I’ve learned more in the past 12 months than in any other period of my life previously…no offence to the education system intended!

With that in mind, I wanted to share my top three key learnings from the year to help promote the delivery of sustainable and effective public sector leisure and active wellbeing provision.

1. Create the conditions for successful partnerships within place

It’s been fascinating to see how often SLC is invited to assist leisure and cultural partnerships that require mediation and support.

A primary cause for any disagreements can frequently be traced back to poorly developed contracts that do not foster a partnership-based approach or set out responsibilities clearly.

A lack of clarity over these often leads to disputes and generates tension. Both partners are left feeling the other is at fault when it was the shortfalls in the historical agreement that created the conditions for a breakdown in the relationship.

Unfortunately, we review too many ‘legacy’ contracts that have in some cases, increased health inequalities and fostered an environment for failure rather than success. Ultimately, it is the local communities and in particular, those experiencing greater inequalities that bear the consequences of this.

Having seen the impact that SLC has had in raising standards in public procurement and partnerships over the last 10 years, I have seen for myself why our purpose is so important and valued by the sector.

A well-defined vision and strategy are essential in supporting the development of an ambitious but achievable set of strategic objectives for the partnership to work towards.

A highly effective way to achieve this is through a comprehensive consultation programme with key stakeholders. Engagement with internal colleagues, local communities, voluntary sector organisations and system partners will help to better understand the needs and priorities to inform the development of an effective and sustainable place-based partnership.

Our approach to strategy development is about seeking to develop a deeper level of empowerment with place-based partners. To enable them to act as the guardians of the strategy and to ensure it still remains relevant and flexible as needs evolve. This then can translate into how facilities and services are delivered and shaped by the communities they seek to serve.

2. Developing a new active wellbeing partnership is a great opportunity to create meaningful improvement and added value for communities

I’ve been fortunate to witness the development of several modern active wellbeing partnerships that have created meaningful improvement and added value for communities. The great thing about this is that it often doesn’t require local authorities to weaken their financial position, rather, it is strengthened.

A prime example of this is Rochford District Council and Brentwood Borough Council’s recent joint procurement of a new 15-year contract with Everyone Active. 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 significantly over the term of the 15-year contract.

Councils are not limited to driving meaningful improvements by broadening their existing provision to include an Active Communities programme but can also achieve this through refining key elements within existing provision. For example, this could involve a review and redesign of concessionary pricing schemes that generate greater impact and added value by providing more effective support to those who would benefit from it most.

Furthermore, establishing a new active wellbeing partnership presents an excellent opportunity to instigate the conditions required to develop integrated service provision. This can involve including requirements to codesign and develop joint programmes with partners and to engage with key system partners in their areas.

The potential to develop meaningful improvements and added value for underrepresented communities is significant. This can be designed into a sustainable and effective partnership – not reliant on centralised grants that could suddenly cease to exist.

3. It’s time to pivot to active wellbeing to ensure public leisure services stay relevant and sustainable for the future

Public leisure services are facing mounting challenges in staying relevant and sustainable for the future. Rising operating costs, ageing facilities and staffing challenges have increasingly forced many local authorities to make difficult decisions about their traditional leisure provision.

At the same time, we face an increase in health inequalities, ageing population and overall pressure on healthcare systems. Many traditional public leisure services are no longer effectively supporting other local government services and the local communities they serve.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as a reimagining of  public leisure services is beginning to gather momentum known as active wellbeing. This goes beyond the delivery of traditional leisure services to support broader community health and wellbeing, particularly for those at risk of, or experiencing health inequalities.

Several local authorities and their operational partners are already embracing active wellbeing and are starting to see tangible benefits.

State of Life’s WELLBY model recently revealed that Greater Manchester’s Prehab4Cancer programme has helped reduce participant hospital stays by an average of 36 hours and critical care stays by 10 hours. These shorter stays have helped to free up 550 ward bed days and 146 critical care bed days, resulting in increased capacity and patient flow. Bed days released per prehab patient are recognised to cover the costs involved in setting up and delivering the programme for a full year.

North Yorkshire Council is operating three community wellbeing hubs that are helping to extend the reach and impact of their active wellbeing services. These hubs provide various opportunities for local residents to participate in exercise and lifestyle support sessions in familiar settings. This is helping to break down barriers to health and increase confidence of users to enable them to live healthier and happy lifestyles. Consequently, these hubs are helping to drive greater footfall into the Council’s major leisure and active wellbeing facilities.

Sport For Confidence has been commissioned by several UK local authorities including Castle Point Borough Council and Tendring District Council to help bridge the skills gap in the leisure workforce and support the delivery of health and wellbeing services. They achieve this by integrating occupational therapists into leisure facilities to tackle health inequalities and offer support for individuals facing barriers to activity.

To drive momentum for this transition, it is crucial to continue showing the sector’s ability and effectiveness in supporting place based integrated health and wellbeing services. New models of evidence continue to emerge that are helping to better demonstrate this, such as the WELLBY, which SLC has advocated through State of Life for many years and has more recently been adopted by Sport England. This is strengthening the case for greater cross-sector collaboration.

A pivot to an active wellbeing service is not just a nice to have, but essential to support the long-term sustainability of community health and wellbeing. Enabling the wider system to deliver more value to the communities they serve and those at risk of entering into the health system.