Introduction and Outcome

Strategic Leisure’s continued success in delivering Best Value leisure management partnerships is evidenced by yet a another successful project in the form of Kettering Borough Council’s transfer of its leisure facilities to Parkwood Leisure for a period of up to 15 years. The Council will benefit from significant revenue savings of up to £1m over the length of the Contract, a comprehensive performance management framework and clear strategic direction for the service.

Background

Around 82,000 people live in the Borough of Kettering, which covers about 58,000 acres. Kettering is a significant Growth Area – 13,000 new homes will be built in Kettering between 2001 and 2021. The Council owns and operated a number of leisure facilities and services through a ‘mixed economy’ of providers. The main leisure facilities at the start of at the project were managed by a local leisure trust.

The Council’s ‘Best Value’ review (assisted by Strategic Leisure) concluded that for the service to generate investment, to develop and to be sustainable, the Council needed to enter into a strategic partnership. The Council’s main priority for the partnership was to improve the revenue position for the service, realise investment in the facilities and to improve in customer satisfaction.

Strategic Leisure’s Approach

This project was completed to very strict deadlines as the existing contractual arrangements were due to terminate on the 31st March 2007 and the new contract to commence on the 1st April 2007. Strategic Leisure ensured that this deadline was achieved and a successful transfer established.

Strategic Leisure’s role was to lead and project manage the procurement process advising on strategic, leisure and procurement issues from advertising for expressions of interest through to negotiating the final deal. The Council appointed Strategic Leisure’s strategic legal partner, Leonie Cowen and Associates to assist in determining the legal aspects of this complex project.

The complexities were varied and unique as there was potential that the existing leisure trust would not be successful in being appointed for the new Contract and therefore a transfer from a trust to another operator was possible. The procurement process followed traditional lines with the added value of Strategic Leisure’s established and successful Best Value Procurement Framework. This approach is tried and tested and has successfully delivered more best value procurement projects than any other consultancy. The approach is based on the principles of best value and best practice (TaES), has been developed specifically for the sport and leisure market and reflects the specific outcomes for each individual local authority.