Borough of Poole 2006

The Brief

The Borough of Poole wanted to enter into a partnership arrangement with a private sector/’not for profit distributing organisation’ (NPDO) to manage the Council’s leisure facilities. The approach was intended to develop a partnership that reflects modern best practice regarding the management of leisure facilities, which is distinctly different from CCT-style ‘client/contractor’ thinking and approaches.

The Council initially had undertaken the evaluation of the proposals and required an external validation of the evaluation results. Strategic Leisure was commissioned to validate this initial evaluation.

By way of context the Council identified the following improvement priorities to achieve through the leisure management partnership:

• Improve Poole’s leisure centres – facilities and management

• More people using Poole’s leisure centres, more often

• Generating additional income

• Improving people’s health and learning opportunities, improving community involvement and safety

Our Approach

The evaluation process undertaken by Strategic Leisure was been specifically designed to achieve the Council’s objectives. It was thorough, objective, based on recognised best practice and open to external scrutiny.

Strategic Leisure’s evaluation of the detailed bids was conducted against pre-determined criteria relating to the following elements:

(a) the potential partners’ revenue and capital bids

(b) the potential partners performance against the Council’s Operational Requirements (based on the submissions)

(b) the potential partners’ facility programming proposals

(d) the potential partners’ proposed management models

(e) the potential partners’ synergy with the Council’s policy and strategy

Following the evaluation Strategic Leisure was retained by BoP to guide and advise the Council through the negotiation process, advising on commercial and leisure issues.

Project Outcomes

SLM Ltd was selected as the Council’s preferred partner. The resultant partnership included a ten year contract within significant transfer of property risk to the Council’s partner, a reduction in the annual revenue cost to the Council and investment in excess of £2m.