In 1992 Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) was the in-house provider of leisure services for Greenwich Council in London, but in the face of potential cuts, a number of options were looked at to ensure ongoing provision of leisure services. Closure of two to three of the existing centres was one of the options proposed.
Instead of closures, Greenwich Council looked at options for new models to maintain its leisure service provision. It decided to opt for a not for profit ‘leisure trust’ which worked to a social agenda, and is now designed to be appropriate for each locality it has expanded to.
Cllr John Fahy, Cabinet Member of Culture and the Olympics says of the service, “Greenwich Leisure was devised by the Council as the instrument of delivering high quality, efficient services for residents. Its strength in recent years has been its ability to develop the Social Enterprise model that has spread across local authorities throughout the UK. It is both a national and international movement for service delivery."
Community involvement
Community involvement is at the forefront of the organisation’s promotion of healthy living. This involvement extends from the selection of programmes on offer to the employment of local staff, and the contribution that makes in turn to the local economy.
“Partnership has become the buzz word for service improvement; GLL has developed the balance of understanding and shared values which have brought enormous community benefits.” says Cllr John Fahy.
GLL objectives and outcomes
The original aims of the organisation were, and still are, to ensure financial viability of GLL, meet its charitable objectives, increase employee participation, maintain and expand services and look for ways to continually exceed customers’ expectations.
Participation figures show that those expectations are being met with GLL having over 400,000 general members across London, who make 20 million visits annually. GLL also employs nearly 3,500 staff, all of whom are paid in the upper quartile for the industry, ensuring maximum local economic impact.
Geoff Pine is Principal of Greenwich Community College who work with GLL. He said “The College started working with GLL over 10 years ago in an effort to improve the skills base for the borough and support young people into careers. Over time our partnership has developed into an award winning one, attracting both capital and revenue grants. More importantly, working with GLL we have developed the skills and employability of our community. Over the years we have collectively trained and placed into work thousands of young people. It is an excellent model that shows what like minded organisations can do to bring about real change in providing better outcomes more effectively.”
Reinvestment
The success of the model has been based upon reinvestment at all levels of the business. This has, in part, been made possible by the independence from the council providing entrepreneurial freedom for GLL.
Investments are made in training, service development and innovation – for example, they were the first leisure provider (outside the private sector) to develop large scale gyms with a high level of equipment. This then lead to increased demand, higher income and therefore greater investment – creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
As the organisation has grown, so has its level of flexibility available within the market place. GLL is able to market itself competitively and maintain stringent and consistent quality controls across the board, but also, as a social enterprise, they can offer a range of discounted options for members as well as targeted services to specific sections of the community.
Key partnerships
GLL works to a social agenda with key local partners in each borough. They are implementing a number of local Leisure Centre Advisory Committees as well as being represented on a variety of Boards which oversee the delivery of cross cutting programmes in health, crime diversion, children and young people and activity.
WiseHearts is the Physical Activity Referral Scheme (PARS) - a partnership project between GLL and NHS Greenwich. Chris Mottershead, a client of WiseHearts says, "I have enjoyed the exercise sessions and found I have made progression. There is a friendly atmosphere amongst all the people attending and pairing people up for the activities makes the sessions pass more quickly. The mix of exercises is well-designed so you do not get bored doing any one thing for too long."
GLL continues to think expansively for the future. They are already working hard to minimise their carbon footprint and have a number of partnerships with health authorities, National Governing bodies and professional football clubs in an attempt to improve community health and activity. GLL also believes the social enterprise model would service the wider cultural sector well, with opportunities in sports development, library management and the arts. Involvement in the 2012 Olympics and its legacy remains a major target for the near future.
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