2003/2004 Leisure Baseline Assessment Caerphilly County Borough Council
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2003/2004 Leisure Baseline Assessment Caerphilly County Borough Council INSIDE THIS REPORT PAGES 3-13 Summary Report • Introduction • Caerphilly County Borough Council leisure services • Summary conclusions • Recommendations • Main findings • Examples of interest PAGES 14-15 Appendices • Documents reviewed • Action Plan Reference: 545A2004 - Final Authors: John Herniman Huw Rees Date: July 2004 2003/2004 Status of our reports to the Council Our reports are prepared in the context of the Statement of Responsibilities of Auditors and Audited Bodies issued by the Audit Commission. Reports are prepared by appointed auditors and addressed to members or officers. They are prepared for the sole use of the audited body, and no responsibility is taken by auditors to any director/member or officer in their individual capacity, or to any third party. Leisure Baseline Assessment – 2003/2004 Caerphilly County Borough Council – Page 2 of 15 2003/2004 SUMMARY REPORT Introduction 1. As part of the Wales Programme for Improvement (WPI), the Audit Commission in Wales (ACiW) carried out a joint risk assessment with each local authority in early 2003. The outcome of this was to identify issues for local authorities that would need to be addressed either as part of their Improvement Plan or through a programme of work in the Regulatory Plan. 2. A number of risks were identified within Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Leisure Services and as a result we allocated some time in the Regulatory Plan to undertake an assessment of the service to support the improvement plan and inform future risk assessment. 3. The objective of the assessment is to: • clarify the risks, and their causes, in relation to the Authority’s Leisure Services activities; • provide an overview of service delivery strengths and weaknesses; and • give an indication of where further action can focus. 4. The scope of the ‘Leisure Baseline Assessment’ is intended to cover leisure and recreation services, including sports development. The range of services provided by local authorities under the definition of ‘leisure’ can be wide and varied due to the discretionary nature of services. As a consequence, the assessment was tailored to the needs of Caerphilly County Borough Council. Caerphilly County Borough Council leisure services 5. Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Leisure Services is part of the Lifelong Learning and Leisure Division of the Council’s Education and Leisure Directorate. The Service comprises ten leisure facilities (seven of which are joint use), and a Sports and Health Development Team of twelve officers. The Council also provides outdoor facilities in the form of skateboard parks and multi-use games areas (MUGAs) for young people. 6. The County Borough is well catered for in terms of leisure facilities. The Sports Council for Wales’ facilities planning model only highlighted the need for one additional sports hall in the Caerphilly basin area. This has now been accounted for with the development of facilities at St Cenydd School. 7. The net cost of providing the Service was £2.68 million in 2002/2003. The direct services element of the budget (3 of the 10 leisure centres) was reduced by some £100,000 in 1999/2000. In addition the contract price has not kept pace with increases in some fixed costs (eg, labour costs) over the last four years. The service asserts that as a consequence, this particular part of the service has accumulated a deficit of £185,000 which was written off by the Council in 2002/2003. However, taken as a whole (ie, all 10 leisure centres) the service has reported year on year surpluses. 8. The net cost per swim/visit to Caerphilly’s leisure centres was £1.87 in 2002/2003. This compares well with the rest of Wales being in the lowest quartile. Performance has improved year on year as Exhibit 1 demonstrates1. 1 CIPFA – Leisure and Recreation statistics Leisure Baseline Assessment – 2003/2004 Caerphilly County Borough Council – Page 3 of 15 2003/2004 SUMMARY REPORT EXHIBIT 1 Caerphilly County Borough Council Net cost per swim/visit (£'s) 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2.60 2.55 2.05 1.87 Summary conclusions 9. The Service has a clear focus on performance with strong management and a commercial awareness. This is supported by a participation agenda that is making contributions to the health, social inclusion and community development aims of the Council. As a result the Service has managed to increase participation whilst also reducing costs. 10. Customers are satisfied with the Service and a quality scheme and customer care procedures ensure that the Service is customer focused. 11. Leisure buildings are generally well presented and welcoming, and the Service copes well with the day to day upkeep of its facilities. However, a maintenance backlog means that additional funds are needed to more significantly upgrade some facilities. 12. The Service has identified where it needs to improve, but the improvements are dependent on finding some additional capital and revenue funding. It is unclear at present where this additional funding will come from. Recommendations 13. Consolidate existing plans and strategies into an updated overarching strategy for the Service to provide a clear long-term direction for all aspects of the Service. 14. Complete the work undertaken on asset management to produce an asset management plan that ensures that refurbishment/renewal policies are in place and that revenue funding is secured to maintain both existing and new facilities. 15. Ensure that social inclusion and health based outcomes are embedded into the performance management system to enable managers to successfully balance priorities. 16. Complete disability access audits at all sites and ensure that a plan is put in place to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. Leisure Baseline Assessment – 2003/2004 Caerphilly County Borough Council – Page 4 of 15 2003/2004 SUMMARY REPORT Main findings Policy framework Conclusion 17. There is a strategic fit between the service aims and values detailed in the Service’s performance plan and the Directorate of Education and Leisure Development Plan 2002-2005 - ‘The Learning Community’. 18. There is a well developed understanding amongst staff and managers of how the Service contributes to the aims of the Directorate and of the Council as a whole, but some competing priorities sometimes make the strategic direction unclear. 19. There is a need to consolidate existing plans and strategies into an updated overarching strategy for the Service to provide a clear long-term direction. Detailed findings 20. A clearly articulated strategy is central to successfully delivering services that are focused on community needs. A clear purpose, priority and recognition of how leisure and recreation contribute to the Council’s health, social and environmental objectives can enable leisure and recreation services to be prioritised according to strategic objectives. 21. The Council has as two of its priorities: “To work with our partners to reduce levels of long-term illness among local people and promote safe and healthy lifestyles and living environments for local people.” and “To work closely with the Local Health Board to ensure that high quality health and social care services and facilities are available to local people and that they are provided locally wherever possible.” 22. The Service sees these priorities as its main focus and has several strategic planning documents in place to support it. There is a sports development strategy, a health development strategy and the Leisure Services annual performance plan. The document that is intended to sit above these is 'Building Healthy Communities', a five year strategic plan for Leisure and Lifelong Learning. However, this needs to be updated to reflect the above mentioned plans that have emerged since its inception. This will create a single strategy document that brings all the aspects of Leisure Services together and provides a long-term strategic direction for the Service. 23. Although there is a well developed understanding amongst staff and managers of how the Service contributes to the aims of the Directorate and of the Council as a whole, there can sometimes be some confusion over competing commercial and participation priorities. This issue can be addressed through the long-term strategy and its link through to business planning targets. Leisure Baseline Assessment – 2003/2004 Caerphilly County Borough Council – Page 5 of 15 2003/2004 SUMMARY REPORT Providing opportunities and meeting needs Conclusion 24. Participation at the Council’s leisure facilities has significantly increased in recent years as a result of investments in the Service and more outreach and development work. 25. There is active targeting of opportunities in areas of deprivation, particularly through sports and health development initiatives and healthy living centres. 26. There is good partnership working evident through the Healthy Living Partnership, Schools Sports Association, and Community Partnerships. Detailed findings 27. In 2002/2003 the number of visits to swimming pools and sports centres per head of population in the County Borough was about the average for Wales as a whole. The Service has worked hard to improve performance and has succeeded in considerably increasing attendances as shown in the chart below2. EXHIBIT 2 Caerphilly County Borough Council Visits to swimming pools and sports centres per head of population 10 8.35 8.40 8 6.99 5.72 6.01 6 4 2 0 1999/2000 2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 Wales av. 2002/2003 28. This increase is all the more impressive given the low overall participation rates for any physical activity in the County Borough. In the Sports Council for Wales’ participation survey 2002, Caerphilly had the lowest percentage of adults (36%) who had participated in any activity over the previous four weeks.