Meeting documents

To consider the attached report  (representatives from Everyone Active, the Council’s leisure management contractor) will be attending the meeting.

 

Contact Officer:  Paul Marston-Weston (01296) 585116

The Committee received an update from Everyone Active, the Council’s leisure management contractor, on the actions and measures that had been implemented over the last six months and on other plans for the future and that would continue to improve the standard of cleanliness and hygiene at Aqua Vale Swim and Fitness Centre, Aylesbury.

 

The leisure management contract for the management and operation of the council’s two leisure centres (Aqua Vale Swim and Fitness centre, Aylesbury and Swan Pool and Leisure Centre, Buckingham) had been awarded to Sport and Leisure Management Ltd, trading as Everyone Active (EA) from April 2013 for an initial period of ten years with an option to extend the contract, by mutual agreement for up to a further five years.  EA paid the Council approximately £510,000 each year to manage the council’s leisure centres.

 

EA managers had attended the Scrutiny Committee meeting in April 2017 following reports of poor standards of cleanliness at Aqua Vale and had acknowledged that the overall standards at Aqua Vale had not been up to scratch or as they would expect to provide and that they should have been more proactive in responding to issues that had arisen.  The Committee had been informed on the arrangements in place to manage and monitor the contract and been informed by EA that a number of changes had been made including changes to the senior staffing structure, and the cleanliness and maintenance regimes.

 

Formal contract monitoring was undertaken by the AVDC client officer by way of a monthly contract meeting with EA Contract managers and site visit together with ad-hoc contract meetings with the Regional Director of EA.  In addition, any complaints received by the Council were followed up with EA to ensure that they were resolved in a satisfactory manner.  Furthermore, AVDC Environmental Health Officers reviewed the water quality test results obtained by EA if there were any concerns regarding the water quality.

 

Since the last meeting, the standards of cleanliness at Aqua Vale had continued to improve greatly and much had been done by EA to address concerns raised by Members.  There was, of course, room for further improvement and EA remained committed to raising standards of cleanliness now and going forward.  EA had produced a report which was circulated at the Scrutiny Committee meeting highlighting the actions and improvements made.  The Cabinet Member for Civic Amenities informed Members that she had met with EA managers and had toured the centre to see first hand the improvements made.

 

Everyone Active representatives attended the meeting and provided members with a Service Standards Report which contained comprehensive information on the Service Improvement Plan that had been actioned over the last 12 months.  Key areas within the plan included cleaning, maintenance and staff levels (in particular, relating to lifeguard recruitment).  The EA representatives, together with the Contracts Performance, Funding and Partnerships Development Manager, provided Members with further information as follows:-

 

·                    Aqua Vale attendance – overall attendance had increased by 4,222 in the first half of 2017/18 compared to 2016/17.  There had been a decrease in the number of pre-paid fitness members from 2,310 to 2,083 over the last year which was attributable to the growing number of budget gyms that had recently opened in Aylesbury.

 

The number of people participating in the swimming scheme had increased by 3 people, which reflected that the scheme was at a mature stage and there was little scope to increase the amount of swimming lessons without a significant change to the overall programme.

 

·                    Cleaning – a specialist cleaning contractor, DMC Facility Management, had been appointed in February 2017 tasked with the day to day cleaning of the centre.  There had been a significant increase in the amount of weekly cleaning hours and the contract had been launched with a number of overnight deep cleans.

 

To reach the next level in terms of cleanliness and presentation, a new contract had recently been agreed with Rapid Clean, who were a much larger company who provided cleaning services at various EA centres.

 

In addition to the contract cleaning services, an additional focus had been placed on in house cleaning regimes:-

-       the lifeguard team focussed on the swimming pools and pool sides.

-       the food and beverage team focussed on the café.

-       the fitness team focussed on the gym and fitness equipment.

 

Cleaning schedules were reviewed within all areas to ensure that they were as comprehensive as possible with daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, 6 monthly and annual schedules.  The day to day cleaning processes were driven by the Duty Managers who were supported by a Contract Operations Manager and the General Manager who all completed daily spot checks and inspections to check standards.

 

Furthermore, the Contract Manager undertook regular cleaning inspections to review the schedules, task completion and standards achieved.  AVDC’s Contracts Performance, Funding and Partnerships Development Manager also undertook regular announced and unannounced cleaning inspections.

 

All of this had ensured that cleaning standards had dramatically improved at Aqua Vale since December 2016.  This was supported by customer feedback and observations from inspections.

 

·                    Complaints – information was provided that showed that the total amount of feedback received had increased while at the same time the number of complaints per 10,000 visits had reduced by two-thirds.

 

·                    Staffing – to resolve the lifeguard staffing issues that had been highlighted at the previous meeting, the following changes had been made at Aqua Vale in addition to the changes at senior management level:

-       lifeguard pay had been increased.

-       more free NPLQ courses had been run, which trained people to become lifeguards.

-       improved development opportunities were being provided through progression to Team Leader and Duty Manager.

-       the culture amongst lifeguard teams had been improved, which had assisted with staff retention.

 

The lifeguard team was now fully staffed in terms of full-time, permanent team members.

 

·                    Maintenance – a number of changes had been made to operational processes and additional training provided for the Duty Management and operational teams to minimise maintenance and technical issues that had been impacting service provision.  The Planned Preventative Maintenance undertaken at Aqua Vale was detailed which included information on items, when work was due and when it had been completed, the frequency of work and the contractors that undertook the work.

 

Additional information was provided of large reactive maintenance works and any capital expenditure investments that had been completed between April and September 2017.  These items were as a result of remedial works from inspections or servicing as well as capital investments and upgrades.

 

·                    Additional Service Improvements at Aqua Vale – in addition to the senior management changes, changes had also been made to the Front of House Manager, and the Food and Beverage Manager, as part of improving standards in those areas.  This included:-

-       Improvements to the Queue Management Systems – a previously under utilised room in the reception area had been transformed into an additional reception serving point and was used during peak times to deal with enquiries and to reduce queuing for transactions, in particular for processing car park refunds.

-       Car parking arrangements – EA had proposed an alternative car parking arrangement to the council, suggesting the implementation of a A.N.P.R. (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) camera system, which would remove the need for everyone to obtain a ticket from an machine and then visit the centre’s reception to obtain a refund.  Work was ongoing on the practical implementation of this scheme.

-       Gym Refurbishment – in September a refurbishment of the gym facilities at Aqua Vale, with a particular focus on free weights, had been completed at a cost of £17.000.

-       UK Active Code of Practice – Aqua Vale had been randomly selected by UK Active as one of 5 centres to be assessed against its code of practise.  The review had been primarily health and safety focussed and included risk assessments, safe systems of work, COSHH, pool water quality, pool plant operations, fire safety and colleague training and qualifications.  Aqua Vale had passed this assessment, scoring 100%.

 

·                    Swan Pool – had seen significant growth in attendance in the first half of 2017/18 compared to the previous year , following the refurbishment.  In particular, the number of pre-paid fitness members had increased by 25% to 2,055 members and the number of people learning to swim had increased by 4.2% to 1,191.

 

·                    Community Development Highlights – in addition to managing the centres, EA had supported and been involved in a number of community events throughout Aylesbury Vale over the last six months including Live in the Park and Play in the Park.

 

Members sought additional information and were informed:-

 

(i)            that an issue at Swan Pool regarding a local school having priority use of the centre which clashed with a popular aqua swim session had been satisfactorily resolved.

 

(ii)           that people using gym equipment were given an induction on how to use the equipment and asked to exercise within their limits.  Assistants were also present in gyms to assist people, if required.

 

(iii)          that should the number of people using the centres increase dramatically, in line with the projected housing growth, then staffing numbers could be adjusted accordingly.

 

(iv)         further on how EA had been proactive to seek information / complaints from customers and to respond to the feedback.

 

(v)          that a number of other Councils in the country had been able to introduce an A.N.P.R. camera system for car parking arrangements so it was hoped that an arrangement could also be implemented for Aqua Vale.

 

(vi)         that fast tracking how customers were refunded their car parking charge would considerably improve the customer experience at Aqua Vale.  500,000 refunds were processed every year.  Creative options were being explored to improve the car parking situation, although the Council was also aware that it received £40,000 p.a. (£25K car parking charges, £15K penalty charges) from the car park.

 

(vii)        by AVDC’s Contracts Performance, Funding and Partnerships Development Manager on the frequency of his announced and unannounced visits.  While any complaints were followed up with EA, they had been proactive over the last year in dealing with any issues.

 

RESOLVED –

 

(1)          That the representatives from EA be thanked for attending the meeting and for the positive progress that had been made in managing the Council’s leisure centres.

 

(2)          That EA be invited to provide a further update report to the July 2018 scrutiny committee meeting regarding the Leisure Centres management contract.