Memorandum submitted by Greenwich Leisure
Limited (GLL)
1. INTRODUCTION
TO GLL
1.1 GLL (Greenwich Leisure Limited) is an
innovative "Leisure Trust", which manages over 60 leisure
centres within the M25 area in partnership with the London Development
Agency, 12 London Boroughs, Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Bellingham
Community Project. GLL manages public leisure centres in the five
Olympic Boroughs and operates Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
1.2 GLL led the "leisure trust revolution"
in 1993 when the staff set up their own Social Enterprise to run
the leisure centres in Greenwich. There are now over 100 leisure
trusts in the UK, many of which are based on the GLL model. We
are one of London's most successful Social Enterprises and we
continue to grow. In London, GLL now operates the largest number
of sport and leisure centres within the public sector.
1.3 GLL is an Industrial Provident Society
with charitable status. It is co-operatively structured, owned
by its contracted staff (who become members by purchasing one
share). GLL is guided by a management board elected by the staff
members at an annual general meeting. The board has representation
from customers, councils and trade unions as well as from the
workforce.
1.4 GLL was an active supporter of the London
2012 "Back the Bid" Campaign with 35,000 signatories
collected through GLL managed leisure centres. We continue to
promote local community enthusiasm for the Games, support young
athletes in their goal to compete at the Games and nurture capacity
building for local people to contribute towards and benefit from
the games.
2. EVIDENCE
2.1 Our evidence will focus on the:
— standards of performance by
UK participants at the Olympics Games and Paralympic Games in
2008 and 2012;
— the impact of grassroots participation
in sport, both before and after the Games; and
STANDARDS OF
PERFORMANCE BY
UK PARTICIPANTS AT
THE OLYMPIC
GAMES AND
PARALYMPIC GAMES
IN 2008 AND
2012
Working with National Sport Associations
2.2 The British Olympic Association's (BOA)
and British Paralympic (BPA) Passport Scheme gives identified
elite athletes free access to sport facilities. GLL is a committed
Member of this scheme, and these "Passports" have actively
supported the BOA and BPA give elite sports people extensive free
access to a range of training facilities within and around London.
GLL has recently negotiated with other Leisure Trusts in London
to formally adopt the BOA and BPA Passport Scheme to give enhanced
training support to GB athletes.
2.3 In addition to access to facilities,
targeted financial support and provision of specific and personalised
resources is also necessary to achieve high standards of performance.
The GLL Foundation has recently been established to provide funds
and support to the specific needs of identified elite and emerging
young athletes. For example:
— GLL has recently given financial
support to an elite athlete who lost elite athlete funding (reliant
on continuous performance) following injury. The athlete has agreed
with GLL to use their determination to overcome injury and funding
setback as a thought-provoking message during GLL's programme
of talks to school children and young sports persons.
— This is also the thought provoking
message given by another elite athlete supported by GLL who despite
difficulty as a dyslexic young person has used his athletic abilities
and determination to reach world class competition and have real
Olympic ambition.
2.4 We provide support not reliant solely
on performance but also on opportunity and what messages can be
given back to inspire and motivate young people in the communities
where GLL manage sports and leisure centres. GLL also believe
we are in a strong position to identify where such support is
needed because we are working with young people, the community
and the athletes on a daily basis.
2.5 GLL has also provided flexible working
for training athletes under the British Olympic and Paralympic
Associations' OPEN Scheme. GLL are a Gold Member of the Scheme
and committed to support and extending this concept. The scheme
has been a boost for young athletes because we offer work schedules
that are flexible around training and give the young athletes
valuable work experience in an environment they know. Our first
elite athlete on this scheme competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
and having now retired from competition, works for us as a full
time employee.
Working with Local Government Partners
2.6 We have been working with our Partner
Local Authority Boroughs to embed various Olympic and Paralympic
schemes through the sports and leisure centres. For example, we
have put into our mainstream programmes dedicated Council programmes
to identify potential in young people. One example is in the London
Borough of Newham where 35 young people have been identified in
the Newham Sports Academy as future Games hopefuls. In partnership
with the Council, GLL provides unlimited free use of facilities.
We have also given similar support to the "Young Sporting
Ambassadors" in the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest and
Greenwich.
2.7 GLL also provides outreach support for
London Boroughs—for example, we have given support for the
Boroughs' Olympic and Paralympic awareness programmes. We provide
outreach events, and staff and athletes to work with children,
for instance at Greenwich Council's School Sportathon Event attended
by Lord Coe in Greenwich Park this year. Here sports events were
run by GLL centre staff and GLL supported athletes.
Signposting Funding Opportunities
2.8 For 2008, existing elite athletes are
already in performance pathways. For 2012 to be a pinnacle high
performance Games for British athletes, resources must also be
directed into a different generation of athletes and structures,
and this is best served by early identification.
2.9 There are several good sport funding
opportunities around, but knowing they are there and how to access
them is not straight forward. The unfortunate fact is that for
young people to develop, train and compete in sport can become
very expensive. It is important therefore that young people (especially
those from disadvantaged or low income families) get to know about
the resources available to them. The country could be failing
to catch a large potential source of elite athletes if knowledge
of funding support does not meet existing local and national talent
ID programmes.
2.10 We would like to see continued signposting
and awareness campaigns to highlight the facilities and resources
available to these young people. The DCMS, TASS, Sport England
and local Sport Governing Bodies Website are a key part of this.
Redistributing some existing or potential new commercial sponsorship
support should be considered to extend these and to development
of other local signposting forums so that young athletes can easily
identify what is available.
IMPACT OF
THE GAMES
UPON GRASSROOTS
PARTICIPATION IN
SPORT, BOTH
BEFORE AND
AFTER THE
GAMES
Schools and Young People
2.11 We work with and within existing structures
to encourage participation in sport and healthy lifestyles. Schools
are a very good way of engaging with young people with the aim
of showing them how to access sport and physical activity in their
own time. Just one example is an open weekend we hosted for all
local primary schools in Hackney. Every child had the chance to
try out different sports and activities—and we gave a free
leisure centre guest pass to every child who participated.
2.12 In partnership with the Greater London
Assembly and the five Host Olympic Boroughs, GLL managed a scheme
that offered free swimming to young people during school holidays
and now follow on with our own discount scheme to encourage young
people to swim and become more physically active.
2.13 In July 2007, GLL coordinated an extensive
"Five Years to Go" Event programme that raised awareness
and community involvement in the 2012 Games. This programme operated
across all GLL Partner Boroughs in London and linked in with other
national and local celebration events. Activities ranged from
mass participation events, a school holiday club event, a series
of 2012-related sporting challenges and GLL sponsored attendance
at events by various Olympians and Paralympians. We estimated
that 10,000 young Londoners attended and/or participated in these
events and it was noticeable how enthused young people and parents
were to embrace the excitement of 2012.
Participation for all ages
2.14 Grassroots participation of sport is
not just about engaging young people, there needs to be a culture
change for all ages. We have found that providing dedicated memberships
and activity programmes for people over 55-years-old has been
very successful. Indeed, these groups have now led to an annual
"Senior Games" involving teams from 15 Boroughs for
which GLL manage sports and leisure centres.
London Fitness Network
2.15 To make sport and physical activity
genuinely accessible, it is important to develop the ability to
join up sport delivery organisations in a more creative way. The
pattern of many people's lives does not fit with individual centre
provision, and this needs to be addressed across local authorities
and be more coordinated across London. GLL has led innovative
and pioneering work with other leisure trusts and has created
the London Fitness Network. This offers reciprocal use of venues
within the network, irrespective of borough lines. It means that,
for instance, someone can join a centre near home and use a centre
near work as they have access to 85 facilities across London.
2.16 GLL already provides sports outreach,
but to make the best use of the potential for grassroots participation
more should be done to deliver talent programmes for children
and young people, and to encourage mass participation events.
Events and programmes like these do exist, but they are still
formative and rely on individual authorities or facility providers
to pursue them. To maximize grassroots participation these need
to be developed, based around existing programmes that have been
successful.
Employment and Careers
2.17 Sport and physical activity can offer
careers that are not just about athletic performance; they offer
vocations and employment: develop coaches, develop the people
behind the people in sport to offer meaningful careers in the
sports industry. GLL in partnership with Greenwich Community College
founded the London Leisure College, which provides state of the
art vocational and industry CPD (Continued Professional Development)
training. As well as all GLL's specialist training academies,
the Leisure College also provides entry to work training for young
people, industry training for other leisure operators and professional
sports academies for football and rugby league and union. And
this means we have been able to provide:
— Employment opportunities for
marginalised Londoners and NEETS.
— Free training in fitness instruction
and lifeguarding for Londoners.
— Help for young offenders in
various London boroughs.
LEGACY USE
OF VENUES
Building upon existing strengths and community
engagement
2.18 Making use of existing delivery structures
is the route to ensuring a meaningful legacy for the 2012 Games.
Instead of creating new organisations and agendas, it is possible
to develop existing resources which are already connected into
the community. To get proper engagement and ownership for the
local community and businesses, they need to be formally and inextricably
involved.
2.19 Our experience is that communities
find facilities much more accessible and useable when they have
a direct involvement with them, and this is why we reserve places
on our board for customers. As a model it has proved successful
for us, as it means that we are more responsive to what people
who live locally want to see in their facilities.
2.20 One of the areas in which previous
Games' legacies appear to have gone wrong is in the tendency to
start community engagement afresh, ignoring what is already on
the ground, and adding structures on top which do not work with
the existing arrangements. We had 14 million visits last year
from local Londoners who are active in physical activity or sport
(expected to rise to nearer 20 million at the end of 2007). We
believe that is a better starting point for sport and physical
activity to reach the community than seeking to create new relationships.
2.21 However, the danger we are beginning
to see is that the procurement process surrounding the commissioning
of all inputs to the Games will cut across existing provision
and experience rather than building on it. It is a difficult balance
to ensure a financially viable and secure proposal that also meets
the needs of regional, sub-regional and local communities. At
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre recent work between the
LDA and GLL appear to show that significant progress can be made
on all fronts.
2.22 There have been moves in the past for
elite sport provision to be coupled with universities with major
sports interest, for example Loughborough and Bath Universities.
Whilst this meets many of the requirements of the elite sport
provision and sports-based learning for further education, it
has not been demonstrated that they are also strong at running
these facilities in the interest of communities and for public
use.
Operator Input
2.23 At this stage in preparation for the
Games the logical focus is the business case for building the
venues—the planning, capital construction and design. However,
the process needs to talk to legacy providers and involve legacy
co-ordination of individual venues and the Olympic Park. The design
plans for venues and the Olympic Park need long term community
use to underpin the business plan. The business plan does not
make sense if it is only based on large scale events use and does
not account for legacy ownership of venues, delivery of legacy
venues and community use.
2.24 Irrespective of the stage of design
venues are in, operator input can give advice on long term needs
to make secure, safe and welcoming environments for community
use as well as world class competition.
2.25 The development of the Aquatics Centre
is a good model for the combination of 2012 and legacy planning.
The ODA has identified early the need for operator input to the
original proposals and has been working with GLL. We offered our
experience of the London market and of operating centres to identify
what needs and issues there are for legacy use. We would like
to see this philosophy taken up as best practice, not just in
other individual venues, but in how the whole Olympic Park operates.
Legacy for a Pan-London Asset
2.26 We would fully support that the LDA
is the natural body to receive the legacy of venues as a pan-London
delivery agency and natural guardian of a multi-use London asset.
Social Enterprise Benefits
2.27 It is also worth considering the benefits
of the model that GLL provides, and that we already operate sport
and physical activity delivery in partnership with the LDA. We
operate as a non-profit distributing organisation with "community
benefit" as part of our core articles. We currently run as
a successful and growing social-enterprise business. This has
cross-cutting benefits for health, employment, crime diversion
and social cohesion. All surpluses are kept within sport and physical
activity and not lost to external shareholders.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1 We welcomed the successful London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Bid which explicitly committed itself to
the importance of legacy from the Games. Indeed, continued reference
to the community involvement in the Games and its legacy has remained
a theme of documents and presentations. We believe that there
are key areas that can be focused upon to ensure that the community
engagement and benefit from 2012 is strengthened.
3.2 GLL would recommended therefore that:
3.3 Recommendation 1
That there is continued signposting and awareness
campaigns to highlight the facilities and resources available
to young people, making use of the DCMS, TASS, Sport England and
local Sport Governing Bodies websites. Redistributing some existing
or potential new commercial sponsorship support should be considered
to extend these and to development of other local signposting
forums so that young athletes can easily identify what is available.
3.4 Recommendation 2
That co-ordinated talent programmes for children
and young people are developed and mass participation events are
held based around existing programmes that have been successful.
3.5 Recommendation 3
The Olympic Park and legacy facilities are coordinated
in planning, design and management to demonstrate meaningful legacy
provision and strategy for three key uses:
(i) A destination venue for the UK Tourist
Sector that lasts beyond the initial 4-5 year "thrill"
of hosting the World's best ever Olympic and Paralympic Games;
(ii) The provision of facilities for elite
athletes and world class competition in partnership with Sport
Governing Bodies; and
(iii) A vibrant location that has been designed,
programmed and managed for local communities and young people.
Coordinated representation from these sectors
are needed at key development stages to ensure these often conflicting
agendas and requirements are fused into a "living" Olympic
Park that actively grows and thrives for generations to follow.
3.6 Recommendation 4
The Olympic Park is held as a Pan-London asset
and operated through the LDA on behalf of all Londoners.
3.5 Recommendation 5
The operation of the Olympic Park and legacy
venues are delivered by "community-based" organisations.
These organisations would require a track record of working with
local communities, employing local people, ensuring local health
and physical activity and building upon existing practices and
skills.
3.7 Recommendation 6
Care is taken to avoid "quick fix"
legacy solutions; such as handing facilities to commercial organisations
or sport-led Universities (refer to evidence paragraph 2.2), neither
of whom have primary objectives to provide physical activity and
health to an inclusive local community. Of course, Universities
should form part of the partnership of legacy users.
3.8 Recommendation 7
That the planning and execution of legacy is
not simply seen as the "physical environment" of the
Park and legacy buildings. Communities and their meaningful engagement
is based upon programmes and intervention that meet their changing
needs and requirements. Community space, capacity building programmes
and small-scale community funding legacy would assist breath local
invention and engagement with the Olympic Park and its future
use.
November 2007
| 
