Agenda item

Cllr Collins would like to introduce Steve Cox from Everyone Active who would be making the report tonight.  The purpose of the report is to provide you with an overview of how the contracts have started.  To provide information on the first three months have gone and to discuss some key performance indicators.  This will be the first time that there will be KPI’s on our sports contract.

B Hosier mentioned that he had left a hard copy report on the tables as there were some errors which had been changed.  The measurement for accidents should be 10,000 not 1,000 visits.  Also the target for accidents should be 0.05% not .05%.  Accident rates per 10,000 visits was shown as a percentage that should be shown as a number and the column to the right of that is the percentage.  B Hosier will ensure that the proper copy is placed on the records.

Action: B Hosier

B Hosier introduced Steve Cox from Everyone Active and then myself, Victoria Cody and Steve Cox will take any questions.

S Cox, Area Contract Manager for Everyone Active, said that he has been working for the company since 2009.  I have been overseeing the Dacorum Council contract since the start of the mobilisation. 

S Cox gave a presentation to The Committee and then summarised at the end.  It has been a challenging mobilisation but overall a successful start to the contract.  We are over the three month storm as it wasn’t an easy mobilisation but customer feedback has been generally very positive and the negative feedback at the beginning we worked very closely with the customer to overcome.  Excellent general and department managers appointed at every centre.   Overall very good feedback, fantastic refurbishment at Hemel due to open next week and facilities and activity programmes continue to operate as normal.

The Chairman asked if there were any questions.

Cllr Tindall said on paragraph 1.6 of the report you highlight that repairs and maintenance of the building and equipment had not been adequately carried out.  Cllr Tindall understood that DBC were responsible for repairs and maintenance of the buildings so therefore it would perhaps be apt to make a note of that.  B Hosier replied that it is for the building and plant that we were responsible for, all other responsibilities with the existing service provider as it does with Everyone Active. 

Cllr Tindall confirmed that he thought that DBC were responsible and perhaps there wasn’t the money to do it.  DBC must take a share of that responsibility.  B Hosier confirmed that there was a capital bid due to take that on board.

Cllr Tindall asked on 2.3 you mention the Operational Board, who on that Board has leisure management experience on behalf of the Council.  B Hosier confirmed that V Cody was on the board and she had managed a leisure operator at Slough Borough Council.

Cllr Tindall noticed that there are 30 clubs and asked if that was an increase or decrease from last year.  V Cody advised that at the moment it’s the same as last year. 

Cllr Tindall queried the wording TBC when it refers to a target for number of casual users/members who are registered disabled, please could this be explained.  B Hosier clarified that at present members do not have to inform anyone if they’ve got a disability so it’s in there as my understanding is that we have to monitor that during the remainder of the first year of the contract, it would be unfair of us to set a target for EA if members don’t want to divulge that information. 

Cllr Tindall asked if we were giving disabled people a special dispensation or fee in which case we would be able to identify immediately who is disabled.  B Hosier confirmed that the payment and charges for memberships and non-members has not changed, it has to remain the same in the first 12 months.

Cllr Taylor wanted to clarify that in the past there was a tapered grant from DBC to Sportspace.  Then they came to us on a number of occasions asking for additional funding to improve the facilities, however the work that had been done was not to a standard that we would expect, but at that time there was no KPI’s or SLA’s or anything else.  Now we have that control and that would endorse some of the past work not being done properly, we provided the money but the Board of Sportspace were responsible for granting the contract and the contractors did not perform to the required standard.

Cllr Douris asked if EA operate manage or have control of any other facilities in Dacorum.  S Cox replied no.

Cllr Douris queried 1.5 regarding the transferred staff requesting voluntary redundancy, 29 is a high number.  Can you give any input or insight into that.  BH replied that EA have their business model, Sportspace have their business model, clearly the number of officers that asked for redundancy fitted the business model that EA had submitted and the feedback from customers and the costs involved in running the contract support the release of those individuals. 

Cllr Collins added that as someone who’s been involved in a number of business acquisitions, it is not unusual for people in the first couple of months to decide to move on.

Cllr Douris enquired if anyone would like to comment on failure points and whether or not any performance payments have been paid.  B Hosier confirmed that there had not been any performance payments as KPI’s have only just been monitored from September, so it took from contract start until about July to agree the KPI’s, so they will be monitored from September.  There are a number of failure points that can and will be apportioned subject to the performance standard in the annual and monthly KPI’s targets not being realised.  It’s quite a complex process, there are a number of performance standards which the specification for the service was built around.  It’s a standard contract from Sport England.  Happy to share the information but didn’t want to put too much in the report as it’s pages and pages.  The suggestion is that we come back once a year to Scrutiny to report on performance and any issues.

Cllr Douris put it to the panel that the period for project review which you’ve shown as an annual report, he would like to suggest it is a six monthly report for the first two years, if that is the wish of the Committee.

Cllr Douris confirmed he had an eye for detail and said that the slide showed MBE Max Whitlock and it should be Max Whitlock MBE, also on the flyer it says Max Whitlock M.B.E and there are no stops, so it would be MBE.

Cllr Douris raised that the report identifies customer feedback had been very positive and queried if there had been any formal customer feedback and if there are any statistics to back up the promise, it would have been comforting for The Committee to have seen it.  S Cox confirmed that the customer  feedback has been submitted as part of the quarterly report to the Council and that report includes a full detailed breakdown of the feedback and any actions that we’ve taken from receiving that feedback.   S Cox confirmed that he can provide the details or if he’s invited to the meeting again he can do more of a breakdown. 

Cllr Douris felt it would be of interest but would take guidance on whether it should be part I or part II.  M Brookes said it will be fine as long as it’s anonymous, no names or addresses, then it would be fine to include.  Cllr Douris said he was thinking more of statistical number or smiley faces. 

B Hosier advised we do have that information but chose not to overburden Members with too much information at this stage.  If Members agree he’s quite happy to share that information electronically and then it can be included on a six monthly basis moving forward.  The Committee felt this would be helpful.

Cllr Collins wanted to add that he’s been round the facilities a couple of times and he was very pleasantly surprised when he went to Berkhamsted how pleased people were, happy smiley faces and some people actually came up and said it’s going well.

Cllr Douris mentioned the Armed Forces Day in Gadebridge Park in the Summer, he also spoke to some of the folk who were manning the tent and they were saying exactly the same thing. 

Cllr Tindall pointed out that he was discussing the contract with Rob Smyth and had put forward the suggestion for an advisory board made up of organisations that used the leisure centre, which could then talk to EA as a way of ensuring everyone was happy and he did say he would take that on board.  B Hosier said that club feedback is asked for and that is fedback to EA, also they have been out and spoken to all the major clubs and is aware that there is a requirement that Alex Care meets with the clubs, that could be the advisory board, but he is happy to take that away and clarify with Alex.

The Chairman asked for clarification on point 1.5, 29 staff transferred and 27 accepted redundancy what was the percentage of people that transferred.  When we say it’s 29 out of how many, just give the final figures.  B Hosier will confirm this information.

Action: B Hosier

The Chairman set out the recommendations and confirmed that the comments from Committee would be included.  Committee agreed that the performance of the leisure contract would be presented six monthly for the first two years.

Action: Member Support