Work by Leisure-net has been referenced in the IDeA report that looks at pilot initiatives where councils and trusts are establishing frameworks wherein they can demonstrate the impact of their culture and sport services on the priorities of councils and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP).
This follows the sectors key document 'A Passion for Excellence', which seeks to establish the improvement agenda for the sector and identifies the need to understand strategic commissioning and the need to demonstrate the impact that services offer to commissioners. Hertsmere Trust and Council are one of the services that are leading on this agenda, supported by Leisure-net. Leisure-net also advised Wigan Cultural Trust on the first stages of their project, also referenced in the report of good practice.
IDeA has been working with a number of 'pilots', has produced a report on the lessons from this programme and will soon be issuing a tool-kit for people to follow. Because we are close to IDeA, not least as an approved consultant, and also because of our relationship with organisations such as sporta, CLOA etc, Leisure-net have been involved in the early stages of this initiative and therefore we're in a unique position to offer support to those who will surely soon begin to establish structures that demonstrate impact.
An example is the work with Hertsmere Leisure Trust, with the borough council on board and the advice of Hertfordshire University. We began by looking at the priorities of the council and the local strategic partnership and agreed with the trust which of these would be chosen as areas where the trust could make a particular contribution. Four were chosen: for example, the trust has a series of programmes which are in part designed to meet health and community safety priorities
The trust already gathers some evidence that shows outcomes within these themes and can begin to gather others. In some areas, though, it feels it needs external help and is commissioning Leisure-net to collect data, for example through community surveys, user surveys, focus groups and pen portraits. While there is already an impressive set of programmes in place, the exercise has already identified gaps and the trust has moved to fill these - in fact, it has already attracted substantial funding from strategic commissioners, even though it has yet to complete the exercise.
Trust MD, Phil Collins, agrees that a motivation for undertaking this work is that the contract with the council is to be renewed soon, but he is also clear that the prime motivation of the exercise is to help to improve the services offered and is likely to open up new sources of funding.