Public leisure operators are increasingly expected to improve population health and reduce inequalities while still being funded, contracted and measured primarily as facility managers, warns Duncan Wood-Allum in Blueprint 2030.
The founder of consultancy SLC argues that the sector’s shift towards active wellbeing needs to be supported by changes to commissioning, investment and workforce development if it is to deliver on its ambitions.
“We cannot ask organisations to deliver twenty-first century outcomes through twentieth century systems,” he writes.
The paper revisits Wood-Allum’s A New Future blueprint, written during the first COVID-19 lockdown and published in HCM in 2020. That article envisaged public leisure emerging from the pandemic with stronger connections to health, prevention and community wellbeing.
Six years on, Wood-Allum identifies progress in partnerships, access to data and recognition of the sector’s wider contribution. However, he argues that transformation remains concentrated in relatively few places, with insufficient national guidance, sharing of good practice and support for expanding successful approaches.
A central concern is the gap between what councils want operators to achieve and the resources available to them.
Organisations are increasingly being commissioned as partners in improving local health and wellbeing, yet additional responsibilities are often expected to fit within existing budgets, staffing structures and operating models.
Wood-Allum calls for closer connections between community partnerships and the facilities, services and workforce needed to deliver their objectives.
He also argues that commercially successful leisure facilities can help create sustainable funding for outreach, community engagement and preventative programmes beyond their walls.
The paper identifies health and adult social care as major opportunities, but says public leisure has yet to secure a role in health reform that reflects its potential contribution.
Understanding how healthcare organisations operate, what they prioritise and how they commission services will be essential to building stronger relationships, he argues. Evidence of physical activity’s benefits must be accompanied by evidence that leisure services can deliver safely, consistently and effectively.
Healthy ageing is highlighted as a particular priority, with opportunities spanning strength and balance, frailty prevention, rehabilitation, dementia support, carers’ wellbeing and independent living.
Membership growth, participation and facility use remain important measures, but Wood-Allum argues they are insufficient on their own to demonstrate this wider contribution.
Workforce development is another central challenge. Alongside coaches, instructors, lifeguards and operational teams, organisations will increasingly need expertise in behaviour change, community engagement, partnership development and evaluating outcomes.
The paper calls for a rethink of career pathways, pay structures and movement between sectors. It also raises the question of whether a smaller, more highly skilled and better rewarded professional workforce could ultimately deliver greater impact.
Wood-Allum welcomes the co-location of leisure, health and community services, while cautioning that sharing a building does not automatically create integrated services. Shared objectives, resources and accountability are also needed.
He further calls for stronger connections between grassroots sport and active wellbeing, and urges organisations to prepare for the effects of artificial intelligence, demographic change and environmental pressures.
“One of the greatest risks facing the sector is not financial pressure itself. It is the gradual lowering of ambition that can accompany it,” he writes.
Wood-Allum intends to develop the future vision further with input from sector colleagues later this year.
