Interest Staff Newsletter - March 2023

READ MORE ON PAGE 8 ... TRAFFORD

YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS ON PAGE 3...

DRAFT PARTINGTON IS LEVELLING UP

CHIEF EXECUTIVE JO CHERRETT

Dear All,

The first Interest Staff Newsletter of 2023 is here, and we have a lot of exciting business to share! By now I hope you’ve all had chance to read the Staff Awards Newsletter issued earlier in the year. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the awards that took place in January, celebrating the wonderful achievements of over 150 of our people. Congratulations again, to all nominees and winners, I hope you all had the chance to read the wonderful comments your fellow colleagues said about you! If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet you can do so using the link below; Try and see if you can spot yourself and your team in the photographs on the back page! https://issuu.com/traffordleisure/docs/staff_awards_newsletter_

Its official...Stretford Leisure Centre is our next centre progressing with Trafford Council for refurbishment. I’m sure many of you agree, that seeing move Urmston and the start of move Altrincham has been very exciting and the excitement continues into the new project for Stretford. Take a look at the latest update for move Altrincham: https://twmove.co.uk/move-altrincham-staff-updates/

Alongside the Stretford Leisure Centre Investment, we have had the excellent news that Partington Sports Village has been granted £18 million investment. This is huge for Partington and the surrounding areas, and we are so thrilled to be involved in that journey. The investment for both these projects will make incredible differences in our Trafford community and I know that the next few years will be filled with hard work from everyone at Trafford Leisure and Trafford Council to create wonderful spaces to be enjoyed by all.

We all know it’s been a tough time recently following the global pandemic and cost of living crisis, which is why I am really proud to tell you that Trafford Leisure will become a real living wage employer in the coming months. Implementing the Real Living Wage will support and benefit those within our business on the lowest pay. The majority of our staff are living within the borough, so in taking this step it will also have a positive benefit on our local economy and support Trafford Council’s strategic aim to reduce poverty.

What Else is New

Recently, I have taken part in the Poverty Truth Trafford project. This is a network of community commissioners, people with direct experience of what it's like to live in poverty, and civic commissioners, those with the power to make decisions that have an impact on those who live in poverty. I have been involved as one of the 20 civic commissioners. The project has enabled the community commissioners to discuss their real-life experiences with the civic commissioners in order to successfully tackle poverty in the local community. My intention is to take these experiences into account when making decisions that have an influence on poverty in the local community. By working together, the Poverty Truth network enables for a deeper, more meaningful understanding of what it is like living in poverty. This contributes to impactful decisions for those suffering in the local communities. The final report sums up the last 12 months of this project, and if you would like to read how the commissioners got on, please follow this link: https://stretfordpublichall.org.uk/ptc-final-report-march-2023/

In other news have you seen that our local football team Altrincham FC almost made it to Wembley. In the first year of turning professional! With a tough game beating York City 2-1 landing them in the Isuzu FA Trophy semi-finals it was nearly Altrincham’s year. Unfortunately, they were knocked out 3-2 on penalties by a tough match against Halifax Town that was 1-1 after 90 minutes. We wish them well on the rest of the season for the National League and hope to see them at Wembley one day!

On Saturday 1st April I visited Partington Sports Village to see first-hand the session taking place by one of our hirers – Cerebral Palsy United. They have over 100 children and adults attending football every Saturday between 9am and 2pm, it is a fabulous session and with the help and insight of Michelle the passionate lead in place we will look to learn and grow other disability sessions if we are successful with the second pitch at Partington. We should hear in the next month or so whether the bid has been successful. https://www.cpunited.co.uk/

Finally, I hope everyone enjoyed the bank holiday weekend, whether you were celebrating Ramadan, Easter, or just the lovely sunshine! As a reminder, please SAVE THE DATE: Saturday 29th July Staff BBQ and Rounders. I hope to see as many of you there as possible, I promise not to be too competitive.

PAY REVIEW

Exciting news! With support from our parent company Trafford Council, Trafford Leisure are planning to become a Real Living Wage employer! We are working through the finer details of the 2023 pay review which we will share more in a separate communication.

The real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by employers who believe their people deserve a wage which meets everyday needs - like the weekly shop, or a surprise trip to the dentist. From 1st April the National Living Wage (statutory minimum for over 23 year olds in the UK is £10.42) but the Real Living Wage is £10.90 and Trafford Leisure, despite budgeting to make a financial loss of over £1million in the next year, are investing in our people to ensure that we pay no less than £10.90!

This will help us to financially support those who are on the lower rates of pay and with the wider pay review we aim to reward and recognise our dedicated people across the business. We are still in discussions with the Employee Voice Representatives and the Trade Union over the final details of the 2023 pay review and further details will follow in a separate communications.

£Whilst we work through the details of the 2023 pay review we will automatically process the statutory uplift to anyone paid below the current National Living Wage of £10.42 to ensure we are legally compliant before we can process the uplift to becoming a Real Living Wage employer.

& REVIEW OF OLD POLICIES

MONEY MATTERS

NEW POLICIES MANCHESTER CREDIT UNION

Want to access a savings and loans scheme? Last October we launched the Manchester Credit Union as a Staff Benefit to all our contracted staff. They offer savings accounts and affordable loans to members and are an ethical alternative to High Street Banks as they use the savings they manage to provide loans to members, so the money stays within the local community. The aim is to help you get back into a savings habit and become more financially resilient.

More details on this can be found on Flex including how to access the Christmas savings and their loans schemes. In these difficult financial times we would encourage all our people to look and consider how you may get the best use out of this benefit.

After listening to feedback from the NPS and 2022 Staff Surveys we have taken the time to create some new Policies. We hope you will find that these policies are well considered and sensitively approached to help with awareness and understanding of various topics. Our aim is to ensure that by listening to you we move the with times and that we are able to educate and open up the conversation on a range of issues that affect us all in the workplace. Ultimately we want to ensure that Trafford Leisure is an inclusive and supportive employer with happy and proud employees.

The Policies which are now available to everyone on https://flex.futurefit.co.uk/modules/2533 are:

• Menopause

• Trans and Gender Identity

• Mobile Phone

• Hybrid Working

We are also reviewing our existing policies, taking input and feedback from our Senior Leadership Team, our Employee Voice Representatives and the Trade Union to ensure that what we create are fit for purpose.

An update on the progress of the refurbishment at Altrincham Leisure Centre

To view the full roadmap and more content, head to the link below!

With progress taking place on site, historical moments and memories have been uncovered since the closure of Altrincham Leisure Centre in December 2022, leading us to dig deeper into the past...

https://twmove.co.uk/move-altrincham-staff-updates/

BEHIND THE SCENES

• No Entry, Kev!

• Views from the Portacabin

• ‘TIMBER’

• The Dynamic Duo

WHAT’S NEW?

@ Stretford Sports Village

AND SO IT BEGINS...

The time has come for Stretford Leisure Centre’s redevelopment plans! Trafford Council went live in March with the online and face-to-face consultations so that the local community could gather and share their views on the newly approved move Stretford refurbishment.

With consultations taking place on site as well as at Stretford Library and the Limelight Centre, there has been positive feedback and a large number of responses which has been great to see. Hopefully this will give a boost to the local community knowing that the process is moving forward and that the long-awaited plans for move Stretford are turning into a reality.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Olga Simpson

Maria Kanaris

Pete Lockwood

GOOD LUCK, JACK!

Jack Carr is about to start a new path in his career and as a valued team member at Trafford Leisure, it will be sad to see him go! We wish you all the best in your new role, Jack.

PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY

Now the council’s public consultation has been completed, the team at Stretford are taking small but important steps to begin the preparation process for move Stretford. This has included clearing out old/unused bits of equipment & furniture, as well as a few coats of paint to maintain parts of the building. Great job, guys!

Partington Sports Village ‘LEVELLING UP’

The £18 million of Levelling Up funding will upgrade the current leisure centre through a mix of refurbishment and new build (designed to Sport England Active Design principles), with additional football facilities and EV charging.

• Cross Lane Changing Rooms - Renovating the changing rooms at Cross Lane which includes boxing facilities and serves the 6 grass football pitches at the site.

• Trim Trail – Introduction of a walking path around the full Sports Village site to enhance leisure walking / running in the area and to improve access to the Sports Village and surrounding area.

• Pump Track - Implementing an improved BMX pump track and associated facilities for public usage at the Sports Village.

• Greater Manchester Youth Federation (GMYF, formerly known as the Boys & Girls Club) – Installation of BMX storage and repair facilities at the neighbouring GMYF.

• Public Realm and landscaping – Landscaping and public realm work to provide better linkage between the main leisure centre through to the other elements of the Sports Village, and to also modernise and make the facilities more attractive to prospective users.

• Additional football pitch – Implementing an additional 3G pitch at the site provided through match funding from The Football Foundation and Trafford Council.

Time 2 Talk

As part of our wellbeing campaign we have introduced Time2Talk. These are set times each month where a mental health trained member of staff will be available if you would like to go and discuss anything affecting your wellbeing. We would like to encourage everyone to use these sessions so we can open up the conversation on mental health and wellbeing in our workplace.

Staff Wellbeing

Introducing

What is Time 2 Talk?

Time 2 Talk is a dedicated time slot every month, where anyone is able to come and talk to a Wellbeing Champion who is trained in mental health awareness.

When is it?

The allocated times will be a Tuesday/Thursday on the third week of each month between 2pm till 3pm. There will be a room booked and a Wellbeing Champion/member of management or the People Team available throughout that time. Use your voice and come talk to us - we want to help!

Please feel free to use the Time 2 Talk session to discuss any matters affecting your wellbeing either in or outside of work. This is a safe time and space for you to talk and hopefully get any help & support you need!

FINANCE UPDATE

March 2023

Take a look at an insightful update from the Finance Team for February, including the financial results from the last month, employee of the month and more. We are one month out from year end, so it’s full steam ahead for Emma and the team!

DASHBOARD

A new finance dashboard allows the team to clearly illustrate the month to month figures. Each graph tells us something different about the last financial month. They’ve been shared by the Finance team so we can all have a better understanding of how our business’ financials work.

£ £ ££ £ £ £ ££ £

£ £ £ ££ £ £ £ £ ££ £

A NEW FACE

There has been a new addition to the Finance team, as we welcomed Hannah Ward, who joined us as Assistant Management Accountant on April 4th. We wish you all the best in your new role, Hannah!

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Josh Steadman, Junior Financial Planning Analyst, showed courage by taking full ownership of the preparation of the budget templates and supporting inputs for the 2023-24 Budget.

This was above and beyond what was expected from him and came from a place of support and caring for his colleagues. Josh asked for assistance when needed and then continued to work autonomously on the project seeing it through to the end and then played a part in delivering the budgets out to sites.

£ £ £ ££ £

Another milestone for Josh in the recent months was making his very first round of brews at Head Office; a proud moment. Nice one, Josh!

DIRECT DEBIT

DIRECT DEBIT IS IN THE HOUSE!

The commercial and finance team have been working at full steam, upgrading our front of house and back office systems in readiness for bringing the direct debit processing inhouse.

£ £ £ ££ £

Big thanks to the whole of the team who have either been directly or indirectly involved, but in particular to Annette Cannon who led on the system upgrades and management of the databases, and to Jon Westwood for following behind making sure financial business as usual ensued during this time of change.

£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ ££

WHAT’S NEW? @ Support Office

C’EST LA VIE

Heather Gaulton our Marketing Content & Campaign Manager flew off to Paris to take part in Paris Fashion Week! As well as representing England in Miss Super Talent Of the World where she placed top 10! An amazing achievement – Everyone at Trafford Leisure is super proud of Heather.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

LANDMARK FOR MR. FRANCIS

Head of Business Jon Francis recently acquired a new accolade, one that he never would’ve imagined! Founding Members Morgan & Helena were delighted and honoured to welcome Jon onboard the ‘Cool Club’ with a pair of brand new specs too.

The Customer Hub certainly know how to put on a birthday lunch; it was recently time to celebrate Alison Dowson’s birthday. We all hope you had a lovely day, Alison!

HOW TO MUTE A WHATSAPP GROUP CHAT

After feedback from the most recent Employee Voice Reps meet, here is how to mute a Whatsapp chat when you don’t want to receive notifications.

Open the chat that you want to mute, click on the name of the group at the top, which will bring up a range of settings. Find and press on mute where you will then be given 3 options of how long you wish to silence notifications for!

WHAT’S NEW? @ Altrincham Golf Course

NEW BEGINNINGS, FAMILIAR FACES

There has been a shuffle around in the team at the Golf Course, whereby our very own David Howlett has become the new Golf Manager! A big congratulations to you Dave, we wish you all the best in this new role. Andrew Terry will be staying on to help oversee the transition, assisting David and supporting the Golf team throughout this period of change!

COURSE REPAIRS

Amongst a very busy period for Altrincham Golf, the greenkeeping team have been putting in great efforts to maintain and improve our 18 hole course, especially on the 5th tee where new drainage has been installed.

In terms of other developments, the golf car park has seen a large expansion, plus surface repairs on the access road to the driving range is a change that many are pleased to see!

WHAT’S NEW?

@ Sale Leisure Centre EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

HERE TO HELP

The Customer Hub team were called into action on Sunday 16th April, as they held a ‘Here to Help’ workshop at move Urmston. They provided 1 to 1 support for customers with any questions or queries that they would normally phone the hub to resolve. Our Customer Experience Manager Chris Marsh was extremely pleased with how the day went; “it was a fantastic chance to see people navigate our customer journey and physically be able to assist or correct them whilst doing so, which in-turn provided the hub team with great feedback in order to improve our services.”

There are more dates to come for the ‘Here to Help’ workshop, where the hub team will be visiting all of our sites in the coming months. A massive well done to Brenda & Shonagh (pictured left), Diane, Chris, and all of the Customer Hub team for their hard work and effort!

January Stephen Darroch

December Marc Martin

February Eloise Fox

WHAT’S NEW?

MOVING TO MATERNITY

On Friday 3rd February, we had the opportunity to wish the wonderful Kelly Cawood a very happy “bon voyage” and “good luck” as she left move Urmston and the West Locality to start her eagerly anticipated maternity Leave.

Trafford Leisure and the move team will all miss Kelly’s fabulous work ethic and high standards, as well as the fun and happy outlook that helps brighten everyday at work.

She will be missed by colleagues and members alike and we all wish her well as she disappears to look after her new arrival! We look forward to her letting us know when the newbie arrives and coming in to “show off” the latest addition.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Neiam McKenzie

Jack Carr

CONGRATULATIONS, ADAM & ESTHER!

Huge congratulations to Fitness & Wellbeing Experience Manager, Adam Spence, and his wife Esther, for recently getting married, your Trafford Leisure & move family wish you all the best!

“THERE’S A LEAK!”

Team members at Urmston decided it was time for a little prank on GM Craig Lomas by storming into the staff room shouting ‘there’s loads of leaks in the disabled toilets”. Craig rushed to the scene, only to be greeted by a pack of leaks; an old but gold prank. Good job, team move!

Movement, sport, physical activity, and leisure enable us to be healthy, happy and productive we were all designed to move and be active. Physical activity can bring people together, help individuals overcome barriers and help children develop into healthy and confident adults. The focus of Trafford Moving is to enable every resident in Trafford to access the opportunities being active creates.

To read the full strategy document, head to link below:

https://traffordleisure.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Trafford-Moving-2023-V5.pdf

“Our vision is to enable Trafford residents to move more, every day…”

“We will achieve this vision by increasing the number of fairly-active residents year on year”

Here we would like to shine a light on all our new staff, those who are sadly leaving us, and those who have moved up in the business - an opportunity for us all to welcome, say goodbye and congratulate!

Millions of mobile phones across the UK will emit a loud alarm and vibrate at 3pm on April 23 in a nationwide test of a new public alert system. The system going forward is intended to be used in life-threatening situations including flooding, wildfires and terrorist attacks.

The message/ alert will be received on 4G and 5G mobile phones, along with sound and vibration for up to 10 seconds. Phone/ tablet users will be prompted to acknowledge the alert by swiping or clicking the message before being able to continue using their device.

@traffordleisure

@moveurmston

@saleleisurecentre

@altrinchamleisure

@stretfordsv

@partingtonsportsvillage

@thegrammar1

@altrinchamgolf

If there is anything you would like to see included in the next newsletter, please email Morgan at: morgan.gardner@ traffordleisure.co.uk

Trafford Leisure

MOVE Urmston

Sale Leisure Centre

Altrincham Leisure Centre

Stretford Sports Village

Partington Sports Village

The Grammar

Altrincham Golf Course & Driving Range

Gymnastics Trafford

Trafford Training