Workout Weekly December 15

ISSUE 1 May

WEEKLY

Issue 160 - 15 December 2023

YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE

Open Doors programme reveals more girls are experiencing benefits of physical activity – page 2 Sustainable leisure and wellness centre opens in North Yorkshire – page 3

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WORKOUT WEEKLY

Open Doors programme reveals more girls are experiencing benefits of physical activity ukactive and Nike have revealed the results of the Open Doors programme, which provides safe and exciting spaces for children and young people to keep active over the summer months.

Open Doors was recognised in the Government’s recently published ‘Get Active’ strategy for sport and physical activity as a strong example of how unlocking school facilities can help to keep children healthy and active outside of the school calendar.

The 2023 programme offered sports, activities and food to children and young people in underserved communities across London and saw more than 2,000 visits.

Key findings from the Open Doors 2023 report: n 82 per cent of Open Doors participants were eligible for free school meals. n 61 per cent of participants were female. n 24 per cent of participants had a special educational need or disability. n In terms of the ethnic groups represented, 20 per cent were White or White British, 30 per cent Black or Black British, 15 per cent Mixed, and 35 per cent ‘Other’ non-White ethnic group.

Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, said: “Through the three years of the Open Doors programme, we have been able to give thousands of children and young people the opportunity to access a wider

range of sports, activities and nutritious food in a safe and familiar environment over the summer period.

“Open Doors has now been recognised by the Government, as influential in the development of the Opening School Facilities funding and was referenced within the recently published Get Active strategy, demonstrating the strength of the programme’s success.

“It’s great to see the high numbers of girls we’ve engaged in the programme this year and we will continue to work with Nike and our partners to ensure the Open Doors model is supported more widely to provide millions more children with the holiday provision they deserve.”

The Open Doors model forms part of ukactive’s Schools as Community Hubs

policy, which makes the case for the unlocking of school playing fields, halls and courts over the school holidays.

School facilities form 39 per cent of community sport facilities but often remain closed or inaccessible during school holidays. ukactive research has shown that there is a 74 per cent loss in cardiovascular fitness among children and young people during the summer holidays.

The Open Doors 2023 programme aimed to engage more young girls to see the benefits and enjoyment of taking part in sport and physical activity, through a range of activities, including judo, dance, bubble football and rollerskating as well as traditional sports.

These results indicate success in

achieving the programme’s objectives of getting more young girls benefitting from and enjoying physical activity, as well as ensuring the full inclusivity of the programme across a diverse range of groups to help reduce inequalities.

The Open Doors programme puts no additional pressure on schools, with activities for the 2023 sessions run by local delivery partners across London, including Enfield Judo, Move with Bisi, Harding Dance, JUMPLDN, Team Get Involved, JAG, Excel Activity Group and Active Leaders Award.

Junior leadership roles were also undertaken by some of the older children involved in the programme, helping to improve their confidence and leadership skills, and supporting many to make the transition from key stage 2 into secondary school.

The new findings also highlight the benefits experienced by participants, who reported that the activities on offer were inclusive, they enjoyed the range of activities they could try, they had the opportunity to carry on with the activity at the end of the programme and they were able to keep active in a ‘nonjudgemental’ environment.

Guidelines from the Chief Medical Officer recommend children and young people aged five to 18 should get an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week.

Reformer Pilates added to London fitness boutique COMBINING art, design and fitness to deliver an inspiring and progressive experience that strengthens both body and mind, high-end boutique brand, BLOK has added Reformer Pilates to its offer at two of its four studios.

“Our BLOK community has totally embraced Reformer Pilates:” said Anna Freeman, head trainer of Pilates and Reformer at BLOK. “We have eight Reformers at our Clapton studio and 10 at our Shoreditch studio and it’s proving to be a huge hit.”

BLOK partnered with Balanced Body® to provide the reformers.

Director of Operations: Dominic Musgrave Tel: 01226 734407 dm@scriptmediagroup.co.uk Studio manager: Paul Hopkinson ph@scriptmediagroup.co.uk Assistant studio manager: Scott Firth sf@scriptmediagroup.co.uk

www.workoutuk.co.uk

Anna added: “I have been teaching Reformer Pilates on different types of machines for many years and we chose to go with the Allegro 2 Reformers at both studios because they are very well built and deliver an outstanding user experience.

“From order through to install the Balanced Body team were supportive and responsive. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with them.”

BLOK offers Reformer Pilates on a per class or class bundle basis that sit outside of the standard membership and class charges.

Anna added: “In addition to bringing new opportunities to strengthen mind and body at BLOK, Reformer Pilates has created a whole new revenue stream for our studios which is producing a healthy additional income.

“The appeal of Pilates is expanding as more and more people understand the breadth of the mental and physical benefits. In addition to core strength, Reformer Pilates can also improve mobility, balance, posture as well as offering injury prevention, recovery and pain management.

“Reformer Pilates is really for anyone

and everyone, all ages and all genders from beginners to experienced Pilates practitioners.’’

“We have recently launched a new class, RFRMR Essentials designed to fine-tune Pilates skills, build confidence using the Reformer and break down the more technically challenging movements. Delivered in an open-level class format, RFRMR Essentials is suitable for everyone.”

BLOK’s Clapton studio launched Reformer Pilates in May, followed by Shoreditch’s Reformer Pilates launch in September.

FUSION Lifestyle, the charitable sports and leisure management organisation, has reached a refinancing deal worth £13m set to support its plans into 2024 and beyond.

The terms of the deal have been finalised with NatWest, cementing Fusion’s financial stability, and will enable Fusion to build on its facilities, as well as brand and infrastructure.

Fusion Lifestyle is the leading operator of heritage buildings, operating six of the country’s oldest Lidos, with the historical Newcastle City Pool, and the recently reopened Cleveland Pools in Bath, as flagship sites within its 66-site-strong portfolio.

The operator is hoping to further

develop this specialism and work closely with Historic England over the coming months.

With two capital schemes, both in excess of £10m, planned for early 2024, Fusion will be starting the year with a show of strength.

This includes the live refurbishment and new build of Kingsmead Leisure Centre delivering over £11m of redevelopment work across three facilities in Canterbury.

Fusion has also made two new appointments to the executive board following the successful refinancing loan.

Richard Allan and Helenor Rogers have been appointed to the new roles of director of operations and commercial director respectively.

Anthony Cawley, CEO of Fusion

Lifestyle, said: “Like many others in the industry, following Covid we needed to secure a refinancing deal in order to continue business as usual.

“This deal gives us a solid financial base to pursue our plans for 2024, invest in our centres and ensure Fusion can really deliver moving forward.

“We believe this marks a fresh start for Fusion with a strengthened management team, we’re excited about the plans we’ve put in place and feel confident in our future.”

Fusion works in partnership with local authorities and other public sector organisations, to deliver choice and value for customers, helping them to live healthier and more active lives.

Fusion Lifestyle confirms loan refinancing

WORKOUT WEEKLY

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Sustainable leisure and wellness centre opens in North Yorkshire NORTH Yorkshire Council has delivered an early Christmas present to the residents in Knaresborough in the form of a new £17.5million energy efficient leisure and wellness centre.

The new build centre, developed by Alliance Leisure through the UK Leisure Framework, was originally commissioned by Harrogate Borough Council and is now part of a wider £47.9million leisure transformation project by the newly combined North Yorkshire Council.

Investment has also delivered an extensive refurbishment of The Harrogate Hydro – rebranded the Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre, which creates a network of modern, sustainable leisure and wellness hubs designed to serve the community for many years to come.

In Knaresborough, the new Leisure and Wellness Centre delivers a range of wet and dry facilities for all ages to enjoy.

In addition to a six-lane 25-metre pool, complete with pool pod, a leisure pool with flume and a 60-station fitness suite, there is also a sauna and steam room, a group fitness studio, an immersive group cycling studio and a café.

Outside, a children’s play area constructed from natural materials will open in the new year and has been designed to blend in with the surroundings.

Electric car charge points and bicycle storage have also been added to encourage sustainable travel.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for culture and leisure, Councillor Simon Myers, said: “By moving the service offer from being a conventional

swimming pool to a community health and wellbeing service we aim to help people move more, live well, feel great and reduce the proportion of the population that is physically inactive.”

In addition to delivering on facilities and community needs, the new Leisure and Wellness Centre also delivers on energy efficiency.

Old school gas boilers have been swapped out for efficient air source heat pumps whilst roof mounted solar panels provide an ongoing source of renewable energy. LED lighting throughout is complimented by a modern building management system and state-ofthe-art electrical infrastructure, all contributing to an anticipated 60 per cent reduction in carbon output compared fossil fuelled alternatives.

James Foley, commercial director at Alliance Leisure, added: “In Knaresborough, the new build facility is also achieving BREEAM Excellent status, a recognised thirdparty certification for sustainability performance.

“Achieving the ‘excellent’ standard of efficiency places the development amongst the top performing leisure facilities in the UK when it comes to energy efficiency.

“This is good news for the council’s net zero targets, good news for residents and ultimately, good news for the planet.”

The facility in Knaresborough is also delivering significant social value.

James added: “More than 60 per cent of project works has been delivered via the local supply chain whilst targeted training opportunities have created several apprenticeship opportunities.

“This development is truly a project delivered by the community for the community and it’s been an absolute privilege to be involved.”

The Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre, along with the Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre and the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre are all managed by Brimhams Active, a community health and wellbeing company wholly owned by North Yorkshire Council.

Managing director Mark Tweedie added: “We have a simple vision: to ensure everyone in our community can lead an active, healthy and happy life.

“The creation of this new Leisure and Wellness Centre provides a modern, safe space where all walks of life, at every stage of life’s journey, can come together and enjoy a range of activities from swimming and fitness to dining and relaxing. The investment really does deliver something for everyone. I’m now looking forward to working with my team to bring these facilities to life.”

‘Meeting communities where they are’ has been a mantra of the project. Working alongside Brimhams Active, the Alliance TA6 team has been supporting project success with the delivery of strategic marketing, delivering branding personas that truly reflect the philosophy of ‘helping people move more, live well, and feel great across the Harrogate district’.

All works at Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre has been delivered by leading leisure development specialist Alliance Leisure, working alongside construction partner ISG and GT3 Architects.

Works have been delivered through the UK Leisure Framework, owned by Denbighshire Leisure Ltd.

Platform offers instant access to fitness and wellness content FITTER Stock, the white-label digital health, wellness and fitness content provider, has launched a revolutionary e-commerce platform, giving a range of health and fitness providers instant access to premium downloadable wellness content from anywhere in the world at any time.

The ‘build your own’ subscription service enables immediate access to an extensive library of content, which extends beyond fitness, encompassing the worldwide health agenda and addressing holistic wellbeing, including sleep, nutrition, fitness and mental health, including tips on healthy eating, audio mediations, yoga workouts and exercise demonstrations.

The easy-to-use, one-of-its-kind platform, which has been a year in development, delivers the fully licensed content with a straightforward, flexible subscription service suitable for a range of businesses, including health and fitness providers, wellness platforms and the digital health sector.

Fitter Stock customers simply browse the content library, select the video/audio content to license, add to cart and choose the license term (6, 12, 24, 36 months), then pay and download instantly. The downloaded

content can then be incorporated into the customer’s own digital platforms, be that an App, website, content management system or customer communications, all without the need for API (application programming interface) development.

Plus, the platform includes a live chat box manned by real people, so clients can always seek support from the Fitter Stock team.

The recently launched platform is already receiving fantastic feedback, with international clients praising its

quick and efficient user experience.

David Langridge, managing director at Fitter Stock, said: “Similar to iStock, Fitter Stock provides companies with a straightforward ‘download and use’ license.

“With our monthly, per-video pricing, regardless of views, clients can be confident in their expected spend.

“Producing and creating premium wellness content can be challenging in cost, time and quality. Fitter Stock solves these issues as our content has high-end production values and is instantly accessible, whilst remaining very affordable, meaning organisations including global fitness and leisure providers can enhance their digital offer, creating a premium video and audio library on their own platform, without the need for extensive investment in content creation.

“Along with the content, our clients also receive a thumbnail image, title, description, and search tags with each file.

“Fitter Stock can also provide subtitles, plus, for an additional fee, we can add their company logo, fonts and colours to the videos.

“Health and fitness providers now have the opportunity to be more creative in how they provide their services, in a simple, premium and low-cost way.”

WORKOUT WEEKLY

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Sport England on the search for new Quest assessors SPORT England’s quality assurance scheme Quest, which has been defining industry standards and good practice for more than 25 years, is on the look out for new assessors.

With so many of the UK’s 2,000+ leisure centres now undertaking Quest, and the number steadily rising, opportunities for new assessors to join the team are currently available.

Sarah Lobo is head of external accreditations at Right Directions, which manages Quest on behalf of Sport England.

She said: “Pre Covid, we were regularly assessing around a third of the country’s leisure centres and we’re quickly building back up to this, so we are looking to recruit new assessors, who will undertake a minimum of four assessments a year – though many choose to do more.”

Lorenzo Clark, whose full time role is a contract manager with Everyone Active, is one of the 30 existing Quest assessors that travel the length and breadth of the UK each year, evaluating the country’s leisure facilities to ensure our services are delivering a positive impact on the

community. Lorenzo has been a Quest assessor since 2000 and has completed more than 200 assessments.

“It’s a great job,” he said.

“Understanding how operators deliver their products and services, and witnessing centres that take real pride in helping people, makes this role so satisfying; to see best practice in action is very fulfilling.

“I’ve assessed everything from elite centres like Bisham Abbey and Lee Valley White Water Centre, to community centres and skate parks attached to schools. Assessing Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre at the foot of Mount Snowdon, close to where I was born, was fantastic, but university assessments are another world altogether, with a different community.

Each visit is very different and generally the people you meet are so enthused and animated, it’s brilliant.”

A Quest assessor must have at least five years’ leisure facilities or active communities’ management experience, with extensive knowledge of best practice in health and safety management and operational

requirements, to help them identify areas of performance improvement for centres and their teams.

Personal experience of a facility or team going through a Quest assessment is also beneficial, as well as a personal interest in sport, leisure, health and general wellbeing.

Once fully trained, assessors are sent a list of possible assessments each month and can liaise with their chosen facility to agree a date within a flexible one-month window. Assessors can undertake additional training through Quest, enabling them to appraise specialist Quest Plus modules, including Swim England, Learn to Swim, Exercise Referral and Tackling Inequalities in Leisure.

“To be a Quest assessor you need to be broad minded and pragmatic in order to view each facility as a new individual centre rather than clouding your mind with what you or others do well, whilst also remembering everyone believes they are carrying out best practice. You need to understand why they think that, and check and challenge it in a positive way,” added Lorenzo.

“Assessments need to be fair and

reasonable. It’s about building scores up, finding good or best practice whilst highlighting areas for improvement, not specifically looking for faults or taking points away. Helping teams to understand the positives of their result is a really nice aspect of the role, nobody wants to fail and that needs to be on your mind when assessing.

“I always like return to centres for their re-assessment (Directional Review) too.

“It helps to complete the process as I can understand if they have evolved, embraced the process and made meaningful changes as a result.”

Lorenzo’s advice to anyone thinking about becoming a Quest assessor: “Do you currently do Quest, and if not why not? I was told very early on in my career, that even if my leisure centre didn’t do Quest I would need a business plan covering Quest’s core elements, so why not learn from the best and help the industry improve by reviewing it from the inside?”

Quest assessors are paid to complete the assessment and write up the report and all expenses are covered.

Email quest@rightdirections.co.uk

Active IQ and Future Fit partner to launch management qualifications ACTIVE IQ and Future Fit have announced a new partnership and the development of two management qualifications.

The collaboration brings together their shared vision and values, aiming to address the skills gap and elevate the professionalism of the sector.

The Active IQ Level 3 Award in the Principles of Management is designed to provide learners with a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of management principles.

Throughout this qualification, learners will cover essential topics such as effective decision making, leadership styles and models, the role and processes of management, performance measurement, and equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.

The second qualification, the Active IQ Level 3 Certificate in the Principles of Management and Business, builds upon the foundation of the Level 3 Award and expands the scope to include additional critical areas.

Learners will delve into topics such as business innovation and growth, budgeting and finance, recruitment processes, performance management, and how to facilitate professional

development and implement a performance appraisal.

These new qualifications have been developed in response to the need for a structured pathway to professional management roles within the physical activity sector.

By partnering with GM Active, a group of operators representing the 12 councils in Greater Manchester, who are responsible for 99 leisure and sports facilities, Active IQ and Future Fit have identified a gap in business and management experience among individuals working in these roles.

The qualifications aim to bridge this gap and create a pipeline for progression from gym instructor and personal trainer positions to junior leadership roles within GM Active.

Stuart Liversedge, business development manager at Active IQ, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Future Fit, one of the leading providers in the industry, to create these innovative management qualifications.

“Our shared vision and values have allowed us to develop qualifications that address the specific needs of the sector and offer learners a comprehensive understanding of management

principles.”

Future Fit has played a significant role in the development of these qualifications, with their expertise and insights directly informing the content and structure.

Tom Godwin, group operations director at Future Fit, added: “Our relationship with Active IQ and our combined commitment to excellence in education has paved the way for this partnership. These qualifications, tailored to the needs of GM Active and the sector as a whole, represent a significant step in professionalising management roles and ensuring the highest quality service for the public.”

The Active IQ Level 3 Award in the Principles of Management and the Active IQ Level 3 Certificate in the Principles of Management and Business are the first of their kind, specifically written to meet the needs of a major leisure trust.

What sets these qualifications apart is their bespoke nature, providing relevant and practical skills that directly improve the success rate for learners.

The target audience for these qualifications includes organisations like the leadership team within GM Active, with the aim of enhancing their

professionalism and career prospects.

By closing the staffing gaps across the leisure trust, GM Active has ensured the continued delivery of the highest quality service to the general public across their leisure centres. With approximately 50 managers enrolled, these qualifications have the potential to impact as many as 500-800 individuals within the sector.

Future plans include the nationwide rollout of these qualifications, extending their impact across the UK. The partnership between Active IQ and Future Fit is built on the goal of championing quality education and thought leadership.

Together, they aspire to expand their collaboration and explore opportunities in the international fitness market, making bespoke training available to major organisations in the health and wellness space.

These qualifications are particularly relevant in the current landscape, where many individuals have found themselves in management roles without the necessary background or skills.

The aim is to reward and recognise these “Accidental managers” by providing them with the appropriate training and promotion opportunities.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THE NIGHT A HUGE SUCCESS TO GET INVOLVED AND BE A PART OF NEXT YEAR’S AWARDS EMAIL DOMINIC MUSGRAVE DM@SCRIPTMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK