Sport England has long been an advocate of best practice and a source of advice and guidance in the sports and leisure sector, providing toolkits and guidance in areas such as strategic planning, design guidance, governance and asset transfer. During the last 12 months there have been an increasing number of requests for assistance and guidance in the area of leisure contracts and their procurement.
In 2011 Sport England completed a procurement process for the management and construction programmes at the National Sports Centres (Bisham Abbey, Lilleshall and Plas Y Brenin) which produced significant financial savings and strategically aligned outcome focused contracts over a 15 year period. Following the completion of this process Sport England undertook to develop a toolkit and guidance on Leisure Contracts and Procurement.
The aim was to produce a suite of documents that would assist client bodies to adopt good practice, reduce cost and time in the process and to achieve contract partnerships which can deliver local outcomes.
The toolkit and contract documentation has been produced following wide consultation across legal and leisure consultants active in the sector, a range of Local Authorities, leisure operators, DCMS and BISL.
The objectives were to:
- Promote best practice
- Reduce costs and time for clients and contractors in the procurement process
- Advise on fair contractual positions which can be adopted and avoid lengthy dialogue
- Encourage partnerships which deliver increases in participation, enable the promotion of broader social and health outcomes and achieve financially sustainable leisure provision.
The aim was to produce:
- A Toolkit with guidance on procurement routes and process
- Template contract documentation and guidance
- Guidance on balancing quality, increasing participation, achieving broader outcomes in health and wellbeing, community engagement, commercial performance and cost.
It is intended that the toolkit will assist the strategic decision making stage for clients and help to establish a sound basis for the procurement phase.
There is guidance on undertaking the procurement process and encouragement to focus on the key issues to reduce the procurement period. Where there is clear best practice or accepted market positions these have been highlighted, and where there are options the benefits and implications of different routes have been outlined.
The document is web based and will be updated on a six monthly basis or when legislative changes occur. The documents will not replace the need for quality specialist advice though it may enable clearer more focused briefs to be developed to ensure that consultants are deployed as effectively as possible in the process, enabling them to add value through focusing on key areas.
It is a complex and continually evolving area and Sport England will endeavour to update the documents on a regular basis, your feedback is important in helping us to improve the material.
For further information, view the toolkit here or contact: Kevin Mills, Strategic Lead Capital Projects and Facilities, Sport England Kevin.mills@sportengland.org or
Andy Farr,CLOA Member and Director, FMG Consulting andyfarr@fmgconsulting.co.uk
