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QUEST & CIMSPA

Quest continues to be the Sport England recommended Continuous Improvement Tool for leisure facilities and sports development teams, designed to measure how effective organisations are at providing customer service. It has been running for over 20 years now and continues to evolve with the changes within the industry. Quest is supported by Sport England, Sport Wales, Sport Scotland and Sport Northern Ireland as well as organisations like CIMSPA, ukactive, Chief Leisure Officers’ Association and SPORTA.

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The scheme is currently managed by Right Directions in partnership with Leisure-net Solutions, on behalf of Sport England. Quest has become a highly effective improvement tool for many years and as a result, leisure sector management have become much more proficient at delivering a varied activity programme in a clean and well maintained environment.  

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It is vital that Quest remains understandable and valuable to the industry and guides the sector to consider the wider impact it can have on the health and wellbeing of communities. The review and work carried out has considered the standards of:

 

  • Customer Service Excellence

  • Investors in People

  • European Quality Framework Model

  • How good is our culture and sport? – the Public Sector Improvement Framework in Scotland

  • Culture and Sport Impact Outcomes Framework

  • Culture and Sport Improvement Toolkit (CSIT)

  • Vision for Sport in Wales

 

BANDINGS

 

The structure, content and scoring of Quest was made more relevant and up to date with the current challenges facing the sector. Following on from feedback Quest has reviewed the banding system it operates and now offers a “Very Good” Banding as one of the Quest 2016 changes.

 

The bandings are now as follows:

  • Outstanding  - Can only be achieved with a Quest Stretch Assessment

  • Excellent

  • Very Good

  • Good

  • Satisfactory

  • Registered – Can only be achieved with a Quest Entry Assessment

  • Unsatisfactory

 

ASSESSMENT

 

Oxley Sports Centre has just been going through the first year of a 2 year assessment of a QUEST assessment.

 

Out of the 13 areas of the business assessed we achieved 6 goods, 4 very goods and 1 excellent giving us and overall score of GOOD; which is down to the hard work and dedication of all the staff who have worked very hard over the past 9 months to get the Centre up to the rigorous standards of the Quest Assessors.

 

The Centre was assessed on the following 13 areas of the business:

 

  • Health and Safety       (can only achieve a pass or fail score; the Centre passed)

  • Environmental

  • Planning to Improve

  • Team Skills and development

  • Customer experience and insight

  • Cleaning and housekeeping

  • Marketing, Research and Communication

  • Maintenance and Equipment

  • Swim Lessons

  • Swim England Learn to Swim

  • Community Outcomes

  • Engaging with Young People (non-scored)

  • Engaging with Older People

 

Our areas of the business that achieved Very Good:

 

  • Team Skills and Development

  • Cleaning and Housekeeping

  • Marketing, Research and Communication

  • Swimming Lessons

 

 and Excellent were:

 

  • Swim England Learn to Swim

CIMSPA

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The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity

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Launched in 2011, CIMSPA is the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector. CIMSPA has been awarded chartered status by the Privy Council, which came into effect at the start of January 2012. CIMSPA provides leadership, support and empowerment for professionals working in sport and physical activity and a single unified voice for the sector.

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The Institute holds two long term strategic priorities:

  • To provide opportunities for young leaders to develop and succeed

  • To provide leadership on the development and management of career pathways

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The vision statement of the Institute is: “To develop a vibrant, UK wide sport and physical activity sector, led by professionals providing advocacy and leadership and working in partnership with its stakeholders to help ensure the highest standards of service delivery.”

 

Oxley Sports Centre is a CIMSPA Employer Partner. This is Oxley's chance to be a part of creating a sustainable, professional and durable workforce for the leisure sector. CIMSPA is driving the improvement and professionalism of the sport and physical activity sector’s employees, and aligning its work with the government’s employability, skills and productivity ambitions. Throughout this evolution, CIMSPA’s actions are employer-led.

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The UK’s sport, fitness and activity employers represent the “real world” expertise of the knowledge, skills and behaviour required by employees to successfully undertake roles within this sector, and it is this expertise CIMSPA is seeking from employers. As an employer partner the organisation will participate as industry experts, working alongside CIMSPA's awarding organisation and skill development partners to develop the ‘professional standards’ for the sector’s job roles. These professional standards will then become the benchmark for the development of future qualifications, training programmes, apprenticeships etc. ensuring that the sector has an appropriately skilled workforce.

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