Edition number 65; dateline 2 October 2012
Now recruiting: Leading Learning Programme enters fifth year with special offer
The Leading Learning Programme has opened the application season for its fifth year with a £500 discount to participants joining the programme before 7 November. Sponsored by the National Leisure and Culture Forum, the Leading Learning Programme is the only year-long leadership development programme specifically tailored to the needs of management across the leisure and culture sector. Originally designed for senior managers working across the range of culture, heritage, leisure and sport in local authorities, the programme has also proved challenging and highly beneficial to participants from leisure and culture trusts, independent museums, arts organisations and sporting bodies. Announcing the opening of the application process, programme director Sue Isherwood encouraged managers working within leisure and culture to seize the opportunity to develop their skills and their careers. “More than 80 people have now experienced the programme and their feedback reflects the benefits of the programme’s balance of the practical and the inspirational,” she said. “If you want to survive and thrive in the current difficult financial and ideological climate, if you want to build the resilience of your team, if you want to challenge yourself and forward your career, if you want to be on the front foot rather than the back, then this is the programme for you.”
• Full details of the application process, including application forms, are available on the ‘about the programme’ page of the Leading Learning Programme website but if you would like to discuss any aspects of the Leading Learning Programme with the programme director, please contact Sue Isherwood at leadership@cloa.org.uk or on 01749 871110 or 07919 540803.
Research confirms traditional pool practices
A survey of adult pool users has revealed that several of the hardy annuals of pool management are alive and well. The survey of 2,000 swimmers conducted on behalf of the Swimming Teachers’ Association (STA) revealed that 27% of women and 18% of men do not take a pre-swim shower. Adding to the pool manager’s woes, one in four admitted to urinating in a public swimming pool and one in ten confessed they had done it deliberately; men aged 18-34 years were cited as the worst culprits. One in five also said that they would see no problem swimming within 48 hours of suffering a stomach upset. Robbie Phillips, the STA’s pool plant expert, explained the dilemma: “Operators and managers may know that it is recommended that anyone who has had diarrhoea should stay away from the pool for at least 48 hours after the last diarrhoea incident to ensure the infection is out of their system, but we should not expect swimmers to know that. It is therefore essential to provide adequate signage and advice at the entrance point. The fact that so many people are prepared to return to the water within 48 hours and that so many are avoiding showers before they get into the water shows there is an urgent need to educate users.”
New business development manager in post for Alliance
James Foley has joined Alliance Leisure as business development manager, leading facility development across the north of England, Scotland and Ireland. His new role involves working closely with local authorities, leisure trusts and educational establishments looking at facility improvement and meeting the “changing needs of the leisure industry”. Foley has previously worked as Operations Manager responsible for a large trust portfolio and has worked for a variety of local authority trusts, including Manchester City Council, Warrington Livewire Trust, Durham County Council and Link4Life, which is part of the Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust.
“Legacy goldmine” now online
Lessons learned from London 2012 have been placed online and, in an apparent effort to make them more accessible, given a brand new URL from the start of next month. Leisure management professionals who might find themselves slightly confused by this should fear not as there is likely to be little for them at either site, given that the concept of legacy is applicable here only to London 2012 as a construction project. Peer-reviewed case studies, “micro reports”, research summaries and “champion products” are all arranged under a variety of headings, a list comprising: design and engineering innovation; equality, inclusion, employment and skills; health and safety; masterplanning and town planning; procurement and supply chain management; programme organisation and project management; sustainability; systems and technology; transport; archaeology. If you are still interested you can find it, for the moment, at http://learninglegacy.london2012.com/
British Swimming takes London legacy to the Gulf
British Swimming, the conglomerate of British home nation swimming national governing bodies, has announced a partnership with the Jordan Swimming Association that will take learn to swim programmes and swim teacher training to Jordan and neighbouring countries over the next five years. Objectives include teaching 250,000 children to swim in Jordan and training 100 women as swimming teachers, along with the establishment of a sustainable, quality-assured swim teaching programme. The programme is the result of a UK Sport partnership with The British Council Jordan through the London 2012 legacy programme, International Inspiration and will, according to British Swimming, create “an opportunity for Jordan to build their own legacy from the London Games”. Spencer Moore, head of innovation and development for British Swimming, commented: “The benefits of a programme of this nature are unprecedented in the Arabic peninsula. With greater opportunities for children to participate in aquatic sport and strategic training of teachers, especially women, this programme will help shape a more diverse and efficient swimming pathway.”
Social media helps change Herts’ health strategy
Due in no real part to
The Leisure Review and mainly because their county sports partnership took to Twitter and like outlets, the people of Hertfordshire seem set to have a public health strategy which reflects the importance of physical activity as a factor in reducing illness and improving wellbeing. Readers will recall that the good people of Hatfield and environs got exercised by a Health and Wellbeing board draft document which set out eight priorities, none of which were an increase in physical activity and, led by Herts Sport director Christine Neyndorff, responded to the consultation in their thousands, 2,747 to be precise. The draft policy is now being revised.
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