The Head of Community Services has submitted a report which presents the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy 2015-2020 that has been updated to reflect responses from public consultation.

Officer Recommendations: That the City Executive Board resolves to:

1.    Approve the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy, 2015-2020.

The Head of Community Services submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which presented the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy 2015-2020 that had been updated to reflect responses from public consultation.

Cllr Rowley, Executive Board Member for Leisure, Parks and Sports presented the report and tabled the City Executive Board responses to the Scrutiny Committee recommendations (appended).

Cllr Simmons, Chair of Scrutiny Committee, said that the Scrutiny Committee had concluded that the overall leisure offer in the City was very good and he was pleased to note that the recommendations had been accepted in whole or in part.

The Head of Community Services undertook to provide the Board with an update on progress in developing and improving the leisure elements of the Council’s social media apps.

In discussion the Board noted that although the Council did not provide any specific leisure activities for disabled residents on the autistic spectrum, the “low impact” activities such as pilates and outdoor activities were regarded as being suitable.  These were complemented by activities provided by organisations like the Pegasus Theatre and the South Oxfordshire Adventure Playground.  The Head of Community Services said that this was a matter that could be kept under review.  The Board was pleased to note the important role of volunteers in providing the City’s leisure service.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Approve the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy, 2015-2020.

The Scrutiny Officer has submitted a report which details comments from the Scrutiny Committee on the Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy 2016-2020 report.

Recommendation of the Scrutiny Committee to the City Executive Board:

That the City Executive Board states whether it agrees or disagrees with the following recommendations:

1.    That the City Council looks into extending the functionality of its mobile apps to enable leisure bookings.

2.    That the City Council’s Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy includes a greater emphasis on strengthening integration between leisure centres and the broader leisure offer, including community centres.

3.    That the City Council continues to monitor the accessibility of leisure provision across Oxford, including in those parts of the city that have no swimming pools within a 20 walk, such as Littlemore and Cowley, and how this relates to leisure target groups (the Committee noted that corporate performance measure LP106: To increase participation at our leisure centres by target groups was below target for 2015/16 quarter 1).

This report (previously circulated, now appended) was considered as part of the discussion of agenda item 7: Adoption of the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy 2015-2020 (minute 70).

Contact Officer: Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services,

Tel:  01865 252705  e-mail:  ibrooke@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Community Services presented the Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy, 2015 – 2020, explaining that this replaced the previous Leisure Strategy.  As the draft Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy had previously gone to the City Executive Board at the pre-consultation stage the Committee focused the majority of its discussion on how the City Council had responded to feedback received in the consultation.

A member of the public addressed the Committee on this agenda item, expressing concerns about the consultation methodology, the response level and the lack of leisure provision in some areas of the city.

The Head of Community Services said that the Council had invested in facilities and that leisure centre usage had increased, especially amongst target groups.  The Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy used Sport England models which showed that the city as a whole was well served for leisure provision.  The Committee heard that the new Leys pool was performing very well in terms of visitor numbers, some of whom were travelling in to the city. 

In response to a question about black and minority ethnic participation, the Head of Community Services said the consultation had also included meetings with representatives of community groups, public health, the County Sports Partnership, teachers and focus sessions with target groups.  The Board Member assured the Committee that taken together, the consultation data gathered provided a robust view. 

The Committee noted that it was not possible to say whether the increase in participation levels at Council facilities was at the expense of private leisure centre usage because the private companies did not publish such commercially sensitive information.

The Head of Community Services said that one consistent message received in the consultation responses was that the Council could be better at communicating the leisure service offering.  He said that the Council was working on different initiatives to achieve this and cited the new Bungee mobile app for young people as an example of the Council working with local schools to improve communication within a target group.  The Committee questioned whether this could be extended so that service users could use Council apps to book classes or crèches at leisure facilities.  The Head of Community Services said that this was not currently possible but was something that the Council hoped to deliver in the future.  It was suggested that Fusion Lifestyle should be encouraged to develop its own app to enable leisure bookings.

The Committee also suggested that the strategy should include more emphasis on integrating leisure facilities with the city’s broader leisure offer, which included anywhere that sport and physical activity could take place, such as community centres and community buildings such as schools, churches and village halls.

The Committee also asked questions about cycling, whether the targets for increasing leisure centre usage were viable and the financial cost of delivering the strategy.  The Board Member said that providing an overall figure would be misleading, as some money had been budgeted for and other figures would be conjecture.

The Committee requested an update on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27

The Head of Head of Leisure, Parks & Communities has submitted a report which details the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.

Officer Recommendations: That the City Executive Board approve the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.  

The Head of Leisure, Parks & Communities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.

Cllr Mike Rowley, Board member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants presented the report. He explained it wasn’t easy to continue to improve the leisure services in the current economic climate. However the aim was to make the service financially viable which was likely by 2017.

Nearly a fifth of Oxford residents are clinically overweight and the strategy focuses on tackling these health inequalities.

Cllr Lygo thanked Ian Brooke and the leisure officers and volunteers for their hard work.

The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities outlined the improvements in the City’s leisure facilities since the last strategy in 2009. These include spending £30M in improving leisure facilities and increasing participation from 20 to 29 % since 2009.

Cllr Price asked about the makeup of the members on the City’s Leisure Partnership Board and whether it included representatives from minority groups. The Executive Director of Community Services said that the Leisure Partnership Board had been rejuvenated 3 times to make it more interactive and encourage a mix of people onto it; it included a young person representative but did not yet have anyone from the BME community.

Cllr Price said the Council needed to get more BME people involved and embed this need in the strategy.

The Leisure Strategy will be consulted on for 8 weeks and will return to the Board for adoption in July 2015.

The City Executive Board resolved to approve the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.