new horizons consultants - Case Studies

Income and participation growth

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:43:49 +0100

Client: Belfast City Council

Belfast City Council required a complete review of their pricing structure based around the launch of a leisure card. There pricing configuration was complication based around five membership categories, health & fitness, swimming, tennis, climbing wall and corporate. These memberships then splintered into a further 20 categories with peak/ off peak and cash & monthly, plus each of theses categories had family options. Each category had up to five status levels.

Income had been declining over a four year period. In spite of the fact that Belfast has the highest index of deprivation in the UK with over 38% of the population receiving means tested benefits, low income was not recognised within there charging structure. Over 60s had free use of the facilities during the off peak periods.

The aim was to produce a simple and accessible charging configuration whilst at the same time seeking to maximise the market opportunities to redress the decline in income.

Approach

Consultation was undertaken with all interested parties both as customers or representative national organisations. Part of this audit was an extensive consultation programme involving both individuals and groups.

Outcome

The Boost Leisure Card was launched in April 2006 offering just…

Income and participation growth

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:23:50 +0100

Client: Woking Borough Council

Testimonial

"Woking Borough Council is very pleased with the new Key card which is more than just a leisure card. It currently includes almost 30 partners and more new developments are planned. The simplification of the pricing structure helped receptionists and customers understand the leisure scheme better and also improved business during the poor economic climate. Because some prices were reduced this meant people could increase the number of times they visited the centre. Increases have also been seen in casual swimming as well as attendance of fitness classes. Consultation played a key part in understanding the customer's needs and changing our product offering accordingly".

Riette Thomas, Marketing and Research Officer at Woking Borough Council.

In 2006, Woking Borough Council had two key objectives when reviewing its current charges and associated programmes :

1. To maximize the markets opportunities for the services and therefore raise more income, making the services more cost effective.

2. To increase accessibility from all sections of the community in particular those on low income

New Horizons undertook market research with…

Financial Planning & Modelling

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:56:20 +0100

Client: Isle of Wight Council

Testimonial

New Horizons continue to do great work for our organisation. It’s been a pleasure to work with professionals who are flexible and open to considering a wide spectrum of ideas.New Horizons keep pace on the delivery timetables, keeping us well informed on key milestones, and delivering honest, practical and innovative advice on time. We thank all members of the team for their professionalism.

Sean Newton. Business Performance and Quality Manager. Cultural and Leisure Services

Project: Theatre and performing arts provision review

Clients: Shaftesbury Town Council and Area Community Partnership and North Dorset District Council.

Testimonial:

New Horizons have worked for us on numerous occasions and each time we have been impressed with their profesionalism and hard work. They have been straight talking but freindly, 'not always found together' and the results have always been first class.

Lester Dibben. Shaftesbury Town Councillor and Area Community Partnership Chairman

Project:Community Hub Development in Shaftesbury Feasibility Study

Our commission was to enable the Shaftesbury Town Council and Area Community Partnership to assess the feasibility of a new community hub development in Shaftesbury.

Through consultation we established community, stakeholder and strategic need.

Our research provided background intelligence which helped us assess the current market In the Blackmore Vale for those activities identified during the consultation.

New Horizons continue to do great work for our organisation. It's been a pleasure to work with professionals who are flexible and open to considering a wide spectrum of ideas.New Horizons keep pace on the delivery timetables, keeping us well informed on key milestones, and delivering honest, practical and innovative advice on time. We thank all members of the team for their professionalism.

Sean Newton. Business Performance and Quality Manager. Cultural and Leisure Services

Our commission was to ascertain if the Council's facilities are, in the right place, what residents want and lacking in any significant way.

We began by gaining an understanding the current resident population and future projections and establishing patterns of participation.

Through consultation we established community and stakeholder needs and compared this with the supply of facilities, establishing the fit between service provision and stakeholder priorities.

We undertook condition and lifecycle costing surveys of the current facilities and recommended a fully costed facility rationalisation, redevelopment, refurbishment and new facility plan underpinned by revenue financial…

Strategic Review

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:32:42 +0100

Leisure Provision Review

Client: Hull City Council

Testimonial

I have always been impressed with the professionalism, the enthusiasm and the energy with which New Horizons approach the work they have done for me. It is unusual to find innovation and attention to detail in one organisation, but New Horizons combine these qualities in everything they do. I cannot recommend their service too highly."

Roger Alison. Leisure Manager. Hull City Services

Our commission was to review the operation of the Council's 10 leisure centre business. We used the European Foundation Quality Management framework and Sport England's National Benchmarking Service for our review.

The review recommended significant changes to the management structure, activity programming and pricing and marketing.

Implementation of our recommendations resulted in improved financial, customer and service performance.

Performance Management

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:46:27 +0100

Public Private Partenership and Leisure Management Contractor Procurement

Client: Borough Council of Wellingborough

We have recently completed a project which was managed on behalf of Deloitte; a leisure PPP project for the Borough Council of Wellingborough that included the replacement of an existing sport centre with a new £6M facility.

Acting as interim Head of Leisure our role included the leisure management function of the council's existing centres and the closure of one of them.

We undertook the procurement of a management contractor for the council. We used the negotiated procedure route.

We represented the Council on the design and capital build leisure/contractor team for the new leisure centre providing design and operational advice from the operators and customers view point taking into account the Council's financial, social and service implications /policies.

The project was completed on time and on budget and achieved the Council's objectives of:

transferring the service to the private/trust sector
obtaining the incoming contractors input and advice on the design of the new centre
keeping the old centre operational until the new swimming centre was ready
obtaining capital funding from the tenderers to fit out the new centre and investment in the dry side centre within…

Performance Monitoring

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:30:54 +0100

Towards An Excellent Service Review

Testimonial

An excellent compact project done with insight, experience and sensitivity to stakeholders. New Horizons did exactly what was required and delivered focussed insight so that we can all move forward and improve – we would be delighted to work with them again.

Grace Kempster OBE. Library Service Manager

Client: Northamptonshire County Council

Project: Review of the benefits of sector lead improvement

Our commission was to deliver an independent review of the benefits of sector lead improvement across all local authorities in Northamptonshire.

A unique opportunity was available in Northamptonshire when all authorities decided to work towards a shared self-improvement journey that commenced with a common desire of undertaking the Towards an Excellent service (TAES) journey over a similar period.

This collective approach to self-improvement was one facet of the first sector led approach designed to address and support a corporately failing local authority (Northampton Borough Council), one of the authorities in the wider Northamptonshire partnership.

The approach with the Borough Council was the first of its kind to ascertain if a sector could drive its own improvement.

The review received support from the Government Office for East Midlands, Regional Cultural Agencies, and Cultural Improvement…