The opportunity is clear.
The challenge is creating the conditions for operators to play a broader role in delivering local outcomes.
Councils are increasingly focusing on local priorities to improve population health, tackle inequalities and increase physical activity.
This requires a broader range of organisations to contribute to shared health and wellbeing objectives.
However, one potential partner is often overlooked or given a bit-part role.
Traditional leisure operators, including multi-site national operators, local trusts and LATCOs, could contribute far more than the management of leisure facilities. With the right support and direction, they can play a significant role in improving health, wellbeing and community outcomes.
Realising this potential requires more than asking operators to do more within existing contracts. Councils need to create the right conditions through clear priorities, sustainable investment and effective partnerships.
We see two key foundations to unlock this potential:
Before expecting operators to play a wider role, councils need to establish two important foundations:
- A clear vision for how physical activity will support local health and wellbeing priorities
Councils need a clear, evidence-based strategy that sets out how physical activity will contribute to improved health, wellbeing and community outcomes.
- A sustainable approach to leisure facilities and community infrastructure
Councils need a clear, long-term approach to managing and investing in the facilities and infrastructure that enable those outcomes to be achieved.
With these foundations in place, councils can create the conditions for operators to become genuine place-based partners through:
- Flexible partnership models rather than transactional contracts
- Sustainable investment in community-based delivery / outreach
- Integration within the wider local system.
Note: The term leisure operator can imply a narrow focus on facility management and service delivery. Throughout this article, we use the term operator partner to reflect the wider role these organisations can play in supporting local priorities and contributing to outcomes across the wider system.
Why operator partners are not invited to place-based partnerships
The transition to a place-based approach often happens within challenging financial parameters. Operator partners are frequently asked to deliver more for less.
Operator partners are equipped to run a facility with physical activity on referral programmes, seated exercise classes and walking football sessions. More progressive ones are even broadening their offer with more preventative, health-focused services. Examples include MSK hubs, falls prevention programmes, and cancer rehabilitation and pre-habilitation services.
These programmes can be delivered through existing capabilities and resources within the safe four walls of the facility.
However, being a place-based partner goes way beyond operating a facility in a community. It involves working collaboratively and supporting wider local priorities, rather than simply delivering a single service in isolation.
This adaptation requires additional interconnected resources to develop the partnerships, capacity and coordination required to deliver meaningful impact. These elements were often not accounted for within the original contract specification, particularly within older more traditional leisure contracts.
Other challenges that operator partners face:
Flexibility to meet local needs – large operators frequently centralise support functions and implement standardised approaches to areas such as marketing, product development and customer engagement. The needs of a community may not fit neatly into these centralised operating back-office models.
Workforce capacity and capability – the workforce required to meaningly engage within the wider system doesn’t currently exist within the traditional leisure centre staff structure. More progressive community-based roles are a good starting point, but they require organisational and delivery support to be impactful.
Serving local priorities – Operator partners have organisation-wide targets and strategies that may not fully align with local priorities. For example, an operator partner may typically prioritise membership growth and utilisation across its portfolio. The local priorities, however, could be reducing health inequalities, increasing physical activity among inactive residents or improving outcomes in specific communities. Balancing these competing priorities can be challenging, but not insurmountable.
Building relationships beyond the leisure centre
SLC recently consulted a Locality Manager, responsible for coordinating services, partnerships and community-based initiatives within a locality, who emphasised that successful community engagement relies on more than high-quality facilities. They highlighted the importance of the “human element”. Some residents find the most modern and well-equipped leisure centres intimidating.
This illustrates the challenge facing many operator partners. Place-based working requires investment in relationships, trust and community engagement. Yet contracts and performance measures frequently place greater emphasis on financial, operational and utilisation targets.
More progressive contracts are giving operator partners the freedom to be creative and demonstrate their capability to do more than manage gyms and pools. Securing a seat at the table is no longer the main challenge. Operator partners must earn the confidence of health partners. They also need to demonstrate a meaningful contribution to shared health and wellbeing outcomes.
How operator partners are responding
Many operator partners are making steady progress in the shift towards active wellbeing and the focus on place-based partnerships. SLC has played an enabling role alongside progressive local authority clients to accelerate this transition, particularly in the last three years.
Delivering and enabling activity beyond core facilities in community settings, parks and open spaces is now increasingly commonplace for operator partners. The requirement to deliver Active Communities programmes has featured in all recent contract procurements supported by SLC. This reflects the growing role operator partners play in supporting wider active wellbeing outcomes and locality-based delivery and enablement.
We are increasingly seeing commitment at the top of many operator partner organisations, although not all. Many are developing company-wide strategies focused on broader health and wellbeing and recruiting senior staff to provide strategic direction.
Building creditability beyond leisure
The challenge now is having the leadership, flexibility and organisational capability at the contract / centre-level needed to deliver on this ambition.
However, operator partners alone cannot deliver this ambition alone. It requires a shared commitment from councils, health partners, Active Partnerships, Sport England and other stakeholders. Operator partners can provide delivery expertise, workforce and community reach, but they are rarely able to influence the wider system conditions needed to sustain long-term change.
Workforce capability remains a particular challenge. Whilst leadership commitment is growing, there is currently no widely adopted continuing professional development (CPD) framework that equips leisure / active wellbeing professionals with the skills required for:
- Partnership building
- Community engagement
- System leadership
- Place-based working.
As a result, much of this capability is being developed through experience rather than through a structured pathway.
The emerging place-based training and development offer across the sector is a positive step. However, there remains a risk that the contribution of operator partners is viewed primarily through a physical activity lens. Instead it should recognise the full value of leisure facilities, infrastructure, workforce and community assets. Greater recognition of these assets, alongside sustainable funding and commissioning models, will be needed if operator partners are to play a more central role in supporting local priorities.
Creating these conditions is equally important. The most successful examples share several common features. These include a clear vision, supportive contract arrangements and strong partnership working. They are also backed by investment in community-based delivery beyond the leisure centre itself. Without these conditions, operator partner ambition can be constrained by the day-to-day demands of facility management and contract performance.
Creating sustainable investment for place-based partnerships
Councils need to provide long-term funding if they want operator partners to contribute more to local priorities.
This provides a sustainable long-term foundation and could in some cases provide less dependency in the medium to long term on external funding. A key example is the Sport England’s Place Expansion Programme which is due to end in 2028.
Through an effective leisure and active wellbeing procurement exercise, Councils can create the conditions for investment in their facilities. This investment can improve the commercial offer, increase capacity and enable a wider range of services to be delivered. The procurement process can also be used to test different approaches through variant bids.
Chichester District Council, with SLC’s support, gained approval for a business case of nearly £8m of Council investment. During the procurement process they tested options for investment levels and contract length to shape the final tender.
SLC supported procurements have demonstrated that Councils can improve their management fee position on average by around £1 million per year.
This can create the funding for an enhanced and ringfenced place-based budget for the length of the partnership, supporting staffing, equipment and outreach.
Reinvesting efficiencies in local priorities
For Councils that are enabled (following further decisions from national government) to progress through Local Government Reorganisation, there may be opportunities to strengthen this approach. Larger authorities could benefit from economies of scale, greater purchasing power and more streamlined service delivery arrangements. Over time, some of these efficiencies could be reinvested through leisure and active wellbeing contracts to support local priorities. This would create additional capacity for Active Communities delivery and strategic partnership working across wider geographical areas.
This budget is ’locked in’ to the contract ensuring the capacity of the operator partner to invest in and proactively engage in place-based partnerships.
However, delivery of this aspect of the contract needs to be tightly monitored and supported by the client function. Failure to do so can lead to a diminution of delivery compared to the intent of any tender proposal.
Procuring a leisure operator as a place partner
Laying the foundations in the contract services specification determines the role an operator partner plays within and alongside the community and the wider system.
SLC is currently working with a significant number of Councils on innovative contract specifications that set out the requirements for three key elements: inclusive facility operations, Active Communities programme and strategic place leadership.
The process assesses bidders on more than their ability to operate leisure / active wellbeing facilities and deliver activities in community settings. As demonstrated through SLC’s procurement support for Tameside, it can also incorporate a system leadership role, strengthening the operator partner’s position as a key partner within the wider system. This includes:
- Supporting alignment with wider system priorities and opportunities
- Providing strategic advice and insight to the Council and partners
- Facilitating joined-up working across sectors.
This approach is particularly beneficial for Councils with ‘thin’ client teams, though the extent of the role can vary depending on local circumstances.
Councils must clearly define the outcomes they want the service to deliver, and for whom. Using data and insight from the community and key stakeholders should formulate the strategic objectives and KPIs that the operator partner is contractually obliged to deliver.
If it is a priority to have a physical activity on referral scheme, carbon efficient systems or a comprehensive concessionary scheme – they are included in the specification. The role that an operator partner plays in the wider system, and their commitment to place-based partnerships, should be treated no differently.
Maximising potential in existing partnerships
Reviewing and enhancing the relationship between Council and operator partner may enable existing contracts to better support place-based active wellbeing.
Many contracts currently in delivery do not fully account for community-based active wellbeing initiatives or system-wide collaboration. As a result, operator partners may not always have the capacity, remit or resources to fully engage in place-based priorities and partnerships, despite a willingness to do so.
Rather than waiting for a current partnership to come to an end, Councils can take the opportunity to evolve the relationship, objectives and measures of success within the existing contract.
SLC is currently supporting an established partnership to create the conditions through:
- A new active wellbeing strategy
- The use of the Agency Model
- A refresh of a services specification
- An asset management strategy.
This will further accelerate the pivot of the service towards a broader preventative and community-focused role.
SLC is also supporting a City and its operator partner explore the ‘art of the possible’ in an innovative pilot supported by Sport England. This project revisits the services specification and focus of the approach to place-based working.
Preparing for future change
This is particularly relevant for authorities preparing for Local Government Reorganisation. As councils review services and priorities, LGR creates an opportunity to rethink the role of leisure and active wellbeing contracts in supporting local priorities and partnerships.
Other opportune moments include contract extensions, strategic planning exercises (e.g., in advance of contractual breaks) or wider service reviews. However, Councils do not need to wait for these milestones. A contract ‘health check’, at any point, can provide a practical roadmap for strengthening place-based integration in an existing partnership.
In many cases, meaningful change can be achieved during the lifetime of the contract.
Assuming there is no material change to the contract, and the proposed financial impacts are affordable; the following opportunities can be explored:
- Utilising funds unlocked through adopting the agency model to subsidise and develop areas of the contract (subject to specialist legal and tax advice)
- Leveraging external funding from bodies such as Sport England to explore, identify and amplify place-based partnerships
- Developing the services specification and associated performance management framework to be more focused on active wellbeing services.
How we can help you
Operator partners have the potential to be far more than facility managers. With the right strategic approach, contract design, investment approach and partnership arrangements, they can become influential place-based partners. This will enable collaboratively tackling inactivity, reducing inequalities and improving health outcomes.
Whether you are approaching procurement, reviewing an existing contract or considering how evolving local priorities may affect future service delivery, there is an opportunity to strengthen the contribution your operator partner makes to the wider system.
SLC works with Councils across the UK to develop active wellbeing strategies, procurement strategies, contract specifications, operating models and partnership frameworks that maximise community impact and create sustainable foundations for long-term delivery.
To discuss how your leisure and active wellbeing partnership could better support local outcomes, contact Kate at kate@slc.uk.com. As the author of this article, Kate combines consultancy experience with first-hand experience working for an operator partner. This gives her insight into both the council and operator perspectives.