On the 18th March, leisure facilities in Nottingham closed their doors. This left large numbers of staff in Nottingham unable to continue in their roles as pool attendants and gym instructors. It also meant that thousands of members could not visit services which were longer available and that buildings were suddenly empty.
Nottingham leisure services responded to the crisis of COVID-19 and the challenges brought on by lockdown in a variety of ways: re-purposing Harvey Hadden Sport Village as a distribution depot, operating a customer contact centre, redeploying staff to critical frontline services and providing a digital fitness offer - and all while planning to reopen safely for the public.
The challenge
On the 18th March, leisure facilities in Nottingham closed their doors. This left large numbers of staff in Nottingham unable to continue in their roles as pool attendants and gym instructors. It also meant that thousands of members could not visit services which were longer available and that buildings were suddenly empty.
The solution
Nottingham leisure services responded in five ways.
- Repurposed, managed and operated Harvey Hadden Sport Village as a food and PPE distribution depot, 7-days a week.
- Operated Nottingham Tennis Centre as a Customer Contact Centre to manage call handling for the Shielding programme, 7-days a week
- Redeployed staff to critical frontline council services including Adult Social Care and to support Mobilising Civic Society work-streams
- Pivoted existing fitness offer to provide digital at home solutions
- Prepared the service for a phased restart from Monday 27th July 2020
Alongside this, the remaining team of more than 200 staff were furloughed, with the exception of a small management and operational team who serviced and maintained all eight sites and prepared for reopening.
Staff had to adapt to a very different way of working rapidly. It was vital that they felt supported and safe in their new work as they were effectively offering a fourth line of emergency service and often had to handle new work practises and manage sensitive and emotional calls. Nottingham City Council supported staff through regular communications systems and their employee wellbeing and resilience offer.
The impact
The community hub responded to the needs of residents across Nottingham during lockdown. Through the hub:
- 1.9 million items of PPE were distributed
- More than 2,000 free emergency food parcels were delivered
- 12,000 people who were shielding were called to check they were OK
- Safe and well checks for more than 2,400 people who couldn’t be reached by phone.
- 12,000 residents accessed home workout support for free
How is the new approach being sustained?
Furloughed staff have been returning to work within the leisure centres as part of a phased restart. The Customer Contact Centre was handed over to a council central service. There is less demand for the PPE and food distribution and it can operate efficiently without leisure staff. However, should another lockdown occur the team are prepared to respond quickly and take on the roles required to ensure vital community services reach Nottingham’s most vulnerable residents.
The leisure services which are run in-house will continue to operate as part of the council’s core offer. The change in the fitness service delivery will lead to more choice for members with a mix of digital and in person offers.
Lessons learned:
Key lessons for the leisure service have been:
- The importance of collaborative working between departments to mobilise quickly and work in a very different way without traditional council hierarchy.
- The need to adapt and respond quickly to community needs.
- How valuable it was to be within the council structure
- The need to ensure there is support for staff throughout the process
The need to continue a mixed / blended fitness offer of online and in-person activities