Agenda item

Verbal Update.

Mark Stevens, Assistant Director for Direct Services tabled a presentation to the Panel on Leisure Centre Service Provision Issues at Tottenham Green and Park Road. The presentation is set out in the tabled papers pack at pages 1-10.  The following arose in discussion of this agenda item:

1. The Panel sought assurances around whether there were any monetary address or other resources going into providing additional transport to help service users access other facilities. Officers advised that there was nothing in place to that effect. Officers set out that they still couldn’t say definitively where the water was coming from and so they didn’t know who to claim against. The Panel was advised that there was no provision within the Fusion contract for Fusion to provide transport services.
2. The Chair queried why Fusion did not have contingency plans in place for similar eventualities. Officers advised that Fusion were contracted to provide Leisure facilities at Park Road and Tottenham Green and that they were not contracted to provide services out of borough or to provide transport to alternative facilities.
3. The Chair commented that the confidence levels within the community, that Fusion would do what they said they would, were very low at this point.
4. In response to a question around contract monitoring, officers advised that they had stepped up the level of contract monitoring and that the Assistant Director was directly involved with monitoring Park Road. Officers advised that whilst sites had been closed, staff were being used to bring both facilities up to scratch in terms of their look and overall condition.
5. In response to a question around engaging with stakeholders, officers advised that the Lido User group had been in place for some time and that their concerns were about a perceived lack of proper engagement from Fusion. This engagement had picked up in response to the work being done by the Council.
6. In relation to staffing issues, officers acknowledged that there were insufficient staffing resources to cover both sites and then when both pools opened this would likely become an issue. Officers advised that they would be pushing Fusion to resolve their resourcing issues to ensure that both sites were staffed properly.
7. The Panel enquired about the impact of leisure facilities bring closed on health providers, given their use of such facilities for social prescribing schemes. Officers agreed to come back with a written response to this question. (Action: Mark Stevens).
8. The Panel queried whether officers were looking to make use of the £63m fund announced by the government during the budget for swimming pools. In response officers advised that part of this was in relation to energy costs, which did not impact Fusion particularly as they had a fixed price energy contract in place until November. Officers advised that they would be looking into whether they could claim for funding for energy costs after November, as well as maintenance costs, going forwards.
9. The Panel enquired whether officers had been in conversation with colleagues in Enfield who had experienced similar problems with Fusion. Officers responded that they had been in contact with officers in Enfield and that they were looking at how they could tackle these issues together. It was noted that Fusion had undergone a significant number of staffing changes at senior level in the last year or so, including the Chief Executive and the area manager for Haringey.
10. In response to a further question, officers advised that they were confident that they had the resources in place to address the issues with Fusion. 

RESOLVED

Noted.