Euch. Exclamation marks. I hate them. I’ve used two in my title in a vain attempt to add real emphasis. You’ll have to tell me whether it has worked.
I’ve now pretty much got to the end of my work on investigating leisure trusts. There might be a few bits and pieces to tidy up (and I need to explain about TUPE, pretty soon) but now it’s time to assess everything, write a quick ‘reflection’ on my work and then move to Brighton, where I’ll be working from next week.
But I don’t really want to stop things here. I still don’t know what Birmingham is going to do with its leisure centres and we’re facing an unprecedented time in the development of public services at the moment.
If you add up the deficit, the tax cuts, unemployment, the Big Society, the Comprehensive Spending Review, a new ‘localism’ bill in the offing and the end of the Audit Commission, this is a rare time indeed. It’s going to be challenge and an opportunity – for the kind of work I’ve been doing here.
I’ve really enjoyed looking at a very specific issue and trying to tackle a series of questions related to that. I’ve got lots of people to thank – too numerous to do in this post (but I’ll do it soon) – but now it’s time to set a challenge.
Find out if your local authority is using a trust
This map shows the local authorities that I’ve identified have a leisure trust. The spreadsheet beneath has the names of every local authority in the country and, next to it, the name of the leisure trust or similar organisation that it is working with. If you’re interested in this you should be able to look through the list and find your authority. If not, or the info is wrong, tell me on the blog or email brightwellandrew[at]gmail.com. You can also look at Open Charities and OpenlyLocal for information about your authority and who it is working with – this may be the best route in the future!
Here’s the data in spreadsheet form. This was compiled from using the members’ directory at the Sporta website and combining with council information from OpenlyLocal.
Ask a few questions of the local authority
Have a look at the questions that I’ve asked here and here to see what you can find out about the authority. Good sources of information are here.
Ask a few questions of the trust
Some trusts will be more forthcoming with information than others and it’s definitely worth trying to find out what the trust says about its own role and its responsibilities.
Join the battle to make more information available
Trusts are private firms or co-operatives that run public services. They can, at the moment, do this without being subject to the Freedom of Information Act – which councils (if they run their own services) have to adhere to. You can put pressure for this to change by doing a number of things.
- Vote for my question to Eric Pickles on Yoosk;
- Help support Tom Brake’s 10-minute bill in Parliament;
- Write to your MP and help to make sure this issue is dealt with by our politicians.