Jane Parish, Chief Executive of Sencio Community Leisure, attending to answer questions

Jane Parish, the Chief Executive and Sarah McDonnell, the Marketing Manager of Sencio Community Leisure gave a presentation on the performance of the organisation. This included the income and expenditure of the trust, its strategic direction and the challenges it faced. The Chief Executive added that the intended aim of the trust when established had been to achieve savings of £1.3million over 10 years, whereas savings of £3.7million had been achieved. Its mission and values were decided by their own staff through the staff forum. Reductions in staff expenditure came from natural wastage rather than redundancies. The Marketing Manager emphasised that Sencio had changed its logo to achieve a strong brand in the competitive marketplace. The website was being redeveloped, designed specifically for mobile and tablet users, and would also have an interactive content feed which would be tailored to individual users and to prioritise the content which was most popular. The representatives of Sencio then responded to Members’ questions.

The representatives were asked which facilities were profitable. The Chief Executive stated that no centre was losing money. The accounts were set up so that central overheads were deducted from overall income and not apportioned between centres.

The Vice Chairman noted that some private sector providers offered membership at £16 per month, compared to the £38.50 for Sencio. He noted that Sencio was also in its buildings rent free, asset maintenance was paid by the Council and Sencio received a management fee of £80,000 per year. The Chief Executive advised that the cheaper private providers did not provide swimming pools, which were expensive both in the plant and staffing costs as local authorities required lifeguards at pools where private providers did not. Although Sencio could continue without the management fee it would be extremely difficult and there would be implications from any cuts made.

The Chief Executive was asked about the targets set for Sencio’s budget. The business plan was set at the beginning of the year then targets were set for each area. Each line of the budget was looked at. The principal target aimed for was to achieve reserves of 10%, which had not been possible in previous years.

A Member enquired as to what staff incentives were in place. There was an impact award scheme for those staff who received positive customer comments or made savings for Sencio. Small vouchers were recently given out to incentivise use of the customer standards, which had been very popular among staff.

In response to other questions the Chief Executive confirmed that the White Oak Leisure Centre was Sencio’s event centre due to its size and a temporary bar had proven useful for temporary events. Triathalons were very popular at both White Oak and Sevenoaks. Sencio was looking for the right time to submit an application for an outdoor gymnasium at Edenbridge.  Sencio had a number of ageing buildings and, if modelled today there would be insufficient demand for a leisure centre at Edenbridge due to its size, however there was a significant community feeling at that centre. It would be possible for Sevenoaks Leisure Centre to improve its income with sufficient investment.

The Chairman thanked the representatives for attending.