Quest announces exciting changes to support new government strategy
Quest, the sport and leisure industry’s leading quality scheme, has announced a raft of changes aimed at making it even stronger and more relevant, in line with both government and Sport England thinking.
The changes, unveiled at the annual Quest & NBS Conference in Loughborough on 10 February, will be rolled out this autumn and are designed to support Sport England as it works towards the goals of the government’s new strategy on sport.
Caroline Constantine, Quest’s operations director, said: “Quest needs to adapt to changing landscape of the industry and the increasing diversity of facilities and teams participating in the scheme, who will now be challenged even further in order to pass the assessment.”
Key changes include:
• The Quest Facility Management and Quest Sports Development categories are to be rebranded. While the name for Quest Facility Management is only changing marginally to Quest for Facilities, Quest Sports Development will become Quest for Active Communities, to reflect the government and Sport England’s increased emphasis on community and health outcomes.
Paul Brivio, Quest’s sports development manager, said: “We’re not abandoning the concept of Sports Development – we’re going to embed it in Active Communities. We need to update our guidance for the old Sports Development modules, particularly for those that now apply to Facility Management.”
• A newly appointed head of community and wellbeing, Matt Charles, will work to help centres and teams achieve strong community and health outcomes. “We need to put equity and access issues firmly on the agenda, and we need to work closely with the health sector to make sure the guidance we give is fit for purpose,” said Brivio.
• Centres will no longer be able to pick only ‘safe’ modules on day two of Quest Plus. In the 2014/2015 cycle, Health and Safety and Swimming Lessons were the most popular options, chosen by 46 per cent and 29 per cent of operators respectively, while NBS was chosen by just 1 per cent (see ‘Quest of the Nation’ infographic).
• The Directional Review – the one-day assessment in year two which completes the Quest Plus cycle for facilities – will now be unannounced. The centre will only be given a window, not a specific day, when the assessor will be arriving.
• Also new to the Directional Review will be a compulsory NBS Efficiency Survey. “NBS is extremely important for Sport England and the industry to gather data, so we can see where we’re going in terms of effectiveness,” said Constantine. “It’s absolutely fundamental to measure performance.”
• Mystery visits will receive heavier weighting in order to ensure the customer experience is central to passing the assessment.
• A ‘Very Good’ banding is being introduced between ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ in response to popular demand.
• Quest’s toughest assessment, Stretch – which awards ‘Outstanding’ status to centres that have already achieved ‘Excellent’ in Quest Plus – is getting tougher, with assessments now taking place every year as opposed to every other year.
To better support facilities and teams as they go through the process, Quest and NBS will be launching a new and improved website later this year, offering access to online benchmarking and reports.
Further to this, the Quest team will continue to work with external partners. Brivio said: “We want to build on our existing and new partnerships with organisations from the County Sports Partnership Networks to the Premier League, Football League Trust and Sport4Development. The valuable learning these partnerships provide will help us improve the guidance we give to everyone who is Quest-registered.”
For further information contact:
Rhianon Howells at Big Fish Public Relations
Tel: 01727 834629
Mob: 07967 551142
Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Editor’s notes:
Quest is the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure. Managed by Right Directions in partnership with Leisure-net Solutions, it is a tool for continuous improvement, designed primarily for the management of leisure facilities and leisure development. Quest defines industry standards and good practice, and encourages their ongoing development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework.
The National Benchmarking Service (NBS) provides critical data on the performance of your leisure facility. Leisure-net Solutions, in partnership with Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, works on behalf of Sport England to provide a seamless, rigorous and valuable collection and analysis of participation, financial and customer satisfaction data. For more information, visit www.questnbs.org
Quest and NBS continue to head in right direction
The management team behind Quest, the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure, and the National Benchmarking Service (NBS) has had its contract renewed for another three years, Sport England has confirmed.
Right Directions, in partnership with Leisure-net Solutions, was first appointed to manage Quest and NBS on behalf of Sport England in September 2010.
Both an accreditation and a tool for continuous improvement, Quest defines industry standards and good practice in the sport and leisure sector, and encourages their ongoing development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework. NBS enables sport and leisure facilities to benchmark their performance against comparable sites nationwide.
Andy Couves, Sport England’s programme lead, said: “We are pleased to announce that Quest and NBS will remain in the safe hands of Right Directions and its partner, Leisure-net Solutions. In the continuing climate of austerity, it is more important than ever that we help local sport and leisure providers to demonstrate their value – in terms of both commercial returns and social outcomes – while also supporting their continuous improvement. Quest and NBS meet both these aims, and under Right Directions’ proven leadership we are confident they will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Steven Ward, executive director at trade body ukactive, said: “We welcome Right Directions, in partnership with Leisure-net Solutions, retaining the right to continue their development of Quest and NBS. ukactive has embedded its own Code of Practice for facilities within Quest and believes that the scheme has a crucial role to play in raising standards. It’s clear that since taking the helm five years ago Right Directions and Leisure-net have made significant improvements and we look forward to seeing their continued development in the years ahead.”
Tara Dillon, CEO of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA), said: “CIMSPA has enjoyed a unique corporate partnership with Right Directions since April 2014, so we’re delighted to hear that they, together with Leisure-net Solutions, have had their contact for Quest and NBS renewed. We look forward to continuing to work with them to share best practice in the industry – starting with the first joint Quest NBS and CIMSPA Conference in Loughborough next February.”
Caroline Constantine, director of Right Directions, said: “We are thrilled to be able to continue the important work we have started with Quest and NBS. We at Right Directions believe that Quest has come a long way since the initial rollercoaster ride in 2010. The team has been so committed to the scheme and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved. Our priority now is to prepare lots of exciting changes, which will be launched at the conference. Watch this space!”
Mike Hill, director of Leisure-net Solutions, said: “We are extremely proud to be part of the winning team for the Quest and NBS contract once again. Our focus will be on the further integration of the two services, making them even more relevant and invaluable to the active leisure sector.”
The two-day Quest NBS & CIMSPA Conference 2016 will take at Holywell Park, Loughborough University, on 10-11 February. To book go to www.questnbs.org
For further information contact:
Rhianon Howells at Big Fish Public Relations
Tel: 01727 834629
Mob: 07967 551142
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Editor’s notes:
Managed by Right Directions on behalf of Sport England, Quest is the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure. It is a tool for continuous improvement, designed primarily for the management of leisure facilities and leisure development. Quest defines industry standards and good practice, and encourages their ongoing development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework.
The National Benchmarking Service (NBS) provides critical data on the performance of leisure facilities. Leisure-net Solutions, in partnership with Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, works on behalf of Sport England to provide a seamless, rigorous and valuable collection and analysis of participation, financial and customer satisfaction data. www.questnbs.org
Right Directions Management provides health and safety and quality management support to the leisure industry, specialising in local authority and trust-managed sites, as well as smaller independent operators. Right Directions, which also delivers ukactive’s Code of Practice, has more than 100 years’ experience within its field. rightdirections.co.uk
Leisure-net Solutions is the leading provider of customer insight, business intelligence and consultation services to the active leisure, fitness and cultural services industries. Leisure-net helps leading industry organisations, local authorities and trusts, as well as private sector operators and suppliers, to understand their customers’ and clients’ needs and aspirations, and to deliver innovative service and health improvement initiatives. leisure-net.org
Original Article: www.bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk/news/409--quest-and-nbs-continue-to-head-in-right-direction.html
