Staff development and training programmes to facilitate much of this and continue the cultural and organisational change programmes have continued, working with the trade unions, and staff groups including the Staff Forum. A new appraisal process has been developed after consultation with staff, and leadership and a management training programmes are ongoing.
Work to improve performance continues, and the transformation of the different business elements that comprise the trust in terms of the customer journey is ongoing. Recent training and development work in Sports Venues has been successful, and is running in parallel with management training programmes including peer-led training, coaching and mentoring. This year 99 % of our customers at our Community Facilities were satisfied with our services.
Sports venues will now move to undertake Customer Service Excellence, this year awarded to the libraries for the 8th year running, and with the best performance to date – a fantastic achievement, capping a year which saw the library at the Foundry secure the prestigious Edge Award for the first time, and Barrhead itself win a national award for regeneration. Over 2,000 people came to celebrate the Foundry’ s first year birthday at a special party, which together with the 350,000 who used the Foundry over the course of the year, pointed to its special place in the life of the community.
As well as the investment in the Foundry, 2015 saw the refurbishment of Clarkston Hall, and smaller upgrades to Eastwood Park Leisure Centre.
Our commitment to the strategic aims outlined above strengthens our understanding of the power of culture and sport to build sustainable economies; to strengthen community empowerment and to tackle inequalities. Examples of work we have pioneered this year that does just this are our disability swimming programme, which marked its first hugely successful year with an awards ceremony in March at Eastwood House.
Our Tackling Summer Hunger programme built on the work of our successful summer programme which for over a decade has provided healthy meals for vulnerable children out of term time. This year it included cookery masterclasses alongside professional chefs, and 86 % of the eligible children in Barrhead took part.
We know there different people face different barriers to enjoying an active lifestyle, and part of our challenge is to devise ways of removing them. To be able to learn to swim is a skill most of us take for granted but for many people with particular religious or cultural beliefs, modesty issues and a lack of women-only sessions with female coaches and lifeguards, prevent them from enjoying swimming. This year we began our dedicated Black and Minority Ethnic Swimming sessions. The sessions have given some women an opportunity they have never had, and they were hugely successful. We will be expanding them in the coming months.
In sports centres, sports development and libraries attendances are at a five-year high, reflecting a lot of the changes and improvements made by front-line staff, supervisors, team leaders and managers in the first year of operation which are too numerous to detail, but which are underpinning a move to a culture of continuous improvement, the empowerment of staff and a drive to be not only improving, but competitive; efficient as well as effective.
The fact that the transition to the Trust has been so smooth is in no small part down to the professionalism, creativity, commitment and hard work of the staff, to which I have to pay tribute. Meanwhile, they have not lost focus on delivering excellent services for the people of East Renfrewshire, and some outstanding results – including achieving the best results in five years in key areas- speak for themselves. It has been a genuine pleasure working with colleagues in the Trust this year, and for that, as much as the success they are bringing to our work, I would like to say thank you.
ANTHONY MCREAVY CHIEF EXECUTIVE