Lambeth Reports 

LCW's Main Lambeth Page       4.11.05 Report on Service Failures     29.10.05 Public Scrutiny Questions

4.11.05 Report on Service Failures

A report authorised by Lambeth's Executive Director of Environment reveals how serious has been the deterioration in relations between LC and the Council.   www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ 606F1658-D7D0-4D39-B93B-B9B1E314D3AF/0/Item5288StreathamPool.doc  

"Since the Scrutiny Committee meeting on 29 September 05, officers have sent a warning letter to the Chief Executive of Leisure Connection about the unsatisfactory standard of service being delivered in Lambeth and requested for an urgent meeting to discuss their action plan for service improvements. A meeting was held between senior officers of Environment & Culture, Executive Member for the Environment, Councillor Clare Whelan and the Chief Executive of Leisure Connection on 10^th November 05 at which concerns were expressed about the unsatisfactory standards of service delivery at Streatham.  Leisure Connection’s Chief Executive agreed to work with the Council to drive improvements in the quality of service the company was providing and agreed to come to the Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny Meeting to provide an update on progress made on driving service improvements. 

There has been an increase in officer resource dedicated to the monitoring and clienting of the leisure contract which has resulted in more rectification and default notices being issued to Leisure Connection for unsatisfactory performance. The following is an update on specific areas of service failures at Streatham Leisure Centre considered by the Environment Services & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub – Committee on the 29^th September 05.  

2.2       Pool Closures 

Despite the measures put in place by Leisure connection to prevent pool closures at Streatham Leisure Centre, there were 3 partial pool closures in October. The centre opened late to the public on Saturday 15 October (15 minutes late) Sunday 16 October and Monday 17 October (35 minutes late). Leisure Connection has stated that the Duty Manger responsible for opening the facility was late to the site on Saturday and Monday. On Sunday, the centre was opened on time but the Duty Manager discovered that there had been an air lock in the Sodium Hypochlorite pump overnight which resulted in the pool turning cloudy, reducing the clarity of water to such an extent that the Duty Manager considered it unsafe to open the pool the public until such time as clarity returned.  

Officers have made it absolutely clear to Leisure Connection that the Council will not tolerate these failures in service provision and have imposed sanctions under the terms of the contract by defaulting them the appropriate financial sums. In addition, officers have imposed penalty points on Leisure Connection which could potentially lead to contract termination if there continues to be persistent breaches in the standard of service being provided.  It is particularly disappointed that the last incident of the pool opening late due to staff turning up late on site was only in July 05. After this incident Leisure Connection produced an action plan to prevent this from happening again. This was based on the Duty Manager turning up an hour before the centre opened to the public and a back up key holder on stand by, in case the Duty Manager could not get to the site on time - for example if they had an accident on the way to the site or were sick.  Unfortunately, it would appear that the procedures put in place were not followed by the Duty Manager, who has been severely disciplined by Leisure Connection. All Duty Managers and staff have undergone further training on the importance of delivering consistently high quality of service to the public. Leisure Connection have taken additional steps to prevent this incident from happening again by issuing additional sets of keys to senior staff members who live near the facility.

In terms of the late opening due to the pool chemical pump failure, this occurred despite the fact that Leisure Connection has recently spent £1,400 on repairing the faulty pumps (as reported to Environment Scrutiny in September) After this latest pool plant failure, Leisure Connection has  renewed the whole pool chemical dosing system to prevent future failures, including:

Leisure Connection has agreed to compensate customers, including membership holders, who have been affected by the recent closures.

 2.3              Lockers 

Leisure Connection has provided additional lockers on poolside that has improved locker provision at Streatham Leisure Centre. Although more lock barrels and keys have been ordered since the Scrutiny meeting on the 29^th, lockers in the male changing room have continued to be subject to vandalism. To prevent the vandalism, Leisure Connection has proposed the installation of CCTV camera overlooking the lockers to deter acts of vandalism.

2.4       Changing room cleansing standards 

In terms of the cleanliness of the changing rooms, the cleaning at Streatham Leisure Centre has undergone a radical transformation which involves cleaners accessing the facility at 6am to do a ‘deep clean’ before the centre is open to the public; ‘light cleaning’ will be done throughout the opening times. This cleaning regime should ensure the facility is kept up to satisfactory standards of cleanliness. In addition, new flooring is being installed in the ‘wet’ changing room area which will improve the general appearance and cleanliness of the area...  (Why does it take top level intervention to produce good cleaning? PB)

29.10.05 Public Scrutiny Questions

Local press report on this story "Poor hygiene and chilly water at a public swimming pool have been slammed in a council report...."

Compare the response given below to that given in 2001 when similar issues were raised about Streatham. See bottom of Main Lambeth Page. 

Lambeth Council Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub-Committee 29th October 2005 Public Scrutiny Questions (I think the date should be September 29th - PB) from http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FE5963BE-19D2-4D9D-A3B0-CB52E2AB83BA/0/a205Item4PublicNoticeQuestions.pdf 

Questioner: Councillor Bennett:  "Why has the poor level of staff performance, standards of safety and service expectations been allowed to go unchecked at Streatham Pool over such a long period of time, giving rise to a loss of credibility and number of serious complaints from residents and users? In view of these failings between February 8th and July 6th reported online by the Senior Client Officer may I request an analysis of service complaints received during the last two quarters broken down into areas of safety, staffing levels and specific user complaints with reference to accident and complaints book and how these issues were dealt with and followed up using the minutes of meetings held by officers and representatives of the client side"?    

Leisure Connection provides a leisure management service for the Council for which an annual management fee is paid. Any loss of service provision which is due to the fault of Leisure Connection would result in a default notice being issued with appropriate penalty charge. Failures in service provision that can be rectified result in the issue of rectification notices with timescales. If contractor fails to rectify the problem within the set timescale, this would be escalated to a default. The terms of contract payment, rectifications and defaults are laid down in the conditions of contract.

Streatham Leisure Centre is one of four Council owned leisure centres which is managed by Leisure Connections – other centres are: Brixton Recreation Centre, Clapham Leisure Centre and Flaxman Leisure Centre. Following the procurement of the Council’s leisure services in 1996, Leisure Connection was awarded the contract for 10 years. The current contract expires in November 2006 and the Council has already begun the procurement process for the management of its leisure centres post November 2006. Experience has shown that the current contract has weaknesses that hamper totally effective enforcement. The draft specification for the new contract has been produced and contains robust performance indicators and service standards linked to the new CPA indicators for sport and cultural services. It is anticipated that this, along with rigorous monitoring systems and contractor payment mechanisms directly linked to performance and customer satisfaction targets will drive improvements in service standards.

The current contract with Leisure Connection for the management of the Council’s leisure centres is monitored by client officers from Environment’s Sport & Recreation unit. Prior to June 2005, the client officers were also responsible for the administration and monitoring of events in the Council’s parks and open spaces. The impact of this meant that during the peak events season (April to September) resources were stretched and officer time was taken up by administering events and very little time was allocated to clienting and monitoring the performance of the leisure contractor. In June 2005 a dedicated events team was set up in Parks which means leisure client officers can now dedicate their time to clienting and monitoring the leisure contract.

Client officers from the Sport & Recreation Unit began to receive complaints and comments about the standard of service provision at Streatham Leisure Centre in February 2005. Detailed analysis of the nature problems in relation to the operation of the facility is shown below. There were 19 partial and full pool closures at Streatham leisure centre between February 2005 and August 2005. Seven incidents of pool closures were partial closures (less than 2 hours) due to children being sick (6 incidents) or faeces (1 incident) in the pool and the contractor carrying out back washes, to ensure satisfactory cleanliness of the pool. When this occurs in swimming pools, the normal operating procedure is to close the pool to the public for a short period of time and do a backwash to clean the pool. This is perfectly consistent with Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group (PWTAG) health & safety guidelines. The advice is that the pool has one full turnover prior to reopening and at Streatham pool, this takes 1.5 hours. Although not all instances involving children being sick in the pool require a backwash to be done, customers normally complain if they have to witness lifeguards scooping away the vomit whilst they are swimming in the pool. Also, due to the age and design of the Streatham pool, backwashing can take longer than modern pools, which can result in a delay in normal service being resumed.

Ten incidents of pool closures were due to plant failures (failure of boilers and chlorine pumps). Most of the incidents of pool closures due to boiler and pump failure occurred between February and April 2005. This matter was taken very seriously by the client officers and acted upon promptly, a £500 default notice was issued to Leisure Connection and the matter was raised at the March Client/Contract managers meeting. The problem was temporary resolved but plant failures began again in May 2005. The matter was raised at the Client/Contractor meeting where Leisure Connection was asked to forward a plan of action as to the timescales in which the boilers and pumps would be fixed. Leisure Connection has a planned preventative maintenance contract with pool maintenance contractors which should allow for problems to be identified and resolved before there is plant failure, however, Leisure Connection has stated that they have been having problems with their maintenance contractors who serviced the boilers and pool pumps, and were carrying out investigation to get to the bottom of the problem as the Leisure Connection contract manager was of the opinion that the pumps had been repaired and should have been in working order. Also in May 2005 the client team received confirmation from Leisure Connection that one of the boilers at Streatham leisure centre, the right hand boiler, was in perfect working order and that maintenance contractors were now trying to resolve the problem with the left hand boiler which required new seals. It was confirmed by the contractor that the site could run more than adequately on one boiler and therefore there should not be any further issues with pool closure.

However in June 2005 the centre began to experience problems of low chlorine levels, which were picked up by monitoring officers. The issue of low chlorine levels in the pool was rectified in July 2005 when Leisure Connection confirmed that a new Bisulphate pump had been fitted. Since then, Client officers have had no further reported problems relating to closures due to plant failures. However, although the pool is operating adequately with only one boiler working at present, there still remains the fact that the left hand boiler is not currently working which means there would be no back up if the right hand boiler fails. The client team have issued a default notice and given Leisure Connection a deadline of the 9 September 2005 for all boilers to be in full working order so as to ensure that the system can cope with a drop in temperatures expected after September and there is adequate backup boiler system.

Two incidents of pool closures were due to staff turning up late to open the facility and inadequate staff sickness cover. The first of these incidents occurred on the 22 April 2005 when staff sickness resulted in the pool being closed for 1.5 hours. The second incident of pool closure due to inadequate staffing numbers occurred on the 3 July 2005. Client officers have issued default notices to Leisure Connections in relation to these two incidents and disciplinary action was taken against the staff member concerned. At various client/contractor meetings held between Lambeth and Leisure Connections, the Contract Manager was instructed by client officers to deal with the poor performance at Streatham Leisure Centre and in July 2005 the Contract Manager took disciplinary action against the Centre Manager as it was felt that a number of the problems being faced at Streatham was as a direct result of poor operational management. The Centre Manager is currently suspended pending investigation into service failures and further disciplinary action. The Leisure Connection Contract Manger has assumed day-to-day responsibility for the management of Streatham Leisure Centre in the interim.  In order to prevent future pool closures due to inadequate staffing levels, Leisure Connection has recruited two more lifeguards as well as sending a number of their staff on the pool plant course (ICM). The client team have stressed the importance of Leisure Connections ensuring that their staff cover policy is stringently adhered to, in cases of staff phoning in sick to ensure continuity of service.

• Programming – Swimming Courses Correspondence received from long-term customer of Streatham Leisure Centre, dated 10th May 05 to complain about the “appalling lack of customer care and management at Streatham Leisure centre”. This complaint was mainly in relation to the organisation of the “learn to swim” courses resulting in late cancellation of courses. Rectification notice was issued to Leisure Connection on 25 May 05 and the Contract Manager has contacted the complainant to resolve this issue. The Head of Service for Sport & Recreation has arranged a meeting with complainant and Leisure Connection Contract Manager to explore ways of improving the “learn to swim” programme.

• Changing Room Cleanliness and Lockers - There have been a number of complaints in relation to the cleanliness of the changing rooms at Streatham (with specific reference to the women’s changing facility and the high numbers of lockers, which are out of use. Leisure Connection has ordered additional locker barrels and keys to ensure that no more than 5% of lockers are out of use when the centre is operational. In terms of the cleanliness of the changing rooms, the cleaning at Streatham Leisure Centre is set to undergo a radical transformation which will involve cleaners accessing the facility at 6am to do a ‘deep clean’ before the centre is open to the public; ‘light cleaning’ will be done throughout the opening times. This cleaning regime should ensure the facility is kept up to satisfactory standards of cleanliness. 

• Swimming Club Galas - A representative of the Streatham Swimming Club informed the Head of Service for Sport & Recreation that the club could not stage galas at Streatham Pool because the license required to hold public events in the pool had elapse and a new license had been refused on health and safety grounds. This issue was immediately raised with Leisure Connection Contract Manager and work has begun to address the matters required to renew the license for pool galas. It is anticipated that the license will be renewed by end of September 2005.

The following table gives a summary of complaints received and actions taken to remedy the issues raised. (Only the complaints have been listed below. PB)

27th July   Dear Councillor,  I thought you might be interested in some more recent issues at the Pool. There are still a large number of lockers out of action in the ladies changing room, the changing rooms are very dirty - with lots of old hair all over the floor, and the changing area looks very grimy. There has been no soap in the ladies toilet area for 5 days now. In addition, the floor surface is lifting off the floor in places, which is creating additional dirt traps.

Following my last complaint, I had a very comprehensive response from the operations manager at Leisure Connections – the contractor - which resulted in a free crash course this summer for my daughter. She is currently doing the crash course -which is why we have been visiting the pool a lot recently. However - the summer programme at the Leisure Centre is in chaos as well. The manager appears to have delegated running the summer swimming courses and the Camp Entergy programme to one of the instructors. A programme of courses throughout the summer has been organised, but has not been promoted outside of the pool. Therefore there are very few children signed up to either the crash courses or the camp energy programme. The receptionists are unclear about what to do when people call up now either. My daughter’s course has 3 children attending - a situation the staff knew about last week. When I arrived yesterday, the duty manager said that the course was going to be cancelled as there was not enough children taking part. I was not impressed as you can imagine -and said that I thought it was very unfair on the children to cancel a course half way through - and if they wanted to cancel the course - they should have rang us on Sunday.

Fortunately the duty manager agreed to keep the course running until the end of the week -however - the future of the rest of the crash course programme is in some doubt - as is the camp energy scheme -which is quite scandalous – given the lack of sports provision in Streatham this summer. When I spoke to the instructor who organised the programme -he was given no training, support or budget to run or promote the programme. A 6 week programme at any facility requires extensive advertising and promotion. It is particularly disappointing that the Camp Energy scheme has been so badly promoted as this provided good quality sports provision during the summer at reasonable prices - especially if you are a Leisure Card holder. 

Finally - the level of sports provision being provided in Streatham is appalling low this summer. Whilst there is tennis, football and rugby in other parts of Lambeth - the Sports Development Unit has not provided any provision, either directly - or through its partners -in Streatham. This despite facilities at Streatham Common, Streatham Vale Park, Hillside Gardens and within local schools - as well as the Pool of course. If there is to be any examination of how the pool operates in Streatham, as a resident I would like to see this extended to the lack of sports provision generally in the area, and in particular to young people.

I hope this is useful    Best wishes    Resident

 Yesterday (Sunday 24 July), I went to Streatham Swimming Pool and was absolutely horrified by the state of the ladies changing rooms. The smell was horrendous, the bins were overflowing, the lockers, cubicles, toilets and showers were absolutely filthy. More dangerously the linoleum around the shower area was ripped and sticking up, as was part of the tubing which anybody could trip over. Anybody with even with the most basic understanding of leisure management would realise that this should be dealt with immediately and in the meantime fenced off to prevent accidents. It had obviously been in this state for some weeks at least.

Sometimes, it would be fair to say that those that use the pool are often responsible for the state of the changing facilities, but from what I saw yesterday, responsibility lay squarely with the management. I was using the pool at 3.00 pm but the list on the wall stated that the changing rooms had not been looked at since 9.00 am that morning, and I could well believe it. I would also doubt that those big overflowing bins had been emptied that day on the days previous, it would also explain the vile smell. I did try to speak to somebody, but there was nobody at the Reception Desk.

I think it is appalling that anyone should be asked pay with their entrance fees and council tax for such a poor service - both filthy and dangerous. It is not such a big area, and I cannot see that it is particularly difficult to keep clean, it really is inexcusable. I would be really grateful if somebody could look into this matter and deal with it.

I look forward to hearing from you.  Kind regards,   Resident

10 May 05   Dear Sirs     I am writing to complain in the strongest terms about the appalling lack of customer care and management at Streatham Leisure Centre. I have been a loyal customer at Streatham Leisure Centre for 8 years, and regularly hold Lambeth Leisure Cards for myself and my family. I strongly support the existence of local leisure facilities -and indeed have made strong representations about the necessity to have a well run swimming pool and associated dry side facilities in Streatham. My 9 year old son has learnt to swim at the pool - and is now a very strong swimmer having just passed his Challenge 2 certificate at school, and is at Level 10 in the after school swimming lessons. My 5 year old daughter also learnt to swim at Streatham Pool, and until recently, we had an excellent standard of swimming lessons for her too.  However, my patience with the inept management at the swimming pool is fast running out, leaving me with a potentially sad situation of not wanting my children to be taught at the swimming pool in the future.

My daughter started level 2 after Easter - she has already passed level 2 but as she was -and still is - the smallest in her class - I thought it best for her to remain at level 2 until September - when she would then go up to level 3. This was in order for her to develop confidence - and indeed to grow a bit so she could touch the bottom when she moved up the poolside into a more advanced class. The lessons started on Tuesday April 12th. I will now take you through the sorry course of events from that date:

April 12th - Water cold and not enough space for the lessons. Parents were told that there was a problem with the boilers and should be repaired soon. I was told that the class would have more space the following week

April 19th - Water even colder - children crying at the end as it was so cold. NO increase in space so I complained in writing about the two issues. Received written response saying that there were problems with the boilers but would be repaired soon. NO mention of space issue.

April 26th - Water warmer. NO increase in space for the class. I complained again in writing and verbally - with the back up of 2 other parents- and was given verbal assurances that more space would be provided, but nothing in writing.

May 3rd - Small increase in space - but still not enough for 8 children. there is still insufficient space for the children to stand next to each other on the wall within the length of pool allocated. This raises health and safety issues as well as issues regarding the enjoyment by the children, and how much they will actually  learn... There are 2 other classes on at the same time - level 6 and 10 I think - both of whom have large amounts of space. A small loss of space for them would have a negligible effect - but would increase the quality of experience for level 2 immensely. At this stage I should add that the teacher in level 2 - Gemma - is very good and I have no problems with her standard and style of teaching. However, she has been given no support by management or staff at the pool - in fact on several occasions she has been left to fit the dividing ropes in the pool with no assistance from other members of teaching staff or lifeguards.

May 10th - we arrived in time for the 4.30 lesson - and my daughter got changed and made her way to the pool side. Gemma had told me last week that she wouldn't be here today - and that there would be another member of staff teaching the children. However, no cover had been provided. . When we walked in at 4.25pm there was no notice in reception saying that there was no teacher for level 2 so we got my daughter changed, and it was only when I put my head around the door to check my daughter had arrived at the poolside did I realise that there was no teacher for the 4.30 lesson either. Indeed, I met other parents who had arrived for the 4pm level 2 which Gemma also teaches, and the children had sat by the poolside for a considerable period of time before they were told to go back and get changed. So - why was there no notice in reception stating that there was no lesson? Why has it not been made clear what the alternative arrangements for the missing lesson are? We should be receiving a refund for this lesson at the least.

Why wasn't there cover arranged for the teacher - when she knew she wouldn't be there - and parents knew this as well? Why - when I asked other staff members what was going on - no one could help me and no one was aware of the issues? this shows a distinct lack of team work, customer care and basic management practice. So - on top of all the issues re pool temperature and lack of space, I have had to contend with a cancelled lesson and very disappointed daughter. I hope you can understand my complete frustration at the poor level of service provided by the pool management and staff over the last 5 weeks. Every week for 5 weeks I have had to deal with one issue or another, and it is having a negative impact on my daughter, her desire to swim, and my wish to be at the pool as I feel that every week there is going to be one issue or another to resolve.

I would like some responses to the points I have made above, and some practical examples as to how the quality of service will be improved for my daughter and her classmates and positive and constructive reassurances to show that the above situations will not happen again. I look forward to hearing from you very soon with your suggestions.   Yours faithfully   Resident

12 July 05    I write on behalf of a resident, regarding the quality of service at Streatham Leisure Centre, specifically the swimming pool. Although I understand a private company is responsible for the day to day running of the building it is still a Council owned facility. I am dismayed to hear that problems such as those Mr A has mentioned are happening on such a regular basis:

• The pool not opening at 8:00am as lifeguards were late or did not turn up (most leisure facilities open their pools at 6:30-7:00am so not to be open at 8:00am is quite frustrating for many users)

• Boiler problems - the pool temperature not being warm enough (although I understand this happens, it seems to happen too often)

• Chemical levels - the pool being shut because the chemical levels were not correct (again, I understand this can happen but I would like to know whether the pool is manually dosed or mechanically dosed)

• No answers given at all for the pool not being open on time, just that it was not open