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SCARBOROUGH BOROUGH COUNCIL BENEFITS FROM CONVERTING TO THE STA

Scarborough Borough Council is the latest local authority to recognise the quality and the cost saving benefits of the STA’s swimming teaching and learn to swim programmes.  By the end of 2008, the local authority will have fully converted its swimming lessons over to the STA at the Scarborough Indoor Pool, with the second pool at Whitby Leisure Centre set to begin operating the scheme in January 2009.  Here Chris Hughes, Pools Manager at Scarborough Borough Council’s Tourism and Culture services explains the reasons for choosing the STA.

In 2007, the Pools Management Team was contacted by the STA regarding its different range of services and award programmes, and most notably the fact that as one single organisation it could provide swimming teaching, lifeguarding and first aid qualifications that are on the National Qualification Framework as Level 2 Qualifications, a progressive learn to swim programme, Aquacise and accredited Facility Management training.   At this time, even though the STA looked interesting to say the least, the question ‘Why Change?’ needed to be asked, especially when we already had systems set-up through other separate organisations.

Following a brief study of the STA’s swimming qualifications and awards, I personally visited the STA’s headquarters in Walsall and my eyes were opened to the significance of the opportunities, the cost savings that can be achieved and the support systems in place. After a full and detailed evaluation, the decision made by the local authority to convert its swimming programmes over to the STA was based on a combination of factors, but the three underlining reasons were:

 1.      The Learn to Swim Programme

The STA’s International Swimming Curriculum is very impressive with its series of brightly coloured awards.  It has been professionally structured for every conceivable level, making it ideal for local authority swimming lessons. 

The STA Awards have also fitted in perfectly with Scarborough Indoor Pool’s own programme of lesson development, which it has always operated.  This has enabled the centre to be flexible and choose specific awards for a particular lesson.

2.      Value for Money

Naturally, in order to deliver a course of quality swimming lessons a centre requires qualified swimming teachers. In our case, the Scarborough Indoor Pool utilises its existing Lifeguarding staff to teach the lessons, many of who are university students. Therefore with new teaching staff being introduced from time to time, the cost of registering as a teaching centre and employing a tutor had become very restrictive with our previous provider. Under the STA, the total cost of qualifying staff as swimming teachers was found to be considerably less than similar organisations.

Importantly by converting to the STA, the centre does not have to pay additional charges either to register as a teaching centre.  As a result, we have now qualified one of our own staff as a STA Swimming Tutor, which was very easy to organise.  Following a phone call to the STA, the member of staff was offered a place on a nearby Tutors course, which he successfully completed and found to be comprehensive and of a very high standard.  Scarborough Indoor Pool is now set to begin conducting courses for STA Swimming Teachers in the New Year. 

The cost benefits of adopting the STA’s learn to swim programme have also been significant; the member and bulk discounts available on the awards are fantastic, and considerably outperform the competition.  In fact we found that not only were we able to reduce the individual cost of an award due to the bulk discounts offered by STA, we have also been able to triple the amount of awards sold during a course of lessons, which is excellent for business.

3.      Support Services

On visiting Anchor House, I saw that the majority of staff work open plan style on a single floor.  All the staff were also very knowledgeable and helpful. The benefits of these points may seem minor in the greater scheme of things, but they have since proved essential. Because of the way the STA’s support staff work, contact via telephone is extremely easy, and instead of being passed from pillar to post there is always someone who can assist you with your query. A prime example of their efficiency was when we first faxed through our badge order, which we received the next day!  Our staff were amazed, and this speed of response by the STA has helped the centre improve its business performance – we no longer have to apologise to customers for lack of stock because of late orders.

Another advantage of the STA is its website, which is packed with useful information that can be easily downloaded.  Possible the most significant download facility for us is the award marking sheets; this service alone has saved many staff hours making up new marking forms for new awards. The centre now simply downloads and prints the marking sheets whenever they wish.

In summary, the benefits of having the STA’s services under one roof are ideal for Scarborough and it has helped to make the conversion process far easier than first envisaged. I would recommend, especially under the present economic climate that the business case for any leisure pool operation is to convert over to the STA. They are efficient, friendly and knowledgeable, and represent value for money.