"The goal of raising the value and importance of physical activity and exercise in society is one that knows no boundary or border – geographic or bureaucratic," – Alfonso Jimenez Think Active, GO Fit Lab and King Juan Carlos University

What a great piece on the Quest Foundation Review in HCM highlighting Sport England’s work providing insights into live customer service experiences from people who’ve traditionally been excluded from physical activity opportunities (see HCM issue 2 2022, page 72).

We’re evaluating data from the first quarter’s assessments and are excited to share our learnings with the sector.

But this is only one element of Quest. Much work has been going on behind the scenes over the last two years to ensure the continuous improvement tool – which is now more than 20 years old – keeps up-to-date with current issues operators face, particularly due to the pandemic and rising energy costs.

Another two new Quest assessments launch on 1 September, focusing on everything from day-to-day operational standards and service delivery, to hot topics such as environmental management.

The environmental module aims to help facilities develop and plan environmental considerations into their operations.

There’s also an exercise referral module, which will enable operators to evaluate their current offering and follow a set of quality operating standards to help drive improvements and consistency in scheme delivery.

The new Quest also covers tackling Inequalities, a module developed alongside the Activity Alliance to help leisure operators offer more inclusive and accessible opportunities for people from inequality groups.

Finally, an accessible facilities module will help operators meet their design and operational obligations for different user groups by physically auditing the facility from a user’s perspective. This is done against key inclusive focal points, such as accessible changing rooms, hearing loops and inclusive fitness equipment.

As Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s CEO says, public leisure facilities and services have a vital role to play in providing opportunities for people to be active. These new Quest offers will enable local authorities and their service delivery partners to showcase their safe, welcoming centres and champion the role they can play in tackling inequalities, aiding our environment and reconnecting communities.

By following Quest’s ‘plan, measure, review and impact’ steps for each of the modules undertaken, leisure operators and their teams can not only have the quality of their work recognised and nationally accredited, but may also demonstrate how they measure up against national standards, and why continued and further funding is certain to be money well spent. Right Directions manages Quest on behalf of Sport England