Forest Hill Pools: Greenwich Leisure Limited to take over management (previously Fusion)

GLL will be taking over the contract from Fusion.

Interesting. My son was working there as a lifeguard and they were decent enough to furlough him. I wonder if he can reapply or if they’ll sort out some kind of handover.

In other news(shopper) does anyone know where the casino is?

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Interesting - this is the same company that Islington Council helped out in May.

They make over £300million a year - but can’t be bothered to create a pdf that is searchable - not sure what they are hiding (MD makes 210k - but that doesn’t seem obscene). They do appear to be paying a large amount of pension money to past employees (presumably directors - not the people doing the work)

https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/5175

Well clearly bad news for those employed by fusion who will now lose their jobs, though hopefully some will be rehired.

Fusion appeared to have a poor reputation so hopefully this will be a positive change - FH pools really should be something that is a highlight for the area,

I was hoping for Everyone Active because that would give us access to centres across southwark as well

If you get a swimming membership with Better then you’ll now be able to use crystal palace and Charlton lido as well as FH pools.

In a pre-covid world when a service contract is moved to a new provider then the employees of the original provider should be covered by TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment). Under this the new provider has a legal obligation to honour the existing terms and conditions of employment (except pensions) for any current staff that wish to transfer to the new provider. However as @clausy mentioned that Fusion furloughed the staff I don’t know if this affects the application of TUPE.

I didn’t realise TUPE worked in this circumstance.

I suspect whatever happens some staff will be made redundant, I wonder if the council are absorbing those costs as part of the deal or will subsidise keeping them on.

Despite its unpromising name, the News Shopper seems to be the best (only?) source of authoritative info about what’s going on in the Council. Lewisham’s website is still saying that Fusion is getting ready to “bounce back” in Forest Hill.

Looks like I should be emailing Grainne Cuffe (local democracy reporter) rather than our councillors if I want the low-down on anything local.

853 is also a good source, with a few less adverts. Gráinne Cuffe has a similar article there too:

https://www.fusion-lifestyle.com/centres/forest-hill-pools/news/update-on-the-lewisham-leisure-facilities/

To be clear that is turnover not profit…
It is is a non-profit charitable Social Enterprise organisation

@foresthillnick My point was they can’t be that well organised if within that £300million they can’t find £100 for a decent pdf editor - or they do it intentionally to hide things (difficult to tell because I couldn’t search the pdf!)
Their annual statement is quite difficult to read because it is a mess of sub-companies (which I guess comes with the territory)
Charity doesn’t always mean moral (even if they are usually set up with good intent) so it always worth having a look to see that they are well run. The obvious alternative is for Lewisham to run the centres - but maybe having a London based group of centres gives economies of scale (though this is only London based - it operates throughout the UK)

Are you talking about the ‘Annual Return and Accounts.pdf’ on the link you shared earlier? I can search it fine using Preview on Mac. I had a quick look through it, they’re fully audited, although that doesn’t say much either these days!

Interesting suggestion to have Lewisham running the centres given how much people generally moan about the council doing anything themselves - seems like outsourcing is just as imperfect.

I know it’s small, but their lack of attention to detail on announcements like this really annoys me, it was clearly pasted from elsewhere where Fusion were being talked about in the third person and someone forgot to adjust it.

Also, what other areas of the the business do they have to focus on? Do they mean specifically the operating model they agreed to with Lewisham, but have different ones elsewhere?

@clausy Only the bit added by the FCA is searchable - the bit with the real content isn’t.
Audited just means a true and fair view, it doesn’t give judgement calls on eg whether the MD should get paid £2million + private jet
I’m not a big a fan of outsourcing monopolies (which a lot of council functions are) to private companies, though I appreciate there are potentials for genuine savings in some areas. (There is also potential for just paying extra money to private companies)

GLL actually have a good graphic design department, although somewhat ironically it is outsourced! OH used to work there but not for them. They are obviously perfectly capable of producing a text PDF but have chosen to send an image based one to Companies House et al.
Here linked from their own site is their financial statement for 2018 - fully searchable.

They do have different models.

Some councils pay the outsourced provider a fee to run the centres; others expect the provider to pay them a fee

thank you! its my dream to swim at Crystal place but sadly I can only swim in water I can stand up in!
one day…

Hi @oakr, I don’t have any legal background but went through the TUPE process several times when a corporate customer chose to move their service contract for the provision of travel services from my employer to another company. Any employee working solely on that customer’s account had to be offered positions by the new company on the same terms and conditions as they already had unless the employee chose not to transfer. I was lucky in that I worked for a large global company most of my working life and each time I went through the TUPE process ended up being offered a new position by my original employer so never actually transferred to another company at all.

Assuming the Fusion employees working at the locations covered by the Lewisham service contract don’t work at any other locations Fusion manage then I can’t see any reason why they would not be covered by TUPE but I stand to be corrected as it is 10 years since I was last personally involved!

I think (and I could be wrong) that a lot of the swimming teachers were self-employed and won’t have any TUpE guarantees. It’s a shame because (in my experience) they were often the most professional and helpful of the staff at FH Pools.

I sincerely hope that the maintenance issues with the FH Pools building can be addressed and don’t get worse as a result of the transfer of management. That was already shaping up to be an argument between the Council, the building contractor and the firm operating the building since it opened.

My neighbour is a teaching instructor at one of the pools and been told their job is safe.

My son hasn’t heard anything, but from what you’ve said it sounds like they’re planning to transfer staff and just change management/branding.

It would make sense to keep most, if not all the staff, at least initially. What good is the facility without the people that know how to run it and the sessions?

But did they? Why change companies then?

Sorry, I wasn’t quite clear - I mean the facility staff who work on site with the working knowledge and customer relationships should be valued and kept on, not necessarily the rest of the organisation as a whole.

Anyone have any news about the pool/gym in Forest Hill? Is Greenwich Leisure taking it over?

Yes GLL have taken over. The pools are allegedly being cleaned now. GLL contracts have been sent to staff. It should be imminent.

They’re definitely being cleaned - my team is doing it

Expect Glass Mill to open mid November, FHP late November then Wavelengths shortly after that

according to Lewisham Council Meeting Q&A re LTNs, Pools and many other topics Forest Hill Pools are opening ‘in October’

That definitely won’t be the case I’m afraid to say

Sigh. They literally said this yesterday

Oh I just saw your FHP comment saying November above! Daft of them to say October then!

The official line does/did seem to be October; perhaps it’s a little bit out of date:

https://lewisham.gov.uk/articles/news/lewisham-to-reopen-leisure-centres-from-october

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay on this - it has taken longer than expected.

I have been liaising with Council officers and we expect to be able to make an announcement next week, confirming the re-opening date. I’ll update on here ASAP.

Sophie