Community Lettings Support service

Background

Ormiston Academies Trust is one of the largest Multi Academy Trusts within the UK. Within our Academies we have a range of both indoor and outdoor facilities that are made available for the local community to use outside of school hours namely sports halls, ancillary halls, fitness suites, theatres, drama and dance studios, artificial sports pitches (including 3G rubber crumb and sand based artificial grass pitches), hard courts for netball and tennis and grass pitches for sports such as rugby and football. The benefits of sharing school facilities with the local community are widely recognised and most Academies operate an in-house community lettings service with a few using specialist 3rd parties to manage facilities on the Academies behalf.

Ormiston Academies Trust has established a good track record of providing community facilities and wishes this to continue post Covid19. The sites with outstanding state-of-the art-facilities generate reasonable turnover, and even schools with more modest facilities and the primary schools provide community access where costs can be covered.

Academy staff currently invest time in the management and operation of community lettings which could otherwise be spent on the core business of providing outstanding education. OAT is seeking external provider(s) with expertise in managing school facilities for community use and maximising the opportunities available to achieve the following aims:

• Meeting the needs of ...ears.
• A Fully managed and staffed community lettings service creating a safe and secure solution and revenue generation

A supplier will provide, marketing, vetting, bookings, key holding, H&S, money handling, customer complaints and staffing. The contract will be personalised to each academy, allowing Principals to control which part of the site can be used for lettings and when. Principals will have priority over lettings spaces i.e. ability to cancel a letting due to having to use a space for academy activity. Charges for the lettings service will only be incurred when the lettings take place i.e. NO monthly standing charges.

• A Lettings Support Service utilising an online specialist letting tool for Academies who wish to retain their own staff

Academies have the responsibility for marketing, vetting, booking, key holding, H&S, money handling, complaints, and staffing. It is envisaged that the academy will take on most of the responsibility and the caretaking/site staff will carry out the key holding (opening/locking).

A supplier provides an online service for marketing, money handing, booking, vetting and controls for H&S including safeguarding requirements.

Each academy will have access to an online tool where customers can book a venue (academy spaces), pay fees and the academy staff can control who uses the academy spaces.

Response Requested

OAT is requesting responses from suppliers that have solutions that meet some or all the scope of service.