The London Borough of Enfield has appointed specialist sports research consultants, Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) to gain a greater understanding of its leisure and culture provision to evaluate whether it meets the needs of residents.

As part of a comprehensive evaluation of its cultural services, KKP is to research the use and relevance of neighbourhood services to gain a greater understanding of the required scale, presentation and orientation of provision and to evaluate whether it is appropriately community-facing and meets the needs of residents. The review will encompass:

• Libraries (217,500 records, 64,100 active users)
• Arts and theatres (22,700 records, 148,800 ticket sales)
• Sport and leisure (12,300 member records)
• Museums service and local studies

Via a combination of desk and primary research, data analysis and GIS mapping supported by strategic advice and support, the study will incorporate:

• A mapping exercise of all provision across the Borough.
• Identification of gaps in provision (geographic, activity type and demographic).
• Analysis of community opinion of current provision.
• Creation of a simple and easily replicable method for measuring the impact on the community, and a full evaluation of current provision.
• Development of a marketing and promotion plan, which will include ideas for improved marketing and advertising particularly to those not currently participating.

The Council wishes to build upon its existing understanding of its customers and their needs and to dig deeper, ultimately basing its future plans on evidence and seeking to answer key questions such as: 

• As a service, are we offering enough? 
• Or too little? 
• Are we targeting the right people? 
• Who isn't accessing our services, why and what can we do about this?

Another important aspect of the study is to gain a better understanding of the 3rd sector offer in the Borough.

Leisure and Culture is a significant service in the London Borough of Enfield and features strongly in its corporate and strategic priorities. Commenting on the commission, Simon Gardner, Head of Leisure and Culture at the Council said,

"sport and leisure activities provided by the service have a positive impact on obesity, other health issues, social inclusion, economic regeneration and engaging people into the community. We are committed to using the results of this research to fill any potential gaps in provision and ensure we meet the needs of all our residents."

KKP is one of the UK's leading management consultancy and research practices, specialising in high quality consultancy services to the sport, leisure, culture, regeneration and green spaces sectors. Over recent years we amassed an enviable track record, which includes:

• Market research for local authorities including, over the last 12 months, Croydon, Rossendale, Northampton, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, North Lanarkshire, Knowsley and Sunderland.
• Marketing and communications strategy and practical support for Tameside Sports Trust, Sandwell MBC, England Netball, Clubmark and sportscotland.
• Detailed GIS mapping/analysis for a range of local authorities (including NE Lincolnshire, Telford & Wrekin, Southampton and Leicestershire) to illustrate for example, reach of service, distribution of membership and participation levels.
• Performance measurement for clients including Be Birmingham (LSP) to review and improve the whole process via which Birmingham manages and implements performance measurement across the City, Salford City Council/Salford Community Leisure and the Oldham Cultural Partnership for which we worked to develop and then measure achievement of England's first arts stretch target.