February 3, 2017

We are pleased to announce we have recently excelled in a tough assessment through leading national quality scheme, Quest.

Quest, the UK Quality Scheme for Sport and Leisure, defines industry standards and good practice and encourages their ongoing development and delivery within a customer focused management framework. The scheme is endorsed and supported by Sport England.

Following a rigorous two day assessment, Quest have confirmed that Active Cumbria are rated as ‘Excellent’ the highest level achievable, excelling in partnerships and collaboration, the provision of quality programmes, encouragement of active communities and for continuous improvement.

Jason Gooding, Chair of the Active Cumbria Steering Group said “Active Cumbria have demonstrated a consistent focus on quality delivery and improvement, and they have truly excelled themselves this year providing many programmes over and above the requirement of the core specification provided by Sport England”

Active Cumbria, hosted by Cumbria County Council is the Sport and Physical Activity Partnership for Cumbria; we are one of 45 County Sports Partnership’s across the country working with Sport England to increase participation in physical activity and sport.

Quest has recently undergone a number of changes to their criteria to align with the new Sport England strategy, with new modules reflecting the requirement to develop Active Communities, and to engage with a number of different audiences. Quest assessments take place every two years; the process includes a full two-day audit of business practices, as well as an annual maintenance review.

Richard Johnston, Operations Manager at Active Cumbria said “I’m delighted with the outcome of the assessment, as a team we have worked hard over the last two years to improve the way we work, and how we evidence this. These results could not have been realised without excellent partnership working with many organisations across the county, and I hope we can build on these moving forward, and continue to provide a first rate service.”

Cllr Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council Cabinet Member for Health, Care & Communities said: “I’d like to commend the hard work and dedication the Active Cumbria team put in to ensure we are delivering a high quality service, which contributes to tackling a number of health priorities across the county. The offer to schools in particular continues to be an invaluable resource to tackling childhood obesity”