Three Rivers District Council

Three Rivers District Council runs a number of leisure programmes including sport, fitness, art and play projects. Activities are booked in advance or pay on the day. Users have to register for each service either online or paper based registration forms both of which requires officers to process data which is time consuming.

We currently use an online booking system that is limited in its functionality with a number of administrational issues, only suitable for advanced booking sessions and customer feedback has highlighted frustrations for the end user.

The current systems reporting features are limited to providing the number of pre-booked attendees and income. Any further monitoring and evaluation requires officer time to produce reports and demonstrate impact.

We are looking for a new software package that can provide booking and evaluation solutions.  The new software will remove manual processing freeing up staff time and improve evaluation through more in-depth data management and analysis tools which can generate instant detailed reports and insights recording all performance related monitoring from the point of initial bookings/registration with the customer.

The new system will provide a central point of registration for all leisure activities, reducing the need to register for each individual activity.

Discovery evidence

A Customer survey on our booking system and officer feedback has helped us identify flaws for the user and the administration within our current booking software.

Feedback included:

• I had huge trouble with the online system and ended up book by phone.
• Does not work well on mobile phones ok on tablets and desktop
• I entered all details and the system failed right at the last stage
• It didn’t work so I called up and spoke to a very nice lady who helped me

Changing public sector landscape has highlighted the importance of in depth monitoring and evaluation to demonstrate impact of activities and the return on investment. The current software reporting is not fit for purpose, and is limited.

We are required to report on unique participants, attendances, demographics, geographical wards and improvements from the baseline assessments, cross referencing this at 3,6,& twelve months. Our current programme provides unique participants and limited demographic information.

Leisure programmes are well attended and too much time is spent manually processing forms costing the council officer time.

We have concluded that a full redesign process is required to assist officers, staff and customers.