Author: j.eady

KKP – recruiting site assessors/researchers

Posted on by j.eady

A key strand of KKP’s work is our high-quality services to help protect and improve open and green spaces, pitches and outdoor sports provision. We are presently recruiting site assessors to join our fieldwork team which supports delivery of:

• Playing pitch and outdoor sports facilities needs assessments/strategies (PPOSS) – this tends to encompass grass pitches for sports such as football, cricket and rugby, artificial grass pitches – typically for hockey, football and rugby, netball/tennis courts, action sports (i.e., skateboarding, BMX, scootering) facilities, athletics tracks through to, on occasion, golf and water-sports provision. (These include club and privately owned/managed provision plus venues owned/administered by local authorities and schools).
• Open and green spaces needs assessments and strategies (OSS) – this tends to cover parks, more informal green spaces, outdoor play areas, allotments and, on occasions, public rights of way, areas of water etc.

We are building our site assessor/researcher team and are looking to recruit staff based (or who can deliver fieldwork) in a number of areas of the country (this can change and extend every year). The work involves delivery of site visits – normally to all playing pitch/outdoor sports facilities and/or a substantial proportion of the open/green spaces sites in a given local authority area. On average, KKP works on PPOSS/OSS projects with c. 60-70 local authorities annually delivering more than 2,500 site quality assessments (based on principles/criteria developed from nationally recognised initiatives such as Green Flag) every year.

Members of our current team tend to be people who:

  • Enjoy working outdoors.
  • Have experience as a player/referee/coach or in other volunteering roles in one or more of the sports listed above.
  • Are keen on helping establish the value of, and protecting, sporting, recreational and open/green spaces.
  • Like to have the option to work flexibly – fitting in the work they do for us with their other family and domestic commitments.
  • Understand the need to be thorough and deliver work within agreed timescales.

The nature of this role normally makes it impractical to do it utilising public transport or a non-motorised vehicle) so you need to own (or have access to) a car, be prepared to use it for work and be confident driving reasonable distances to/within specific areas to visit and assess sites. You will also need to:

  • Work well as part of a small team and be good at speaking to people in a range of community settings.
  • Be comfortable completing (very simple and straightforward) electronic information forms and feeding back findings verbally to consultants.
  • Where appropriate, supplementing site assessments with telephone consultation.

To do this job you need:

  • A full driving licence and be prepared to travel and possibly stay overnight in locations throughout England. (We do our best to ensure that assessors can work close to where they live).
  • To be conscientious, observant, well-organised and have good communication skills.

Full training is provided.

Working hours are full/part time to suit. The current rate of pay is £12.50/hour. Travel, subsistence and overnight accommodation expenses are all covered by KKP.

If you are interested please contact Chris MacFarlane; christopher.macfarlane@kkp.co.uk

London Sport commissions KKP to deliver its Playing Field Protection Project

Posted on by j.eady

NEWS RELEASE 

ISSUE DATE: 28 November 2024

London Sport commissions KKP to deliver its Playing Field Protection Project

London Sport is working with Sport England to review and tackle issues associated with loss of access to, and the closure of, playing fields in the capital. These facilities are vital to enable various communities to engage in sport and physical activity in London, but some are being lost even where there is clear evidence of demand.

The key issues about which London Sport, Sport England and other stakeholders are concerned include the:

  • Strength and capacity of the planning system and Sport England to protect playing fields –loss is still occurring despite valid objections.
  • Increasing number of sites categorised as “at risk of closure” and the reduced levels of community access to existing playing field sites.
  • Uneven spread of playing field provision in London – which exacerbates the inequalities faced by certain groups in accessing playing field provision.
  • Lack of an up-to-date evidence base to help justify playing field protection.

As a consequence, a project has been instigated to improve sector understanding of the challenges and emerging trends impacting playing field access and protection in London – and to lay the necessary evidence foundation to outline potential for future advocacy efforts.

Having attracted strong interest and in the face of strong competition, London Sport has awarded the contract to deliver this vital work to Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP). This decision is based on the strength of the Company’s sports consultancy credentials, its track record in playing pitch needs assessments and strategies, its delivery of national facility strategies for a range of sports and its experience delivering mitigation strategies and related planning system expertise.

The primary outcome of the work will be to provide London Sport and partners with the case for, and ideas about how to develop, an appropriate platform from which to effectively protect/support key agencies to protect playing fields across London. This is likely to encompass:

Evidence and data to support advocacy – so that all agencies involved are optimally positioned to ‘make the case’. Underpinning this will be review of existing London playing pitch strategies (PPS), development of an updated audit/database of, plus GIS mapping tools covering, existing playing fields. This is to be accompanied by advice in respect of the development of frameworks/protocols to drive all-agency consistency of data collection, storage and analysis. It should also enable the running of key scenarios to test the impact of site loss/reduction (and conversely the positive value of site improvement).

Advocacy – geared to persuading all parties of the value and importance of local and central government taking a (more) strategic approach to the protection of playing fields by, for example:

  • Raising awareness among agencies with an interest in or influence over playing field retention and development – about how playing fields contribute to and enhance people’s lives – and the need to continue to invest in existing playing pitch stock.
  • Applying the full range of promotional mechanisms to ensure that the way in which existing playing fields are utilised optimises participation levels.
  • Providing guidance about what key agencies can do to resist playing field loss and/or drive restoration.
  • Developing improved policy guidance to strengthen the position to protect London’s playing fields.
  • Sharing good practice with regard to examples of where and how threatened sites have been ‘saved’.

Advocacy processes – to indicate both political and other components of the case for playing field protection and development needs to be made and be geared to securing the support of high profile, committed, political advocates. This may necessitate:

  • Creation of an effective platform/agency/system to optimise collective influence and maximise potential to influence playing field protection (and development) factors.
  • Finding the simplest, least complex ways possible in which key London agencies can work effectively together to determine playing field-based need and agree universal core protection processes.
  • Improving cross-agency communication and collaboration to ensure that any threats of playing field loss is detected and acted upon as early as possible.
  • Ensuring consistency in the way in which playing pitch needs assessments/strategies are produced, data/information is stored, accessed and shared.

In taking on this assignment, KKP brings to the table extensive linked experience.

Chris Donkin – Strategic Lead, Active Environments from London Sport commented ‘we are delighted, with the support of Sport England, to be working with KKP on this project. It put forward a strong case to be our preferred consultant for this assignment and has the best track record delivering comparable and compatible projects.’

Steve Wright, KKP principal consultant and director who will lead the project team commented: ‘KKP is delighted to have been entrusted with this vital work for London at what is a critical time for playing fields in the capital. We shall work closely with London Sport and all the stakeholders in the City to produce a report and recommendations that best address the problems faced’.

Steven Wright is available for interview. Please contact KKP via (0)161 764 7040 or email steve.wright@kkp.co.uk

KKP is online at www.kkp.co.uk