Active Ealing: About us

Active Ealing's customer charter:
Active Ealing work to encourage participation in sport and promote healthy, active lifestyles across the London borough of Ealing.  The team aim to provide and continually improve sports and leisure opportunities available.  

Our mission statement
'To be considered by local people and others as an excellent sports and physical activity service.'

• our services are delivered in a way that takes into account of the needs of our diverse communities
• services are delivered in a safe and healthy environment  
• a competitive and structured pricing policy exists ensuring our services are available to all sectors of the community and represent value for money  
• all promotional literature (brochures, leaflets, posters etc.) will be produced to the highest standard ensuring the information being given is clear, up-to-date, accurate and appropriate  
• we involve customers and others in the development and delivery of our services through customer comments schemes and regular surveys
   

  We promise that:

• all telephone calls will be answered promptly and courteously within five rings during opening hours and by an answer-phone outside these hours.  Any answer-phone messages will be acted upon by 12 noon the next working day  
• all correspondence and course bookings will be acknowledged within four working days  
• all staff and coaches will be trained, qualified and easily identifiable by name badges and uniform when working at sessions or events  
• all staff will offer help and advice in an informative, competent and courteous manner at all times  
• all complaints will be dealt with under the strict guidelines set by the council.  Complaints will be dealt with within 24 hours.  If this is not possible, a written response will be made within four working days of the complaint.  Some complaints may take longer to deal with but the customer will be kept regularly updated.  If a customer is not entirely satisfied with our complaints procedure they can write to: The Director, Choice, Perceval House, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL  
• all unforeseen course cancellations will result in refunds and/or the offer of alternative courses with a full explanation, which will be provided at least 48 hours before the course was due to start.  In the case of casual weekly sessions, the coach will notify regular participants and a notice will be posted at the venue stating when the session will start again

Sports strategy
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)  aims to ensure the highest possible standards for sport in this country, and to re-establish the UK as a powerhouse in the sporting world. In the words of the DCMS:

"Sport can enrich people’s quality of life, raise self-esteem and confidence levels and provide enjoyment to individuals. It also has a much larger part to play in building stronger, safer communities, strengthening the economy and developing the skills of local people, meeting the needs of children and improving everyone’s health. Sport plays a major role in the government’s efforts to tackle obesity in the population as a whole. … We are committed to achieving a three per cent increase in the number of people from priority groups who participate in sport by 2008."

Ealing Council’s role in sport and physical activity
The government wants councils to measure how well we are enabling, promoting and increasing participation in sport and physical activity. The key indicators are:

• percentage of 5–16 year olds engaged in at least two hours a week of high-quality PE and school
  sport within and beyond the curriculum
• percentage of adults participating in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity sport and active
  recreation on three or more days a week
• participation in local authority sport and recreation
• participation in recreation/leisure by different social groups
• percentage of the population volunteering in sport and active recreation for at least an hour a week
• percentage of the population that are within 20 minutes’ walk of a range of quality sports facilities

Sport England which provides the strategic lead for sport in England, and the west London boroughs have formed a new partnership, called Pro Active West London . In developing its overall strategy and priorities, the partnership will consult local groups involved in sport and physical activity, including representatives from the voluntary, public and private sectors, the six local authorities in the partnership and west London business organisations.

Active Ealing are currently developing a new sport and physical activity strategy for 2008-2012.  It will provide the framework for increasing participation in sport and physical activity in Ealing, and widening access.