Stretch (FM)
Introduction to Quest Stretch
Quest Stretch is a response to the desire to provide additional challenges in Quest to enable facilities, organisations and teams to better demonstrate their impact on local communities and local priority outcomes. Additionally, it allows facilities, organisations and teams to demonstrate their contribution to the current national agenda for sports and leisure as well as being confident that excellent service has been embedded in their organisation.
Facilities and teams currently scoring Excellent can choose to go for Quest Stretch when they come up for renewal. For both Quest for Facilities and Active Communities there are 2 stages to Quest Stretch. A facility or a team have to pass Stage 1 before they can move onto Stage 2, the validation day.
- If a facility does not pass Stage 1, they can go through Day 2 of a Plus assessment at no additional cost.
- If a facility does not pass Stage 2, they can go through Day 2 of a Plus assessment to try and maintain their Excellent banding, at an additional cost of £600.
Both Stage 1 and Stage 2 are conducted in the first year, with no assessment in year 2.
The cost of Quest Stretch for both Quest for Facilities and Active Communities is £1950 plus VAT. The registration lasts 2 years.
A document outlining the full Quest Stretch process can be found here - Summary for Quest Stretch
Timeframes
In order to go for Stretch a facility must apply on time and go through their Stage One assessment in their anniversary month.
The following timeframes then apply:
- The Mystery Visit and Unannounced Assessment takes place in the facility's due month.
- The facility chooses 3 days in that month on which they don’t want the unannounced assessment to happen.
- A Preparation day (if requested) must take place within 1 month of the Unannounced Assessment.
- This would be at an additional cost of £600 Plus Vat.
- The Validation day must take place within 2 months of the Unannounced Assessment
Stage 1 - Unannounced Assessment
Stage 1 of Stretch consists of a Mystery Visit and Unannounced Assessment.
During the Unannounced Entry Assessment, the facility must achieve all three points below to proceed onto the Validation day:
- Pass the Health and Safety Declaration
- Score Excellent in at least 4 other modules
- Achieve an overall banding of Excellent
If the facility fails the Compliance Declaration, they have 5 days to get the necessary paperwork directly to the Assessor to enable them to pass.
All inspections, servicing and remedial works must have been completed prior to the assessment date.
Staff that are invited to be involved in the assessment are the Centre Manager and any staff based on site for more than 1 day a week.
Remote staff, such as Regional Managers, will not be invited to join in the day.
Stage 2 - Validation Day
The Validation day is an independent review and challenge of the self-assessment and improvement planning process by examining a sample of the organisations own judgements about their current performance made against a benchmark.
The review is done by interviewing managers, staff, partners, clients, and customers and reviewing some of the documentary evidence.
This information is then used to challenge or confirm judgements made, so enhancing the self-assessment results and sharpening the improvement planning process.
The facility will be assessed against 1 compulsory module and 1 choice module from the list below.
The centre will need to produce a 2500-word submission for each module, with a maximum of 5 one-sided A4 pages as appendices per module. This is due to be sent to the Validator 7 days before the Validation Day.
Unfortunately if they are not received within 5 days of the Validation, the day will be cancelled at full cost and the facility will need to go through a Day 2 assessment to achieve Quest Plus instead.
- Measuring Impacts and Outcomes (Compulsory)
- Team and Skill Development
- Contribution to Health & Well-being
- Increasing Participation and reducing Inactivity
- Programming for All
- Partnership and Collaboration
