Swimming lessons for more than 3,000 children will restart across the north at the start of next month as leisure centres go from strength to strength after their enforced closure.
High Life Highland (HLH) chief executive Steve Walsh said the announcement marked a major milestone in the organisation’s effort to bounce back from lockdown.
Mr Walsh said the resumption of lessons will add some “buzz” to facilities, which have come back to 50% of the attendance levels from before the pandemic.
HLH was the first trust in Scotland to re-open its facilities, including all pools, towards the end of the summer.
Mr Walsh said: “Once we got a sense the Scottish Government might allow us to come back we brought our staff off furlough to get our swimming and gym instructors re-qualified.
“We also got all of our staff re-qualified in first aid as we got our facilities clean and ready to open.
“That made us agile enough to open straight away, so that all our communities have access, and that was really important to us.
“We ran a pilot, Love To Swim, during the school holidays and staff worked through the October holidays to re-engage with parents to reorganise the big task of getting swimming lessons back.
“It needs to be fun, it needs to be safe, and needs to look after the parents and our staff.”
Mr Walsh spoke with pride about response of HLH staff to the challenges of the pandemic.
Around 1,200 employees were furloughed, with many volunteering in community resilience efforts during their spare time.
He said: “Music, youth and active schools activities have continued throughout.
“Our health and wellbeing team has been working throughout with our partner MacMillan, cardiac rehab has continued with NHS Highland and our Parkinson’s rehab will start on November 2.
“We know the work we have done has meant a lot to isolated, more mature people, with one lady telling me that her class was the only thing getting her from week to week.”
Mr Walsh said a crucial new thread has emerged from the pandemic, with HLH keen to undertake more community efforts as a result.
He added: “In libraries alone, we’ve had over one million engagements with our services.
“We were the only organisation that kept music tuition going virtually throughout the pandemic.
“Literally hundreds of our staff manned the council’s humanitarian centres and key worker hubs.
“Our people made a huge difference to their communities, about 3,000 hours a month volunteering Highland-wide.”
Since August 31, 70,000 people have used HLH’s leisure facilities.
“Now it’s about reassurance,” Mr Walsh said.
“We know and have demonstrated that we have a safe environment.”
A projected deficit of more than £11 million in March is now a more manageable £1.5m, and this year’s books might even balance.
For the first three months, furloughed staff had their salary topped up by the organisation but, after that, the 20% not paid by the government was removed as unsustainable.
Mr Walsh said: “The staff were fantastic about it and lots continued to volunteer. Now facing the end of the furlough scheme, we are looking at the job support scheme to see if we are eligible.
“Things are continually changing, but our priority is looking after our staff, protecting jobs and maintaining services.”
Swimming lessons, described as “the next big step”, will resume on Monday, November 2.
