The new Quest and Quest Plus assessments are designed to help facilities restrengthen their core operational standards and demonstrate the positive impact they have on their local communities.

Quest was established more than 20 years ago to measure how well a facility is operating and how effective organisations are across a range of topics. The award has evolved over the years to keep pace with the ever-changing sport and leisure industry, including the launch of Quest Foundation Review earlier this year, which provides insights into real-life, ‘live’ customer service experiences from people who have traditionally been excluded from physical activity opportunities. The new assessments, which start from 1 September, will replace the current Quest Recovery, written to support the sector as it recovered from the pandemic.

“We have carefully considered the current environment and challenges leisure facilities are operating within, and have combined the latest industry best practice with other fundamentals, such as operational plans, to develop the new Quest and Quest Plus assessment,” says Sarah Maxwell, head of external accreditations at Right Directions, which manages Quest on behalf of Sport England.

Quest is a one-day assessment, whilst Quest Plus will take place over two days. Both will include two new compulsory modules on day one, Tackling Inequalities and Environmental Management. Tackling Inequalities, developed alongside the Activity Alliance, aims to help leisure operators provide more inclusive and accessible physical activity opportunities for people from a range of inequality groups. Environmental Management will support facilities in the development of plans to include environmental considerations within their operations. Operators will also be assessed on Compliance Declaration, Operational Management, Managing the Team, and Customer Journey.

The Quest Plus day two modules include a variety of topics that will help facilities make progress in specific areas of their business, with Planning to Improve, which helps identify what their service is trying to achieve and set out specific and measurable business objectives, becoming a compulsory module.

New optional modules for day two include Exercise Referral Standard and Accessible Facilities.

The new Tacking Inequalities and Accessible Facilities modules can be completed together, either within or outside of the Quest assessments. Facilities achieving Very Good or above will be awarded a new Quest Tackling Inequalities in Leisure Standard.