Awards and Accreditations

SLT retains The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold Medal Award in the prestigious RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards.

Sandwell Leisure Trust was one of the first British Leisure Trusts to receive this award and maintains this achievement year on year.

The Trust is also the sole winner of The Leisure Safety Trophy 2024, the top safety award in the leisure category, further underscoring its unwavering commitment to protecting members and staff across all sites.

Watch the presentation video here.

Quest accreditation is a national quality scheme for the leisure industry.

It defines industry standards in facility operations, staffing, customer service and service development and review as recommended by the British Quality Foundation.

Continuous improvement is a high priority for SLT which is why we continue to use Quest as a proven model of quality assurance. Accredited facilities including Sports Development are also benchmarked with other leading leisure operators nationally.

Gold Winner - Best Small Chain (West Midlands)

Gold, Silver and Bronze Best Mid-Market Club Winners (West Midlands)

Gold for Ryland Centre

Silver for Portway Lifestyle Centre

Bronze for Haden Hill Leisure Centre

Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT) has been awarded ‘Best National Small Chain’ for the second year running in the Members’ Choice Health Club Awards.

SLT also performed a clean sweep in the West Midlands category for the ‘Best Mid-Market Club’ in the awards ceremony held last night. This is the second year in a row that the Trust has achieved this.

Haden Hill Leisure Centre won bronze, Portway Lifestyle Centre won silver and Ryland Centre (Bromsgrove) received gold following its silver award in 2013.

Gym instructor, Scott Parish, from Portway Lifestyle Centre was also recognised with a People's Award.

The Members’ Choice Health Club Awards are the only awards in the industry where winners are selected purely on the feedback from the people that use the facilities – the members.

The Health Club Awards in partnership with Health Club Management is open to all private health clubs, gyms and leisure centres in the UK.

Finalist for 2023 UKactive Awards – Portway Lifestyle Centre – Equality Diversity and Inclusion Award

Sandwell Leisure Trust is a member of UK Active whose vision is of more people, more active, more often to improve the health of the nation.

SLT’s mission is to ‘Create an Active Sandwell’ so is working with UK Active to promote the benefits of being active.

UK Active provides services and facilitates partnerships for a broad range of organisations, all of which support their vision.

UK Active's membership, which stands at over 3,000 members, includes operators of fitness facilities of all sizes, as well as local authority leisure centres, leisure trusts, outdoor fitness providers, trainers, sports providers, education and training providers, lifestyle companies, equipment suppliers and charities.

By becoming a member, SLT will be able to benchmark itself with other leisure operators nationally ensuring that it continues to offer high quality services to customers.

Members also follow the UK Active code of practice and have access to industry information, research and recommendations.

Winners: Community/Local Authority Partner of the Year

Recognised by the governing body as the best programme and practice in the region.

Gold Winner - Best Small Chain (West Midlands)

Gold, Silver and Bronze Best Mid-Market Club Winners (West Midlands)

Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT) has been awarded ‘Best National Small Chain’ in the Members’ Choice Health Club Awards. SLT also performed a clean sweep in the West Midlands category for the ‘Best Mid-Market Club’.

Tipton Sports Academy won bronze; Ryland Centre (Bromsgrove) received silver; and former Wednesbury Leisure Centre was awarded gold.

The Members’ Choice Health Club Awards are the only awards in the industry where winners are selected purely on the feedback from the people that use the facilities – the members. The Health Club Awards in partnership with Health Club Management is open to all private health clubs, gyms and leisure centres in the UK.

Bronze Winner - National Health Club of the Year 2012

Smethwick Swimming Centre has been crowned one of the best health clubs/leisure centres in the West Midlands (North) by winning bronze in the prestigious Health Club of the Year Awards. What makes the accolade even more special is that the competition judges were the centre's own members!

Now in its second year, the national Health Club of the Year Awards attracted more than 400 entries from sites across the UK including leading national providers. Over the course of three months (February - April 2012), more than 37,000 members graded their local gyms via an online questionnaire.

Centres were judged on three key areas: range of facilities, customer service and value for money.

Tipton Swimming Centre won the National 'Access Performance Award' for targeting services to disadvantaged groups for performing in the top quartile of centres Nationally.

The National Benchmarking Service for sports and leisure centres measures the performance of centres across an array of different dimensions. Tipton Swimming Centre was identified as one of the top performers for 2010 for their access performance achievements.

This is in recognition of consistently strong performance in working to access the most ‘disadvantaged’ groups and new users. These indicators of effectiveness are particularly in the context of social inclusion.

Sandwell Leisure Trust has developed a programme of Focus On Activity weeks to encourage people living in and around Sandwell to try various sports and physical activities which has now been awarded the prestigious Inspire Mark award. Sandwell Volleyball tournament has also now been awarded the Inspire Mark. 

SLT is a member of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. The Chartered Institute has been established to raise the standards in professional practice and to develop the workforce through continuous professional development.

Sandwell Junior Girls Athletics Team won Junior Team of the Year at the 2011 Black Country Sport & Physical Activity Awards. This award recognises the significant success and achievement of athletics in Sandwell.

This is fantastic recognition of the dedicated work carried out by the Athletics Coach and other members of the Sport Development & Physical Activity Team. This recent award adds to the list of previous awards given to the team over the last few years which include; Coach of the year 2009 and 2010 and Sports Initiative of the year 2010.

The Young People's Charter is a Sandwell Council Youth Strategy Team initiative. It encourages young people to get involved with their local community and voice their opinions.

Sandwell Leisure Trust received this award for its commitment to young people in Sandwell Platinum Status in 2007.

The ‘Promoting Racial Equality Through Sport Standard’ has awarded Sandwell Leisure Trust its ‘Preliminary level’ in 2004.

This means SLT has demonstrated a commitment to addressing the issues and barriers that perpetuate racial inequality. This commitment has been communicated to all staff and community groups using the centres.

Sandwell Leisure Centres have ‘registered centre status’ from the STA (Swimming Teachers Association). This shows the high standard of STA courses delivered by Sandwell Leisure Trust.

The Business Environmental Charter is a Black Country scheme promoted through BISNES, a local business networking group. It is an opportunity for businesses to make a commitment to becoming more environmentally friendly.

Hadley Stadium, Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Tipton Swimming Centre, Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre and Wednesbury Leisure Centre have Silver status. Tipton Sports Academy has Bronze status.

The Regeneration West Midlands prize recognises good practice and promotes equality and diversity. Sandwell Leisure Trust was awarded the prize for developing physical activity in the local community.

The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) is a not for profit local government body working with over 300 councils. It promotes excellence in public services, hosting a network for providers in waste and refuse collection, parks and environmental services, leisure, school catering, cleaning, housing and building maintenance.