Sheffield City Trust to hire more staff after employees said they were struggling

Concerns were raised by several members of staff in recent weeks who said they were struggling with huge queues. They said there was not enough staff before the Covid-19 pandemic and it is now much worse.

The trust – which runs most of the city’s major facilities including City Hall, Ponds Forge and the English Institute of Sport – lost 470 members of staff between 2020 and 2021, according to its latest accounts on Companies House. It was down from an average of 1,260 employees in 2020 to an average of 790 employees last year.

Looking back at pre-Covid accounts, the charity, also known as SCT, lost a total of 759 employees – nearly half of all staff – between 2018 and last year.

Cuts were made to permanent full-time and casual roles across venues in leisure, maintenance, administration and catering – the biggest losses being in leisure and catering.

Before the recent cuts, the trust said 90 percent of its staff lived locally.

Nearly two weeks after staff spoke out, the trust said it was in the process of bringing staffing levels back to what they were.

There are currently about 40 vacancies listed on the trust’s website and Andrew Snelling, chief executive of SCT, said they now have 1,071 employees.

He said: “As we all recover from the lockdowns of the last two years, we are delighted to be welcoming more and more visitors back to our venues.

“We now need more staff to join existing colleagues to help us cater to the growing demand. We have a broad range of positions available along with exciting training provision for those looking for new skills or even a new career direction.”

The leisure and entertainment provider announced that it was considering around 300 redundancies in 2020 as a result of compounded financial pressure when all venues were shut due to Covid-19.

It followed revelations that the trust was “haemorrhaging cash” and being kept afloat by additional taxpayer money in reports by Sheffield Council, its main funder.

The trust now says its business is “booming” and it looked forward to busier times ahead including being host to the British Swimming Championships next month.

Mr Snelling said: “Alongside a whole host of businesses, the leisure industry has suffered from operational restrictions, rising costs and significant staffing shortages but our venues are now extremely busy with record-breaking numbers attending concerts and shows and participating in activities as varied as golf and learn to skate programmes.

“We are delighted that normality is returning, and a bright future lies ahead in which we will continue to support the people of Sheffield to access activities that improve their health and wellbeing, and also the ambitious plans to invest in new facilities over the next 10 years recently unveiled by Sheffield Council.”

The leisure pool, which was closed for much of last year due to maintenance issues, has sold out every weekend since it reopened in January, the trust said.

Mr Snelling added: “We’re delighted to see the refurbishment in Surf City resulting in sell-out weekends and the recent half-term holiday, and we have had some fantastic feedback from the 10,000 plus visitors we’ve welcomed in just the last two months.

“The new programme at Ponds Forge allows greater access to specific groups and is a great addition to the city’s leisure pool offering alongside Hillsborough Leisure Centre.”

SCT’s full list of current job vacancies can be found here: https://www.sheffieldcitytrust.org/jobs/current-vacancies