Mountbatten Watersports & Activities Centre – Member Profile
Established in 1999 on the site of a former RAF base in Plymouth, the Mount Batten Watersports and Activities Centre is one of the foremost Outdoor Education centres in the South West.
Established in 1999 on the site of a former RAF base in Plymouth, the Mount Batten Watersports and Activities Centre is one of the foremost Outdoor Education centres in the South West.
When the Mutual first began, the profile of Members looked very differently, to how it looks today. We have seen a range of different activity providers emerge over the time we have been providing vital Public Liability cover to Members, Like any business we have embraced the diversity whilst always keeping at its heart to protect the Members who choose to take cover with us.
One area where we have seen an increase is the area of ‘running events’, (pardon the pun!) by this we mean organisers of trail runs and challenge events where the outdoors provides the exciting and often challenging backdrop to some incredible running events such as the Dragons Back Race. One such Member is Ourea Events who joined the Mutual in 2020 and were kind enough to share their story with us in our Newsletter from January 2023.
Thanks to Tom Hecht, Business Operations Director at Ourea for this interview.
If you have a business that operates in this sector do contact us for a quotation for your business kit and equipment, Public & Employers Liability cover. We look forward to hearing from you.
Our Member profiles focus on individual Members and what they offer. We cover a wide variety of activity providers from various sectors and as our Membership continues to grow this gives us an opportunity to learn from each other, and share ideas especially in a landscape where diversifying the offering is vital to ensure survival. We caught up with Paul Webb from H5 Adventure who told us what’s happening in their world.
H5 Adventure deliver outdoor activities to the Education Sector, Groups & Corporates. All across the south of England & Wales, from Dartmoor, to The Brecon Beacons, the M4 Corridor The peak District and as far East to London and it’s surrounding area. We offer Team building Days, Multi Activity Residentials and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expeditions and have over 30 years of experience in the sector, drawn from the Charity, Local Educational Authority and Commercial Sectors
We have been an AIM Member since 2013 and fully appreciate the support they have offered throughout the years. AIM offer support and guidance with a variety of aspects of our business. We enjoy attending their annual conference and learning from guest speakers on these events too.
One of the best parts of our job is successfully delivering outdoor activities to all of our clients. Seeing how young people develop when working with us on courses. Especially when delivering The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and how teams of young people develop over an expedition.
We feel you always have to be willing to adapt in business and that was notable with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expeditions adapting the expeditions, we also adapt our programs so we could deliver Residential in School grounds. We feel with the lack of growth and downturn in the economy there is likely to be less customers in the near future, so diversifying or increasing your client base is likely to be a challenge
From 2022 we have created 2 new Full-time roles within our office team who are Client Managers and oversea a variety of admin roles within the business too. We are really excited to see how these positions grow over the coming years and how it will help us deliver a better-quality product to all of our clients. We will also be developing our venue, The Lake, a 33-acre site set in rural countryside, around a stunningly landscaped lake, yet just 10 minutes out of suburbia and the M4.
It’s simply, one that the client is enjoying themselves. That could be a 7-year-old, for the first time using a flint & steal, or one of SEN School groups trekking in the countryside, excited about seeing sheep, for the first time.
Thanks to Paul Webb from H5 Adventure for sharing his thoughts and support for the Mutual.
Path Hill Outdoors is a non-profit company offering innovative educational and therapeutic programmes based in an outdoor environment. We are known for our intervention programmes for younger people who find the school environment difficult and have been marginalised from mainstream education. We deliver curriculum enhancement days and residential programmes for schools that are designed to match ongoing work in the classroom and organise activities for young people in the holidays.
Path Hill Outdoors registered with Companies House in 2011 so we are approaching our tenth birthday. We have been an AIM member since 2013. Being part of AIM gives us peace of mind. They understand the outdoor industry, our specific needs and being a mutual, fit into our values as a social enterprise.
What I love about Path Hill is the diversity. We work with a wonderful mix of young people, all on different journeys with differing aspirations, skills and needs. Without the requirement to comply to a set curriculum, we can act on the interests of students, respond to seasonal changes, the weather and prioritise a family environment that is both safe and challenging. Coupled with a dedicated staff, a mix of outdoor instructors, artists, play workers and from various trades, I can genuinely say every day is exciting and different.
2020 has been challenging. Path Hill has lost over one third of its revenue. All our summer camps and expeditions have had to be cancelled and we closed for six weeks over Easter. Our work with more vulnerable young people has continued (apart from the six-week blip) and we have been able to focus more on that aspect of our work over the summer and given our students exceptional experiences. We have built tree houses, had overnights on rafts on the River Thames and involved students in all aspects of building a new outdoor kitchen.
During the summer break we put on a fortnight of adventure days for NHS staff and their families. Funded by a local charity, it was our opportunity to say a big thank you to those in the NHS who were on the frontline during the spring. Every day we had four families getting involved in activities such as bushcraft, rafting and woodland play. Each family had an instructor allowing everyone to remain in their ‘bubble’, meals were prepared by members of staff and all equipment was wiped down after each activity. The feedback from the nurses, ancillary workers and general public has been tremendous and the scheme generated a great deal of press interest. We intend to organise something similar for the Christmas break.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to create a lot of uncertainty. We have recently learnt that social groups are limited to six which means that our regular adult groups and pre-school parent and children group will need to be altered to comply with the latest government rules. Our one to one and small group programmes with vulnerable children continues to grow and will be our main revenue stream for this year and probably for 2021 as well. A quieter year has helped us to re-think some of the work we do and how we do it. Without the frantic summer rush of residential camps and expeditions we have been able to focus on quality, re-assess potential demands and needs and invest time into staff training and getting the site ready for the future.
We have recently completed the construction of our new outdoor kitchen with wood ovens. This will greatly expand what we can offer our students and we will develop programmes in outdoor catering, woodland management and metalwork. We are also planning to put on exciting new courses for adults and families once everything is in place.
Thank you to Mark Hillyer, Director at Path Hill Outdoors for providing this interview
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