How OnSide Youth Zones Scaled Building Management Across a Growing Network of Youth Facilities
OnSide Youth Zones replaced fragmented building management with OpsPal’s digital platform, creating consistency across their network whilst ensuring statutory compliance and efficient staff training for rapid expansion. See how you can benefit with our partnership with Charity Intelligence.
Organisation:
OnSide Youth Zones
Sector:
Charity / Youth Services
Sites Using OpsPal:
21 and adding approx 5 per year
Service Area:
Multi-site youth facilities across the UK
Key Decision-Maker:
Andrew Taylor
Key Outcomes Achieved:
Scalable Training
Digital training platform replaces inefficient repeated sessions
Compliance Confidence
Complete audit trail for statutory compliance
Network Consistency
Standard approach across all Youth Zones
About OnSide Youth Zones
OnSide Youth Zones is a UK charity that works with local communities, philanthropists, and statutory partners to create world-class youth centres called Youth Zones. Each Youth Zone provides young people aged 8-19 (up to 25 for those with disabilities) with somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to.
OnSide Youth Zones operate a rapidly growing network of purpose-built facilities across the UK, each delivering:
- Youth work programmes and activities
- Sports and fitness facilities
- Arts, music, and creative spaces
- Training and development opportunities
- Safe, supervised environments for young people
- The Challenge of Rapid Growth:
OnSide’s mission is ambitious—to ensure every young person in the UK has access to a Youth Zone within reach of where they live. This means rapid expansion, with new buildings coming on board regularly through to 2025 and beyond.
The Network Structure:
Each Youth Zone operates as an independent charity with its own:
- Building and facilities
- Staff team (full-time staff and volunteers)
- Board of trustees
- CEO responsible for operations
OnSide provides central support, expertise, and standards to ensure consistency and quality across the network.
The Scale of the Challenge:
With multiple new Youth Zones opening, OnSide faced the challenge of:
- Training new building management staff efficiently
- Ensuring consistent standards across all facilities
- Maintaining statutory compliance at every site
- Supporting CEOs and trustees with their legal responsibilities
- Managing high staff turnover in building management roles
- Scaling support without scaling resources proportionally
The Challenge: Scaling Building Management Across a Growing Network
Before implementing OpsPal, OnSide Youth Zones faced significant challenges in managing building operations across their expanding network. The traditional approaches that worked for a handful of Youth Zones weren’t sustainable as the network grew.
The Volume Challenge: Rapid Expansion to 2025
OnSide’s ambitious growth plans created urgent operational challenges:
“The volume of new buildings to hand over by 2025 necessitates a different, more efficient way in which to conduct handover training and future support to the Network.”
The Expansion Reality:
OnSide wasn’t adding one or two Youth Zones—they were scaling rapidly:
- Multiple new buildings coming on board
- Each requiring comprehensive handover training
- Building management teams needing training on statutory compliance
- Limited central team to deliver this training
- Traditional face-to-face training becoming impossible to scale
The Traditional Approach Wasn’t Sustainable:
Previously, OnSide would:
- Deliver face-to-face training at each new Youth Zone
- Provide paper-based compliance systems
- Rely on individual building managers to maintain records
- Respond reactively when compliance issues were discovered
- Repeat training when staff left and new managers arrived
This approach worked for a small network but became impossible as OnSide grew. The central team couldn’t be everywhere at once, and there was no way to ensure consistency across dispersed sites.
The Record-Keeping Problem
As the network grew, OnSide identified a critical operational risk:
“As we grow, we need to ensure that good record keeping happens, particularly for the statutory compliance issues needing attention.”
The Compliance Risk:
Youth Zones are public buildings with significant health and safety responsibilities:
- Gas safety checks
- Electrical testing
- Fire safety systems
- Legionella risk management
- Asbestos management (in some buildings)
- General building maintenance
- Equipment inspections
The Problem with Fragmented Systems:
Each Youth Zone was managing these responsibilities differently:
- Some used paper logbooks
- Others used spreadsheets
- Some had bespoke systems
- No central visibility of compliance status
- No way to confirm tasks were actually being completed
- Difficult to demonstrate compliance during inspections
The Audit Trail Gap:
“We find all too often when a staff member leaves that these statutory compliance tasks have just not been carried out or that poor records have been kept, leaving the CEO and trustees open to prosecution were something serious to happen and an investigation to be held. Put simply, there is no audit trail.”
This was the critical issue: without proper audit trails, CEOs and trustees of individual Youth Zones faced personal legal liability if something went wrong and compliance couldn’t be demonstrated.
The Staff Turnover Challenge
Building management roles in youth facilities often experience high turnover:
“We see a considerable turnover in building management staff in new and existing Youth Zones, and this results in a need to repeat training across the network, which is time-consuming and inefficient.”
The Training Treadmill:
When a building manager left, OnSide had to:
- Find and recruit a replacement
- Provide comprehensive handover training
- Ensure they understood all statutory compliance requirements
- Verify they knew how to maintain proper records
- Hope they would actually complete all required tasks
Then, when that person left (often within 1-2 years), the cycle started again. Across a growing network, this created an unsustainable demand for training resources.
The Knowledge Loss Problem:
When building managers left:
- Critical knowledge walked out the door
- Previous compliance history was unclear
- New managers didn’t know what tasks were overdue
- Records were incomplete or missing
- OnSide’s central team had to piece together compliance status
The Inefficiency:
Each time a new building manager started:
- OnSide staff travelled to the Youth Zone for training
- Training took multiple days
- The new manager struggled to retain all information
- Within weeks, they’d forgotten critical procedures
- They’d call OnSide with questions that had already been covered
- The central team spent significant time on repeated training
This was inefficient, expensive, and didn’t scale as the network grew.
The Consistency Challenge
With each Youth Zone managing buildings differently, OnSide had no way to ensure consistent standards:
Different Approaches:
- Youth Zone A used detailed paper checklists
- Youth Zone B had a simple spreadsheet
- Youth Zone C relied on the building manager’s memory
- Youth Zone D had a sophisticated local system
- Youth Zone E was somewhere in between
The Problems This Created:
- Inconsistent compliance: Some Youth Zones were meticulous, others were not
- No benchmarking: Couldn’t compare performance across sites
- Difficult central support: Each site needed bespoke advice
- Knowledge sharing impossible: Best practices couldn’t be cascaded
- Quality variation: Young people’s experience varied by location
OnSide wanted consistency—the same high standards at every Youth Zone, regardless of who the building manager was or how long they’d been in post.
The Central Support Problem
OnSide’s central team (Openings Team, Property Team, Operations Team) needed to support multiple Youth Zones simultaneously:
Support Challenges:
- Can’t visit every site regularly
- Difficult to know which sites need help most urgently
- Reactive rather than proactive support
- Time spent answering basic questions repeatedly
- No visibility of compliance status without asking each site
- Difficult to prioritise resources effectively
Training Delivery Challenges:
- Travel time to deliver training in person
- Training sessions need repeating for each new building manager
- Content becomes outdated but paper materials already distributed
- No confirmation that training has been completed or understood
- Volunteers need training but traditional methods too resource-intensive
The Risk to CEOs and Trustees
The most serious concern was the legal risk to individual Youth Zones:
Legal Responsibilities:
Each Youth Zone’s CEO and trustees are legally responsible for:
- Health and safety of young people, staff, and visitors
- Statutory compliance (gas, electrical, fire, water, etc.)
- Proper maintenance of the building
- Due diligence in managing risks
The Problem Without Proper Systems:
If something serious happened (fire, legionella outbreak, gas explosion, etc.) and an investigation was held:
- Could the CEO demonstrate they had proper systems in place?
- Could they prove statutory checks had been completed?
- Was there an audit trail showing due diligence?
- Could they demonstrate staff were properly trained?
Without robust systems, the answer was often “no” or “unclear.” This put volunteer trustees and charity CEOs at personal legal risk—an unacceptable situation for OnSide to allow across their network.
The Wider Operational Challenge
Beyond statutory compliance, OnSide recognised that better systems could improve all Youth Zone operations:
Operational Risk Assessments:
- Youth work involves inherent risks (trips, activities, sports)
- Each activity needs proper risk assessment
- Risk assessments need to be up-to-date and accessible
- Staff and volunteers need to know they exist and follow them
Youth Work Training:
- Full-time staff need comprehensive training
- Part-time staff need role-specific training
- Volunteers need appropriate training for their involvement
- Training needs tracking and refreshing
- Safeguarding requirements apply to everyone
Communication Challenges:
- Important updates need cascading to all Youth Zones
- Different staff need different information
- Need confirmation that critical messages have been received
- Current methods (email, phone calls) were insufficient
OnSide wanted a comprehensive solution that addressed building management but also supported the wider operational needs of running safe, effective Youth Zones.
The Bottom Line
OnSide Youth Zones needed a system that would:
- Scale with their rapid network growth
- Ensure consistent standards across all sites
- Create proper audit trails for statutory compliance
- Support efficient training delivery and ongoing knowledge management
- Reduce the burden on the central support team
- Protect CEOs and trustees from legal liability
- Enable proactive rather than reactive management
- Support not just building management but wider Youth Zone operations
Traditional approaches—paper systems, spreadsheets, face-to-face training—couldn’t deliver this. OnSide needed a digital platform designed for multi-site operations with compliance at its heart.
The Solution: OpsPal’s Digital Platform for Multi-Site Youth Facilities
OnSide Youth Zones conducted a thorough evaluation of potential solutions, involving their Openings Team, IT team, and operational stakeholders.
The Evaluation Process
“We have scoped out the benefits of the OpsPal system and have included members of OnSide’s Openings Team and IT team in the review of the system. A face-to-face presentation by OpsPal showed the system capabilities and benefits.”
Why OpsPal Was Selected:
OnSide identified that OpsPal offered unique benefits for their specific needs:
Primary Requirement – Compliance Tracking: “As well as the strong compliance tracking capabilities of OpsPal, there are also extremely positive reasons to employ this system for the wider operational aspects of running a Youth Zone.”
Broader Operational Benefits: “Operational risk assessments and youth work training from core full-time staff down to volunteers.”
OpsPal wasn’t just a compliance tool—it addressed building management, youth work operations, training, and network consistency simultaneously.
Implementation Approach
OnSide took a strategic approach to implementing OpsPal across their network:
1. Central Setup: OnSide’s team built a standard OpsPal configuration that could be deployed to each Youth Zone:
- Standard risk assessments for building management
- Standard procedures for statutory compliance
- Training modules relevant to all Youth Zones
- Task schedules for routine compliance activities
- Templates for youth work risk assessments
2. Network Rollout: Rather than each Youth Zone creating their own systems, OnSide could deploy the standard configuration:
- New Youth Zones receive OpsPal as part of their opening process
- Existing Youth Zones migrated from their various systems
- Central updates cascade automatically to all sites
- Consistency achieved from day one
3. Training Delivery: “The support from OpsPal has been extremely helpful, from showing OnSide how to manage/build the system to arranging training sessions for users.”
OpsPal supported OnSide to:
- Build their central system effectively
- Train OnSide’s team to manage the platform
- Deliver training sessions for users across the network
- Provide ongoing support as the network grows
How OpsPal Transformed OnSide’s Operations
OpsPal addressed each of OnSide’s challenges through its core features:
Challenge 1: Scaling Training for Network Growth
OpsPal Solution – Procedures Portal: “A training portal where online training videos and literature can be held. This can be used as part of a new starter’s induction and is an auditable record of what training has been completed, by whom and when. Again, from full-time staff to volunteers.”
The Transformation:
Instead of repeating face-to-face training at each site:
- Training content created once, available everywhere
- Video demonstrations showing exactly how to complete tasks
- New building managers access training on demand
- Volunteers can complete required training modules
- Automatic tracking of who has completed what training
- Central updates immediately available across the network
Efficiency Gain: One training module created centrally replaces dozens of individual training sessions. As the network grows, training scales without additional resource.
Challenge 2: Ensuring Statutory Compliance Records
OpsPal Solution – Checks Module: “Statutory compliance and routine building maintenance tasks can be programmed and checked against. Have they been done?”
The Transformation:
Instead of relying on individual building managers to remember tasks:
- All statutory compliance checks scheduled in the system
- Automatic reminders when tasks are due
- Building managers complete checks digitally
- Automatic timestamping and user tracking
- Central visibility of compliance status across all Youth Zones
- Complete audit trail for inspections and investigations
The Audit Trail: “Put simply, there is no audit trail” → Complete digital audit trail of all compliance activities, automatically created and permanently stored.
Challenge 3: Creating Consistency Across the Network
OpsPal Solution – Centralised Standards: “Consistency across the network.”
The Transformation:
Instead of each Youth Zone doing things differently:
- Standard risk assessments used everywhere
- Same procedures accessible at all sites
- Consistent training content
- Same compliance checks scheduled
- Uniform approach to problem reporting
- Central updates cascade automatically
The Consistency Benefit: OnSide can ensure that every Youth Zone operates to the same high standards, regardless of local staff or circumstances.
Challenge 4: Managing Staff Turnover
OpsPal Solution – Knowledge Repository: “Risk Assessments – A repository of up-to-date RAs that can be used for building FM and YZ youth work operational situations. Always live. Always in one place.”
The Transformation:
When a building manager leaves:
- All procedures remain accessible in OpsPal
- Compliance history is clear and complete
- New manager can see exactly what’s been done and what’s outstanding
- Training modules available for onboarding
- No knowledge loss when people leave
Efficiency Gain: New building managers get up to speed faster with less central support needed.
Challenge 5: Central Visibility and Support
OpsPal Solution – Dashboard and Reporting: “Dashboard visibility” and “Improved Management Information and reporting”
The Transformation:
OnSide’s central team can now:
- See compliance status across all Youth Zones
- Identify sites that need support
- Prioritise resources effectively
- Demonstrate compliance to trustees and funders
- Make data-informed decisions about support
The Support Benefit: Proactive rather than reactive support—OnSide can see issues before they become problems.
Challenge 6: Problem Reporting and Response
OpsPal Solution – Problem Manager: “Youth Zone staff (anyone with access to OpsPal) can report a problem with the building needing the Building Manager’s attention. Could an issue be identified in the session that could affect the new day, etc.? Categorised and urgency ranked.”
The Transformation:
Instead of problems being reported informally:
- Any staff member can log building issues in OpsPal
- Problems categorised and prioritised
- Building manager receives notifications
- Track problems through to resolution
- Identify recurring issues
- Demonstrate responsive maintenance
The Safety Benefit: Youth workers can flag safety concerns immediately, ensuring they’re addressed before the next session.
Challenge 7: Supporting Wider Youth Zone Operations
OpsPal Solution – Comprehensive Platform: Beyond building management, OpsPal supports youth work operations:
Operational Risk Assessments:
- Risk assessments for all youth activities
- Accessible to relevant staff
- Updated centrally, available instantly everywhere
- Track who has read each risk assessment
Youth Work Training:
- Training modules for youth work practices
- Safeguarding training tracking
- Volunteer training and induction
- Complete training matrix from CEO to volunteers
Task Management: “Helpful task manager as part of internal reporting.”
- Beyond compliance checks, general task management
- Assign actions from meetings or incidents
- Track completion
- Ensure nothing gets missed
The Comprehensive Benefit: One system supporting building management, youth work operations, training, and compliance—not multiple fragmented systems.
The Results: Transformation Across the Network
The implementation of OpsPal has delivered significant benefits for OnSide Youth Zones across multiple dimensions.
Key Advantages Achieved
OnSide identified eight key advantages from implementing OpsPal:
1. Consistency Across the Network
Every Youth Zone now operates with:
- The same risk assessments
- The same procedures
- The same compliance schedules
- The same training content
- The same approach to problem management
The Impact: Young people receive the same quality of safe environment regardless of which Youth Zone they attend. OnSide can confidently articulate network-wide standards.
2. Compliance and Accountability
“Compliance and accountability”
Complete Audit Trails: Every statutory compliance check is:
- Scheduled automatically
- Completed with digital timestamp
- Recorded with user identification
- Permanently stored for inspection
- Visible to central team
The Legal Protection: CEOs and trustees can now demonstrate due diligence. If something happened and an investigation was held, OpsPal provides clear evidence of proper systems, completed checks, and appropriate management.
3. H&S Training and Inductions All in One Place
Comprehensive Training Platform: “H&S Training and Inductions all in one place”
All training is now centralised:
- Building management training
- Statutory compliance training
- Youth work training
- Safeguarding training
- Role-specific training
- General inductions
For All Staff Types: “From core full-time staff down to volunteers”
Whether you’re the CEO, building manager, youth worker, or volunteer helper, relevant training is accessible and tracked.
4. Facility Checks and Inspections Scheduled
“Facility Checks and Inspections scheduled”
Never Miss Critical Checks: All building inspections are programmed:
- Daily checks (where required)
- Weekly inspections
- Monthly compliance checks
- Quarterly equipment inspections
- Annual statutory testing
Automatic Reminders: Building managers receive notifications when checks are due, ensuring nothing is overlooked even during busy periods.
5. Operational Improvements
“Operational Improvements”
Beyond statutory compliance:
- Youth work activities risk-assessed systematically
- Problems identified and resolved faster
- Better coordination between central team and sites
- Proactive maintenance rather than reactive repairs
- Improved communication across the network
6. Improved Management Information and Reporting
“Improved Management Information and reporting”
Data-Driven Decisions: OnSide’s leadership and trustees can now:
- See compliance status across the entire network
- Identify Youth Zones needing support
- Demonstrate performance to funders
- Make informed resource allocation decisions
- Report confidently to stakeholders
7. Better Communications Between Management and Staff
“Better Communications between management and staff”
Effective Cascading:
- Central updates distributed through OpsPal
- Confirmation that critical messages have been received
- Two-way communication through problem reporting
- Clear accountability for actions
8. Greater Organisational Agility and Accountability
“Greater Organisational Agility and accountability”
Agile Network Management:
- Respond quickly to legislative changes (update once, cascade everywhere)
- Adapt to new requirements rapidly
- Support new Youth Zones efficiently
- Scale without proportional resource increase
Clear Accountability:
- Who is responsible for what is clear
- Completion of tasks is tracked
- Performance is visible
- Support can be targeted where needed
Efficiency Gains
“Efficiency Gains”
Time Savings:
- Training delivered once, available everywhere
- Reduced travel for central team
- Less time answering repeated questions
- Faster onboarding of new building managers
- Fewer compliance issues to resolve reactively
Resource Effectiveness: OnSide’s central team can support more Youth Zones without proportional increase in staffing, enabling the network growth that’s central to OnSide’s mission.
Cost Benefits:
- Reduced training delivery costs
- Fewer compliance breaches
- Lower insurance risk
- More efficient use of property team time
Expanding Use Across Departments
“Yes, we have started to roll out across other departments/business functions.”
OnSide recognised that OpsPal’s benefits extend beyond building management:
Current Rollout:
- Building management (original use case)
- Youth work operations and risk assessments
- Volunteer training and management
- Central office procedures and training
Future Opportunities:
- Safeguarding procedures and training
- Programme development and rollout
- Event planning and risk assessment
- Organisational policies and governance
The system that solved building management challenges is now supporting OnSide’s wider operational needs.
The User Experience: OpsPal from OnSide’s Perspective
System Usability
“The system is very user-friendly and easy to use.”
Why This Matters: Youth Zone staff are focused on serving young people, not technology. Systems need to be intuitive:
- Building managers can complete compliance checks quickly
- Youth workers can access risk assessments easily
- Volunteers can complete training without technical support
- New starters get up to speed rapidly
Built-In Support
“OpsPal has a very helpful and informative range of self-help training tutorials built into the platform that are very easy to search for.”
Self-Service Learning: OnSide staff can:
- Find answers to questions without contacting support
- Learn new features independently
- Refresh their knowledge when needed
- Train new staff using built-in resources
The Benefit: Reduced dependency on central team or external support. Staff become self-sufficient quickly.
Responsive Support
“OpsPal are very quick to respond to questions or when help is required.”
When Support Is Needed:
- Quick response times
- Helpful and practical guidance
- Understanding of charity sector needs
- Flexible and accommodating approach
Continuous Evolution
“The system is constantly evolving and OpsPal request input from users and look at implementing any suggestions etc.”
Partnership Approach: OpsPal listens to OnSide’s needs:
- Requests for features are considered
- User feedback influences development
- System improves based on real-world use
- OnSide feels heard and valued
The Partnership Benefit: OnSide isn’t just buying software—they’re partnering with a company that wants them to succeed and actively works to make the product better for their needs.
The Strategic Impact: Enabling OnSide’s Mission
The implementation of OpsPal has done more than solve operational problems—it has enabled OnSide’s strategic mission.
Enabling Rapid Network Growth
OnSide’s goal is ambitious: ensure every young person in the UK has access to a Youth Zone. This requires opening many new Youth Zones quickly.
Before OpsPal: Each new Youth Zone created significant operational burden:
- Extensive handover training required
- Unclear whether compliance systems were effective
- High-touch support needed from central team
- Inconsistent quality across network
- Scalability concerns as network grew
With OpsPal:
- New Youth Zones receive proven systems from day one
- Training scales without additional resource
- Central team can support more sites
- Confidence in consistent standards
- Sustainable growth model
The Strategic Benefit: OpsPal removes a major constraint on network growth. OnSide can open new Youth Zones faster and more confidently.
Protecting Charitable Assets and Reputation
Youth Zones are significant charitable assets:
- Multi-million-pound buildings
- Trusted by communities
- Dependent on public and philanthropic support
- Reputations easily damaged by safety failures
The Reputational Risk: One serious safety incident at one Youth Zone could damage the entire network’s reputation and impact fundraising across all sites.
OpsPal’s Protective Value:
- Demonstrates due diligence and proper systems
- Creates evidence of responsible management
- Prevents compliance failures that lead to incidents
- Protects CEOs, trustees, and the wider network
The Charitable Benefit: Philanthropists, local authorities, and communities can have confidence that Youth Zones are professionally managed and safe.
Supporting Volunteer Governance
Youth Zones are independent charities governed by volunteer trustees who have legal responsibilities but limited time.
The Trustee Challenge: Trustees need:
- Confidence that buildings are properly managed
- Evidence of compliance with legal duties
- Assurance that young people are safe
- Efficient oversight without excessive time commitment
OpsPal’s Governance Support:
- Dashboard visibility for trustees
- Clear reporting on compliance status
- Evidence for governance meetings
- Demonstrated accountability
The Governance Benefit: Trustees can fulfil their duties effectively and have confidence in operational management.
Demonstrating Impact to Funders
OnSide relies on philanthropic funding and local authority partnerships to establish new Youth Zones.
Funder Requirements: Funders increasingly want:
- Evidence of professional management
- Demonstration of value for money
- Confidence in operational sustainability
- Proof of consistent quality
OpsPal’s Funding Value:
- Professional systems demonstrate maturity
- Data and reporting show accountability
- Consistent standards show quality control
- Efficiency gains demonstrate value for money
The Funding Benefit: OpsPal helps OnSide demonstrate that they’re a reliable, professional partner worthy of significant investment.
Testimonial
What Andrew Taylor Says
OnSide Youth Zones has provided a comprehensive assessment of OpsPal’s impact on their operations.
On the Challenge:
“The volume of new buildings to hand over by 2025 necessitates a different, more efficient way in which to conduct handover training and future support to the Network. As we grow, we need to ensure that good record keeping happens, particularly for the statutory compliance issues needing attention.”
On the Problem:
“We find all too often when a staff member leaves that these statutory compliance tasks have just not been carried out or that poor records have been kept, leaving the CEO and trustees open to prosecution were something serious to happen and an investigation to be held. Put simply, there is no audit trail.”
On the Solution:
“We have looked at how we can scale up our training offer and provide a suitable digital management system for new Youth Zone projects but also add more rigour into the day-to-day facilities management checks and measures needed to comply with H&S legislation.”
On the Results:
“There is an opportunity to provide each Youth Zone with a standard platform to conduct building-related training but also provide a repository of up-to-date risk assessments and training modules which can be centrally updated by OnSide, ensuring current legislation and best practice are cascaded down to the Network. A consistent approach to delivery.”
On OpsPal’s Support:
“The support from OpsPal has been extremely helpful, from showing OnSide how to manage/build the system to arranging training sessions for users. OpsPal are very quick to respond to questions or when help is required.”
On System Usability:
“The system is very user-friendly and easy to use. The system is constantly evolving and OpsPal request input from users and look at implementing any suggestions etc.”
OpsPal Features Used by OnSide Youth Zones
✓ Risk Assessments – Repository of up-to-date risk assessments for building management and youth work operations, always live and in one place
✓ Procedures – Training portal with online videos and literature for inductions and ongoing training from full-time staff to volunteers
✓ Checks – Statutory compliance and routine building maintenance tasks programmed and tracked
✓ Tasks – Task manager for internal reporting with dashboard visibility
✓ Problem Manager – Youth Zone staff can report building problems needing attention, categorised and urgency-ranked
✓ Training Matrix – Auditable record of training completion by all staff and volunteers
✓ Document Management – Central repository accessible across the entire network
✓ Multi-Site Management – Central configuration deployed to all Youth Zones with automatic updates
✓ Dashboard – Management information and reporting for central team oversight
Key Success Factors & Industry context for Multi-site Charity Operators
Key Success Factors
What made OnSide’s OpsPal implementation successful:
1. Strategic Evaluation Involving Openings Team and IT team in system review ensured all perspectives were considered and buy-in was achieved.
2. Central Configuration Building a standard system centrally that could be deployed to all Youth Zones ensured consistency from the start.
3. Comprehensive Scope Recognising that OpsPal could support wider operations beyond just building management maximised value.
4. Partnership Approach Working collaboratively with OpsPal to build the system appropriately for charity sector needs.
5. Network Rollout Starting to roll out across departments/business functions to maximise organisational benefits.
6. Training Investment Using OpsPal’s training capabilities and support to ensure effective user adoption.
Industry Context: Multi-Site Charity Operations
OnSide Youth Zones’ success with OpsPal demonstrates the particular challenges and opportunities for charities operating multiple facilities:
Multi-Site Charity Challenges:
- Limited central resources serving dispersed sites
- Volunteer governance with legal responsibilities
- High staff turnover, particularly in operational roles
- Need for consistent standards across the network
- Reputational risk from single-site failures
- Dependency on funder confidence
- Safeguarding and duty of care requirements
Why Traditional Systems Fail Multi-Site Charities:
- Each site develops own approaches (inconsistency)
- Central team can’t visit all sites regularly
- Training doesn’t scale efficiently
- No visibility of compliance across network
- Audit trails are incomplete or missing
- Knowledge lost when staff leave
- Statutory compliance risks accumulate
The OpsPal Advantage for Multi-Site Charities:
- Central configuration, local deployment
- Consistent standards enforced systematically
- Training scales without additional resource
- Complete visibility across the network
- Comprehensive audit trails
- Knowledge retained in the system
- Statutory compliance managed proactively
- Protects trustees and CEOs legally
OnSide’s experience shows that multi-site charities can achieve operational excellence and sustainable growth through digital transformation.