British Gymnastics is ready to roll out its National Leisure Centre Participation Scheme (NLCPS) after first introducing the initiative last September at the Leisure Industry Week (LIW) trade show.

The scheme is part of the UK national governing body’s work to increase the quality and quantity of gymnastics provision throughout the UK.

The NLCPS's main objectives are to increase the number of British Gymnastics-approved leisure centres across the UK and the levels of participation within those leisure centres.

Since its launch, the scheme has been piloted at centres operated by DC Leisure, Greenwich Leisure and Dumfries and Galloway. It will now be rolled out nationally throughout 2009 in the build up to 2012.

Research conducted during the pilot period has shown that participation levels can increase by between 50 to 120 per cent in centres as a result of British Gymnastics-endorsement and improved focus.

It also aims to improve standards of the delivery of the sport – currently 25 per cent of coaches employed in unregistered centres are either unqualified or hold out of date qualifications.

Karl Dietrich, spokesperson for British Gymnastics, said: “Working with local authorities and trusts in the leisure sector is important to us, and after talking to many it’s clear that we have shared objectives in terms of quality of delivery and reassurance for the parents.

“LIW was the first time that we properly promoted ourselves and presented British Gymnastics to the leisure industry and we were delighted with the positive response and are now in discussions with a significant number of operators.”