Leisure Assistant

Durham County Council are seeking to recruit Leisure Assistants

Are you passionate about health, fitness, and wellbeing? This is an exciting opportunity to do what you love. THRIVE with Durham Leisure Centres.

We have a number of Leisure Assistant positions available Consett Leisure Centre and Freemans Quay Leisure Centre. These are exciting roles that present an opportunity for you to engage with all remits of our centres.

Consett Leisure Centre

19.5 hours permanent post

29.5 hours permanent post

33 hours permanent post

37 hours permanent post

Freemans Quay Leisure Centre

3 x 37 hours permanent posts

Chester le Street Leisure Centre

15 hours permanent post

37 hours permanent post

25 hours permanent post

WHAT IS INVOLVED?

As a Leisure Assistant, you will be an advocate for physical activity, proactively encouraging and supporting customers to live a healthy, active lifestyle. You will be responsible for supporting the full remit of the centre, including lifeguard duties and encouraging children and young people to be more active. Overall, you will provide a high-quality service to our customers that is safe, efficient, and enjoyable. No two days will be the same.

We encourage you to contact Peter Symms, Leisure Operations Manager at to arrange an informal discussion about the role.

WHAT WILL I NEED?

You must have experience in a customer focused environment and/or leisure centre and/or gym, together with effective communication skills.

• National Pool Lifeguard qualification (if facility has a swimming pool)

• Level 2 gym instructor or equivalent at all dryside facilities (or willingness to work towards in facilities with a swimming pool)

• First Aid Certificate or ability to work towards within an agreed time scale

In line with the pre-employment checks required for posts at facilities with a swimming pool where lifeguarding is part of the role, confirmation of appointment will be subject to the satisfactory completion of an in-house pool water competency assessment in respect of ability against the lifeguarding criteria.

The successful applicants for these posts will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.

Please refer to the attached person specification for the full criteria.

INTERVIEWS

Interviews will be held on 1 December 2025

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked after young person, care leaver or a veteran.

OUR OFFER TO YOU

We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website )

Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION

We are a proud equal opportunities employer and believe a diverse workforce brings fresh ideas and drives service improvement. We welcome applications from everyone and make employment decisions based on skills and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled people and offer support throughout the recruitment process.

HOW TO APPLY

Please note, we do not accept CVs. All applications must be submitted online via the Northeast Jobs portal. Use the Person Specification section of the form to clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential (and where possible, desirable) criteria. Applications that do not evidence the essential requirements will not be shortlisted. For guidance on completing your application, visit our website )

If you require assistance when applying for this role, please contact our Recruitment Helpdesk on option 5), or via email

All correspondence relating to your application will be sent from Kindly check your spam/junk folder regularly to ensure you dont miss any updates.

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