Agenda item

Victoria Ball (Service Manager – Sports and Recreation, LCC) and Andrew Beddow (Head of Sports, LCC) presented on the Active Leicester Strategy.
It was noted that:

·         The Strategy was published in the summer of 2023, and shared with the Board at that time. It was developed through a collaboration between Public Health and Sports within LCC.

·         The Strategy has been adopted by LCC as guidance for the next 5 years. An action plan is being developed from the Strategy.

·         The focus for this current Strategy (“Turning The Tide”) is on inactivity – which worsened during the Covid pandemic. The key aim is to reduce inactivity by 1% year on year – and this will be monitored though Public Health datasets.

·         The physical and economic benefits for physical activity were noted.

·         The Strategy runs from cradle to grave.

·         The Strategy is a guidance document for stakeholders and partners. Although there is no budget attached, there is some resource via Sports and Public Health staffing. The suggestions are around making tweaks to garner change – and that this is more likely to attract the inactive through non-traditional, local and informal activities.

·         Suggested priority groups include women/girls, Black or Asian residents (particularly in the East of the City), over 65s and residents not in work.

·         As part of the Council’s own actions towards achieving the ambition, Aylestone Leisure centre has been designated as a Health & Wellbeing Hub – and this was kickstarted via a launch event. Sports staff are aiming to work with LCC Housing colleagues to offer tenants six months free access to the Leisure Centre (including free access to the swimming pool and “bring a buddy for free”).

·         Leicester is currently in the second tranche for a new Place-Based Sport England fund (£250 million over four years for the whole of the UK). Presenting Officers felt this gives the partners represented by the Board a good opportunity to collaborate on a bid – and ideas were welcomed from members.

Comments and questions from the Board:-

-       The Chair urged Members to consider their workforces, as well as their communities, in relation to the suggestions in the Strategy.

-       Councillor Clarke urged members to consider the opportunity of this Strategy to promote Active Travel – and particularly our current programmes delivered by Sustrans and Living Streets.

-       The Member representing the Strategic Sports Alliance noted that all the main City Sports Clubs had inputted into the Strategy. He was concerned that the aims of reducing inactivity would be difficult to achieve. He also noted that offering free services in Council Leisure Centres will impact on revenue – and this is at a time when Council budgets are being squeezed and sport provision is not a statutory function for councils. He felt that delivery of the Strategy cannot be done solely by LCC. He also noted that Sport England strategies change each year, and therefore felt this would not provide a reliable source of continued funding. He noted that Active Essex put £20 million into their programme – and was keen to look at their outcomes. The Presenting Officer noted that the focus for the strategy had arisen from stakeholder feedback – but acknowledged it will be challenging to achieve the vision.

-       Kevin Allen-Khimani offered the assistance of VAL in promoting activities and/or volunteering opportunities to the Voluntary Sector.

-       The Director of Public Health noted that the Strategy will be working against an obesogenic environment – and urged members to adopt a “Health In All Policies” approach to help make difficult decisions to create environments more conducive to behaviour change.

-       The Member representing De Montfort University offered to share data from a recent Sport England bid – and to be a critical friend going forward. The Presenting Officers accepted this generous offer.

-       The Members representing LPT noted that staff activity is taken very seriously; this includes good links with Active Together, and “Health & Wellbeing Wednesday” for staff. She made a plea for activities to be seamless across LLR rather than being specific to the City. The Presenting Officer responded that the Strategy had been developed in conjunction with Active Together and hoped that stronger connections between City and County will arise from the Strategy actions.

-       Helen Mather felt that sedentary working for ICB staff was an issue; this is being addressed internally – but she would welcome linking in with the Presenting Officers to maximise this.