Barry Causer (Public Health Lead for Adults, Health Improvement and Health Protection) and David Gentles (Head of Sports and Leisure) introduced the item.

Barry informed the committee that the focus on physical health was because it was also good for mental health, to connect socially and could be fun.

Merton performed well when compared to London and national averages but as detailed in 2.2 of the report, 31,000 Merton residents were physically inactive and these were the residents that they wanted to engage in the program.

Merton also performed well compared to national averages when they looked at physically active young people but there were still 16,000 children and young people not active enough to benefit their health. The partnership approach from the Health and Wellbeing Board and Merton Health and Care together was welcomed and positive.

The Borough of Sport and Actively Merton teams worked closely over the last 8-9 months and would continue to do so.

Over the pass 12 months, Actively Merton was able to identify funding and delivered Beat the Street. 14 grants to local voluntary sector organisations valued at a total of £15,000 were also awarded. The grants had the dual purpose of gaining more physical activity over the summer and to further understand the barriers of participation so that this could be addressed. The continued insight would be crucial and shared with the board.

Active Merton worked with the Borough of Sport team on Park Play as detailed in the report under section 3.5. Play was the fundamental building block of an active lifestyle. Funding had been identified and programs were put in place for 2hrs of free community play in Cannons Mitcham, with the view of extending this further.

Evidence from Park Play showed that it helped individuals overcome the barrier to participation. Over 57% of the Park Play players were women and girls, 78% of which were inactive or barely active and over 3 quarters said their family activity increased.

In June 2023 they held a workshop to discuss the assets within Merton and the barriers which needed to be addressed. Section 3.8 of the report detailed some of the barriers such as supporting older people to be more active, toilet provisions, opportunities to work with organisations across the borough, ways to encourage residents as they aged to maintain activity levels and support for careers and residents with dementia. For women and girls, some of the barriers mentioned were personal safety and a lack of women only opportunities. Some suggestions put forward were intergenerational classes, childcare provisions and social elements to the activities. Residents with a disability mentioned barriers such as a lack of leisure provisions and awareness. Having assessed the evidence, they now looked at putting together an action plan to further promote physical and social activity alongside communications and awareness.

Evaluation of Actively Merton remained an important focus and they planed to put in an application to the first program of public health intervention responsiveness studies which would look at working with local academics who wanted to work with the public health teams to evaluate their public health programs.

David informed the committee that having worked in sport and leisure for nearly 20 years he has not come across a borough which used sport and physical activity and the power that it had to changed people’s lives in this way.

In June, a cabinet paper was approved for the Borough of Sport with the Big Sports Day being the official launch of the 3 year ambition.

There were many residents who wanted and needed support so it was important to  work with community partners and supported local groups. Two activator roles would be imbedded in the community to support this.

Getting inactive people more active was a difficult ambition and could only be achieved by finding a mechanism which connected people who were delivering activities to people within the community that were inactive. A key fundamental part of the ambition was to create a bespoke Merton activity finder which allowed residents to find appropriate activities and for those within the community who delivered activities to target new participants. This was due to be launch around October.

Over the 3 years, it was important to gain good measurement and evaluation of the activities taking place. On a global scale there were two measures, one was the active life survey, conducted by Support England on an annual basis and was the main measure for adults. Merton planned to upscale the Children and Young People Active Lives Data Survey to include every single school in the Borough on an annual basis and would be the only borough in London and Nationwide to do so. The information provided from both surveys would provide robust data of young people participation as well as attitudinal data. This would allow resources to be directed where it was needed.

Next steps from Barry and David were to continue to update the action plans, deliver the programs, work with and listen to communities and work together as Actively Merton and the Borough of Sport.

Actively Merton and the Borough of Sport both recognised the importance of the workforce and looking after staff and requested that board members promoted the Merton Big Sports Day.

In response to questions, the following was stated:

•         They recognised that whilst the priority was for 4-16 year olds and over 65’s, to address the barriers for girls and women they have spoken to the Head of Community Safety. Due to the challenge of winter and the darker nights they have explored approaches such as buddy schemes. They would also look at how they could maximise opportunities such as Sport England This Girl Can to promote activities.

•         To address barriers for those with disabilities, they spoke with the Cabinet member for Sport and Heritage. Addressing barriers for those with disabilities was likely to be one of their first priorities, looking at local organisations and key national and regional organisations for how they could improve opportunities for those with disabilities. Promoting role models would also be an important part of the approach.

•         With 7 libraries in Merton, 600 events took place per week. They also linked with Nuffield Health who offered a range of free health activities in libraries, mainly for older people.

•         They planned to link in with the Primary Care Team to further support those in need.

•         Planned discussions with the London Youth Games were to take place to further reach those within SEND and disability groups. Going forward, one of the exemplars would be specifically targeted at young people with learning difficulties and disabilities.

•         Holiday activity and food programs took place every full holiday and half term, with a push from officers to ensure children and young people with SEND were included. Additional resources were in place to ensure providers could support children with disabilities during the sessions and they have since seen an increase in participation.

•         Special thanks were given to those in the community and voluntary sector who were instrumental in the work that they continued to do. 

RESOLVED: That the Board agreed the recommendations.