Nearly everyone is concerned about the cost-of-living crisis, and many are desperately worried about being able to heat their home and feed themselves and their families this winter. Whilst many will welcome the reassurance of a £100bn investment by Government, businesses are waiting to see the detail of what support they may be offered in order to plan. Some might say that in the circumstances, the future of public sport and leisure is a secondary importance. Clearly a strategy to deal with the immediate cost of living issues is needed, but we say it is also vital to retain and support adequate infrastructure that enables everyone to lead a healthy lifestyle.
It is now well known that physical activity has significant health benefits for hearts, bodies and minds. Regular physical activity contributes to preventing and managing risk of serious illness such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes and plays a key role in helping people recover their health.
We also know that there are huge pressures on the NHS and social care services, and these in turn rely on public sport and leisure facilities to provide important activities to supplement primary and secondary care such as exercise on referral schemes, social prescribing activities and rehabilitation services. 66% of cancer rehabilitation takes place in leisure facilities, 79% of leisure centres are used in social prescribing programmes and over the last 5 years, 94% of council leisure centres have been used in schemes to tackle health inequalities and 84% have been used in projects aimed at ‘hard to reach’ community members.
Councils provide over 1,000 public pools in England alone, and 85% of young people learn to swim in them. They are the cornerstone of our aquatic provision, providing the majority of places in which people learn the essential life skill of swimming and providing safe places to swim, helping to prevent drowning. The school swimming curriculum cannot be delivered without them, and they play a vital role in promoting health and well-being for all. Worryingly, almost 5 million school swimming lessons were lost during the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming[i] identified that by 2025-26, the number of children leaving primary school unable to swim 25m could rise to 3 in 5 (from the pre pandemic level of 1 in 4).
Currently, Councils spend over £1 billion on health and fitness facilities, leisure centres and swimming pools. The pandemic, cost of living and energy price rises are hitting hard, just at a time when we would want our pools and gyms to be playing a full and vital role supporting in communities’ recovery from Covid. These financial pressures are putting the future of many swimming pools and leisure sites at risk – it is reported that 1 in 4 councils are considering closing some leisure facilities. Factor in the challenges of reducing carbon emissions, ageing stock, declining swimming literacy and falling levels of physical activity in schools[ii], then it is clear that a perfect storm is brewing. And the loss of facilities and services could have a disproportionate impact on more disadvantaged areas and communities where the publicly provided offer is the only accessible option. Clearly this would have a hugely detrimental impact of the abilities of many people to lead active and healthy lives.
CLOA is part of the LGPAP (Local Government Physical Activity Partnership) and together we ask the newly formed Government to hear and respond to the call for action highlighted in last summers’ APSE, LGA & CLOA report, ‘Securing the Future of public sport and leisure services’ and start work with the sector to find solutions – inevitably strategic re-assessment and Government funding needs to be part of this, alongside addressing energy consumption via decarbonisation. We also call on Government to recognise public sport and leisure services as strategic partners, particularly in shaping places, contributing to the levelling up agenda and tackling health inequalities, and for Government departments to work closely together to recognise the benefit of the public leisure estate, acknowledging the priceless role such facilities play, and the implications of not taking action – both in the short and long term for our nation’s health, well-being and recovery. Let’s work together to support and retain these treasured assets for our health now and for that of future generations.
Debbie Kaye, Chair of CLOA – Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association 8 September 2022
CLOA’s vision is that every locality should have a thriving, high quality and distinctive cultural and leisure offer. We are committed to supporting our members – public sector professionals – and working collaboratively with key stakeholders to help find solutions.
Data all sourced from ‘Securing the Future of Public Sport and Leisure’ (LGA, APSE, CLOA; 2021) Securing the Future of Public Sport and Leisure Services – apse with exceptions highlighted below.
Read also the Chairs blog on Securing the future of public sport and leisure services
[i] Impact of Coronavirus on School Swimming and Water Safety report.pdf All Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming; May 2021
[ii] Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Academic year 2020-21 Sport England, December 2021) PowerPoint Presentation (sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com)
