Knowsley Borough Council

With much of the UK population's health giving cause for concern, Knowsley Borough Council is acutely aware of it's role in helping improve the health of the community it serves. It has taken a range of innovative steps to expand and increase access to health initiatives.

Concern for both the internal and external workforce health has driven a funded programme to increase the activity and exercise levels of this target group. The Council and the PCT have come together to develop a range of activities for staff to encourage them to become more active. This has resulted in a massive response, with nearly 600 new fitness passes having been sold and over 4000 visits by staff to activity classes including: Salsa dancing, Yoga, Body Pump and Studio Cycling.

It was recognised that many of the participants of the scheme needed specialist support when it came to achieving weight loss. As such, the Council and PCT were supported by Pro-Fit Solutions, who are currently running a series of successful 'Shape Management' programmes delivering impressive results. To date there have been 350 staff on the programme. Those who completed have seen improvements to their health and moved onto regular exercise programmes.

Demand for high quality leisure provision in Knowsley has led to over £24m of investment in facilities from the Council over the last few years with the recent opening of the £12m Kirkby Leisure Centre. This provides residents with a state of the art fitness suite, inlcuding Life Fitness equipment, swimming pools, sports halls and a range of multi purpose activity rooms. A popular decision with children and adults alike has been the inclusion of the Zig Zag mulit-player Xerdance system. The centre has been a massive success with usage figures far and above forecasted projections.

Keen to ensure that the leisure centres are community focused, the Active Leisure Team which manages the leisure facilities in Knowsley has worked closely with colleagues from social services to co-locate day care services within two of the main facilities at Halewood and Kirkby, providing venues for disabled users and their carers. This unique partnership has realised many benefits, none more so than access to leisure faciltites for service users on a daily basis, with inclusivity being a high priority.

Increased demand has led to an expansion of the exercise referral scheme 'Activity for Life'. This scheme has gone from strength to strength. 700 people are now on the programme with plans to increase this figure even further in the coming months. Activity for Life coaches are based in four of the Borough's six leisure facilities. Recent independent research demonstarted the real success of the scheme. Results show that over 70% of clients continue to participate in regualr exercise after the scheme. Much of the scheme's success comes from the fact it provides a social network, with regular lunches, parties and outings for all scheme members both past and present.

A recent partnership arrangemnet with 'Age Concern' will see the creation of the very first Older Peoples Fun'O'lympics to be held at the Kirkby Leisure Centre in September. The idea is to have training camps set up in all of the main leisure centres covering the Borough. Each training camp will be led by a volunteer with support from; sports development, health trainers and leisure centre staff. Activities chosen by each team include the more traditional sports such as table tennis, badminton and swimming with a fun side also included with activities such as Zig Zag dance mat challenge, welly throwing and giant Jenga. Teams will compete against each other in September with the legacy being that each centre will continue to host an Older people's sports and physical activity group on a regular basis, providing more opportunities for people in the community to become involved.

The impact of sport and leisure in the battle against many of the health issues that we all face has truly been recognised in Knowsley. Along with a huge commitment from all stakeholders this is providing a real platform for success both now and in the future.

One of our other aims is to ensure that we are kept abreast of current issues and intiatives. To help with this all of the leisure centres have recently been registered with FIA. This we feel demonstrates our commmitment to providing high quality services to the people of Knowsley both now and in the future.