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Early positive signs for increased participation in sport

11 December 2008

The Government’s Chief Medical Officer recommends that adults over 16 years old need to do at least five 30 min sessions of exercise per week to benefit their health.

The results also highlight a significant increase in adult volunteering. Results indicate that 5.6 per cent of Derbyshire and Derby City residents are volunteering in sport, in comparison to a figure of 4.4 per cent in 2006.

Although the results for participation only show a small increase, a lot of planning has been taking place in the last 18 months and there are many new developments in the pipe line which will encourage more people to become involved in sport and active recreation. Some of these new developments are listed below.

Jog Derbyshire

This is an initiative of Derbyshire Sport which is funded by Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust and Sport England Community Investment Funding and it is being supported by local authorities within Derbyshire. It is modelled on the highly successful Jog Scotland programme which now has 10,000 weekly participants.

The project is due to be officially launched in January, and 20 jog leaders have already been trained, with many more currently being recruited. It is planned that over 3,000 new people will become members of local jogging groups which will be spread right across the county in the next three years.

Active Derbyshire

Active Derbyshire - a new county-wide strategy will be launched in April 2009. This aims to encourage Derbyshire residents to become more active by providing event and activity information and access to expert advice about health and fitness.

The Active Derbyshire website will sign post people to activities in their community and also allow users to log their activity, win prizes and get inspiration by reading about the success stories of others.

Exercise Referral Programmes

A gold standard Exercise Referral Scheme is now operational within the county and available to an increasing number of people. A scheme is also being developed which will link health trainers to the exercise referral programmes to encourage, mentor and buddy with people who have completed the referral programmes and perhaps need a little more help and encouragement to ensure that they continue to take part in activity on a long term basis. The scheme will employ six part time health trainers from January 2009 to carry out this work.

Free Swimming

Plans to encourage more people in Derbyshire to become active will be given a further boost from April, with free swimming for the 60 and overs and 16 and unders. Residents in these age groups from Amber Valley, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derby City, Derbyshire Dales, Erewash, High Peak, North East Derbyshire and South Derbyshire will have access to free swimming sessions in their local pools. This is part of the Government's Free Swimming Initiative, which in turn is part of a plan to ensure a lasting sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Local Plans

In addition to these new county wide projects, over £500,000 has been awarded by Sport England Community Investment Fund to a number of more local projects in Amber Valley, Bolsover, Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire, Erewash, High Peak and South Derbyshire. Each of these plans is focussed on encouraging people over 16 to become more active in sport and recreation within their own communities.

Steve Pintus, associate director of public health at Derbyshire County PCT, said: “We are committed to improving the health of the local people, and encouraging everyone to become more physically active.

“Projects such as Jog Derbyshire and Active Derbyshire and the Exercise Referral Scheme will provide many opportunities for more people to become active.”

Over the past two years Derby City has lead a partnership strategy for sport and physical activity supported by Derby City Partnership. The b active programme was developed in response to the research generated nationally and locally and aims to help and support adults and children become active. Various campaigns, initiatives and support packages have been launched including the b active 30 minute challenge, Kickstart – a self help get active website, and b active with the Rams. Plans are at an advanced stage to launch a refreshed strategy in April next year.