With budgetary pressures plaguing governments around the world, the political push is towards economic growth and the physical activity sector must have a leading role in delivery

Two important things caught my eye this month that go to the heart of what we do as a sector.

Firstly, the UK government published a consultation White Paper called Get Britain Working, which outlines plans to create a fit, healthy and engaged workforce to drive economic growth and personal prosperity.

Unfortunately, the proposed policy doesn’t contain a single reference to exercise or physical activity.

This got me thinking about why, in spite of decades of lobbying, we are still not ‘top of mind’ when it comes to policy – even when it concerns matters that are slap bang in the middle of our area of expertise.

It’s hard to believe this same government produced a magnificent report when it was in opposition called Healthy Britain: A New Approach To Health and Wellbeing which outlined the potential of a cross-departmental, joined up approach to wellbeing (www.HCMmag.com/leadbeater). Sadly these ideas have not made their way into policy, but we urge the government to revisit them.

When challenged, ministers tend to fall back on the easy excuse that they don’t have enough evidence – in this case, that the physical activity sector can be a credible partner in delivering improved economic output.

We already have a wealth of evidence to prove this point and there are pilots underway to produce more, but there’s still a journey to go on to deliver the numbers that get us in the room when policy decisions are being made.

This is why it was exciting to hear that Nuffield Health and Manchester Metropolitan University have partnered on a three-year research project to deliver a clinically assured, exercise-based approach to improving health outcomes (page 26). The focus will be on supporting and understanding people living with long-term conditions.

The plan is to evidence the ‘dose’ of exercise needed to achieve health outcomes and economic impact, then to scale the programme nationally by the end of 2027.

This isn’t a fitness intervention, but a medical intervention delivered in a fitness setting – evolving the traditional model of what is considered to be healthcare and following on from other groundbreaking programmes, such as Prehab4Cancer.

It’s to be hoped that reverse-engineering the delivery of interventions and evidence – so they’re acknowledged as medically-based – will open doors for the sector and enable us to be ‘seen’ by policymakers so we can contribute more meaningfully to the health of the nation.

In the meantime, we have until Q2 2025 to give feedback on the employment White Paper and we’re calling on the sector to galvanise and make a case for inclusion.