Parkwood Leisure, one of the UK’s leading public leisure facilities operators, helped prevent more than 7,000 cases of stroke, dementia, depression and type 2 diabetes in 2019, saving the NHS £16 million, a new social value report has shown.

The report, underpinned by industry-leading research undertaken by Sheffield Hallam University, has been developed over the last year by Parkwood in partnership with 4Global to understand the social value generated prior to the pandemic.

Through improved health and subjective well-being, increased educational attainment and reduced crime, Parkwood generated a social value of £425.09 per member for the year - a figure above industry average. In addition, Parkwood has directly helped prevent more than 3,200 cases of depression; a statistic of particular significance following last month’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

The findings in the report have also helped the leisure management firm understand the impact of members not regularly attending its centres. Almost £59 million in social value has been lost during the Coronavirus pandemic. To help combat this, Parkwood has delivered Covid-specific staff training to its teams focusing on safety protocols, specific interventions and targeted programmes, to get people back into physical activity post-lockdown.

In addition, and with the aim of driving even higher social value, Parkwood will be launching a new Wellness Ecosystem service for its members from August. The service will allow users to access a comprehensive digital service that provides clinically robust evidence-based advice and guidance on how to tackle key aspects of their health and wellbeing, in line with NICE and NCSCT guidance.

Glen Hall, Managing Director of Parkwood Leisure said: “We pride ourselves on creating happier and healthier communities. The impact we’re having on health, wellbeing, education, crime and the NHS is clear from this report. Being active has never been more important for our nation and we’re delighted to be helping proactively tackle a wide range of health and social issues. One of our key aims moving forward is to generate even greater social value - hence the launch of our Wellness Ecosystem - whether that is inside our facilities or out in the community, all helping deliver an even greater impact on the nation’s health agenda.”

Chris Phillips, Director at 4Global said: “This report really starts to tell the full story of how being active more broadly benefits individuals and society. We’ve worked closely with Parkwood over the last few years to understand how they have been helping positively impact the broader issues society faces and this report shows they’re really doing that.”

To read more click here and for more information visit www.parkwoodleisure.co.uk