Agenda item

Agenda item

Sport and Leisure Update

Report of the Chief Operating Officer (Neighbourhoods)

 

This report provides an update on sport and leisure in Manchester. It sets out the role and development of Manchester Active (MCRactive), including an update on the membership of the Manchester Active Board and the roll-out of the MCRactive Card. It also provides details of the role of the Sports Activators and how they will link into sports clubs.

 

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Chief Operating Officer (Neighbourhoods) which provided an update on the activity levels of Manchester residents and the numbers involved in schemes to encourage greater physical activity. The report set out the role and development of Manchester Active (MCRactive), including an update on the membership of the Manchester Active Board and the roll-out of the MCRactive card. The report also provided details of the role of the Community Activators and how they would link into sports clubs.

 

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:

 

  • Physical activity levels in Manchester;
  • The roll-out of MCRactive;
  • The MCRactive card;
  • The role of Community Activators; and
  • Next steps.

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

 

  • To congratulate the team on the roll-out of MCRactive;
  • The Committee’s previous recommendation that the MCRactive Board include a representative from sports clubs;
  • The use of the This Girl Can Campaign in Manchester;
  • Concern that only 5.3% of MCRactive card holders were disabled and the need for equalities to be embedded into this area of work, linked to other work such as the Our Manchester Disability Plan;
  • How data about people participating in sport and physical activity through private clubs, such as running clubs, could be captured; and
  • Whether indoor leisure facilities had the capacity to cope with increased demand, if people in areas with lower participation levels were encouraged to take up physical activity.

 

The Strategic Lead (Parks, Leisure and Events) informed Members of how it was proposed to implement their previous recommendation.  He reported that the intention was to establish an Advisory Board, made up of representatives of sports and community organisations, and for one representative from this Board to sit on the main MCRactive Board.  He informed Members that This Girl Can was a national campaign which had been activated across Manchester in a range of ways.  He outlined some of the work which had taken place, highlighting the introduction of women-only provision to encourage more Muslim women to participate in physical activity, which he reported had been successful.  He reported that fear of judgement was one of the biggest barriers for women who were inactive and that this was being addressed through training leisure centre staff and holding events in local community settings.  He informed Members that, while not all physical activity was captured by the MCRactive card, disabled people were half as likely to participate in sport as non-disabled people and that addressing this was a priority.  He reported that Michelle Scattergood from Breakthrough UK would be sitting on the Steering Group to advise on adopting a joined-up approach to encouraging and enabling more disabled people to participate in sport and physical activity.  He reported that sports clubs generally provided data on the number of members they had but it was difficult to obtain more detailed information, such as where members lived or what percentage were disabled.  He advised Members that the MCRactive card would be used to incentivise people to provide additional data but that, for activities which were already free such as running, there was no incentive for participants to provide additional data.  He reported that the Council’s Indoor Leisure Facilities Strategy focused on identifying and addressing capacity issues.

 

Decision

 

To receive an update report at an appropriate time.

 

Supporting documents: