Blog: 'We want everyone to be given the opportunity to move more'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
September's theme is Inclusive Fitness. This week, Vanessa Cameron of ukactive discusses a determination to make an active life a possibility for everyone.
Vanessa’s blog:
At ukactive we are determined to make physical activity accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
In large part this means engaging disability groups in sport to ensure that they are able to reap all the great benefits that activity can have on your physical and mental wellbeing.
We are fully aware that disabled people have more barriers than non-disabled people when it comes to being active, so it's important that local support networks exist.
The Active People Survey shows that just 17.8% of disabled people take part in sport for 30 minutes per week compared to 39.2% of non-disabled people. This shows a wide gulf, and it’s clear at ukactive that more needs to be done to better provide for, and appeal to, disabled people in the UK.
We want to raise the standards of activity provision and ensure that all our members adhere to the Equality Act 2010. This means making sure gyms are accessible to all users, regardless of ability.
As well as among the operators we work with, we are also keen to develop projects and work with organisations such as Sports Leaders and the Leonard Cheshire Disability Trust to help drive disability participation in activity.
We have supported our partner Sports Leaders in the work they are doing in this area, with recognition in our Leadership Insight report of the beneficial impact that Sports Leaders qualifications have for disabled people by developing leadership skills, building confidence and helping to challenge others’ perceptions of what it means to be disabled.
Through big events and projects we hope to drive up activity levels, embedding physical activity into everyone’s day-to-day.
National Fitness Day was one such event, and was a great day dedicated to celebrating physical activity across the UK. Our aim was to make it the most active day of the year, fully inclusive of all.
We had a total of 2,263 events on the 9 September which included numerous clubs and partner organisations opening their doors to the public but, more importantly, allowing access for disabled participants.
One great example is the Halton Tennis Centre, located in the heart of Buckinghamshire, which offered free tennis lessons as part of National Fitness Day.
We are also excited to be writing our Blueprint For an Active Britain report, ukactive’s policy roadmap for a more active society, in which we will explore different themes that will encompass an integrated approach to getting more people active.
This will include active travel, engaging with the older generation, increasing participation in sport and how to get more disabled people active. We look forward to working in consultation with the English Federation of Disability Sport on this aspect of the report.
It just shows how the ukactive ethos of More People, More Active, More Often spans across all backgrounds.
We hope to work closely with ukactive chair Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a strong champion for getting more disabled people active, and our partners to ensure everyone is given the opportunity to move more, get active and easily participate in physical activity.
ukactive is the UK's leading not-for-profit health body for the physical activity sector, with over 3,500 members from activity providers to major consumer brands, training facilities and equipment manufacturers. Visit their website for more information. For more on Inclusive Fitness, visit the Inclusive Fitness pages on this website or contact the IFI Team on email ifi@efds.co.uk or phone 01509 227750.
