Health feature: Timothy Mathias, head of inclusion, ukactive
Our latest health feature comes from ukactive head of inclusion, Timothy Mathias. Here he talks to us about how they are supporting the leisure sector through COVID-19 and prioritising inclusion for disabled people.
Tell us about ukactive and how you support the health and physical activity of disabled people?
ukactive is the not-for-profit membership body for the physical activity sector and exists to improve the health of the nation by getting more people, more active, more often. Our membership is diverse– including physical activity and fitness facility operators, equipment suppliers, children’s activity providers, charities and the third sector.
Our Client Service operation is at the heart of what we do, with over 4,000 members and partners to whom we provide support, alongside our research, public affairs work and the running of campaigns and projects. Disability inclusion is a central part of our work and a theme across our services – the way disabled people access and engage with the sector, the benefits that are derived from participating, and the potential for growth, improvement and progression. The breadth of our work is considerable – but all with the common ambition to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation.
Before COVID-19, how effective has the leisure sector been in promoting disabled people to be active?
Leisure played a large part in disabled people’s activity levels and the trend seen in percentage increases that were demonstrated prior to lockdown. There are some excellent examples of good practice – be it the physical facilities and infrastructure, partnerships with local disability organisations, direct engagement with disabled people in the form of marketing and communications, participation programmes, and training courses for workforce development.
We recognise the disparity in activity levels, with disabled people twice as likely to be inactive as non-disabled people, and will continue to contribute to and accelerate the narrowing of this disparity with further partnerships, collaboration and connecting the leisure sector with disabled people and their communities.
What plans do you have to improve disabled people’s experiences in sport and physical activity facilities and how important is excellent customer service in achieving this?
Our role at ukactive is to lead and support the sector to develop a more inclusive and accessible industry, and part of this will be to deepen our understanding of the sector’s relationship with disability, disabled people and disability-specific organisations.
We will be continuing to work with our partners at Sport England and accelerating our efforts on disability inclusion with the recommendations from our ‘Everyone Can’ report, which focused on physical activity for disabled people through the fitness and leisure sector. The findings showed us that that enhancing levels of customer service and engaging with disabled people are priority areas, alongside providing more information so that disabled people can make more informed decisions. We want to be in a position in which the sector provides a warm welcome and offers the appropriate levels of support. If we make progress in these areas, there should be progress towards gyms and leisure centres being more welcoming, the sector being freely accessed and participation becoming a more attractive option.
How do you see Activity Alliance and ukactive working together to support the leisure sector?
Across all our inclusion work the ambition is to collaborate with specialist organisations, in order to apply their expertise and knowledge, experience and relationships to the leisure sector. Activity Alliance is well positioned for this – we admire its strong track record, and the progress achieved for disabled people and disability organisations. We are grateful for Activity Alliance’s input into the Everyone Can consultation, and together we have collaborated over a busy summer to ready the sector for reopening in an inclusive manner, following the COVID-19 lockdowns. Our relationship is growing and there is potential for research, awareness raising, training and workforce development – we are looking forward to combining assets to progress our shared missions.
What one key piece of advice around disability and inclusion do you want to give to the sector?
Our ongoing work and commitment to inclusion will allow opportunities for the further support, advice and celebration of disability and physical activity. But for now, I hope the sector recognises the demand among disabled people, the impact and benefits it enables for so many, and the great potential for more. We have to remember that there are those who simply enjoy their visits to the leisure centre and gym, but there are also those who rely on our service to learn crucial life skills, to socialise with those around them, to increase their connections with their community, and to improve their physical and mental health. Consider those who are learning to swim, practice functional fitness, are easing the effects of an impairment, or use exercise as part of rehabilitation – physical activity is an indispensable part of their lives and of their wellbeing.
The pandemic has posed numerous challenges for the leisure sector, now with some reopening, what lasting impact will COVID-19 have on the leisure sector and what does the future hold?
ukactive has worked intensely over the summer towards securing the reopening of the fitness and leisure sector, striving to unite and deliver a sector that is not only COVID-secure but also reclassified as an essential service. Throughout this work, we have explicitly stated our sector’s obligations towards equality. Proactive adherence to the guidelines has ensured an extremely low rate of the virus in gyms and leisure facilities and we have been conveying this message of confidence to consumers through our Fit Together campaign – supporting operators to ensure a safe and secure return to activity for all.
As we coexist with COVID-19, we must continue to issue reminders of the power of physical activity to reduce the risk and the devastating effects of the virus. Beyond COVID-19, we must reinforce the full value that the fitness and leisure sector delivers for the physical, mental, social and economic health of the nation. We know from Sport England’s latest evidence that COVID-19 and lockdown has had a disproportionate effect on disabled people’s activity levels. ukactive will continue to support the sector so that we can play our part in reducing inequalities and continuing our progress for disability inclusion.
Support for providers
We fully recognise that sport and leisure providers are going through challenging times. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on disabled people and sport and activity has been enormous. Our COVID-19 webpage provides a range of resources and responses we have released since March 2020 to support you to embed inclusive practices and continue to support the health and physical wellbeing of disabled people.
