Matt Maguire, Mencap National Sport Manager, blog: Impact & innovation
In Learning Disability Week (14-20 June), Activity Alliance recognises organisations working to encourage more people with a learning disability to take part in sport and activity. Here, Matt Maguire, Mencap National Sport Manager writes about the impact of COVID-19 on people with a learning disability, and the innovative programmes they have delivered with partners to keep people moving during lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the lives and activity levels of people with a learning disability. For the most part, the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges that people with a learning disability face when accessing opportunities for physical activity, but it has also introduced significant new barriers such as the digital divide. Whilst sports providers have done an incredible job to move classes and sessions online, digital literacy and access to devices remains low for disabled people, with disabled people twice as likely to not have used the internet in the last three months as non-disabled people, (ONS, 2019).
People's confidence and isolation levels have also been hugely impacted. Especially as it emerged that people with a learning disability are six times more likely to die from COVID-19 than non-disabled people. This increases to 30 times more likely for young men. Despite these frightening statistics, it required a high-profile media campaign from Mencap to prioritise vaccinations for people with a learning disability. This uncertainty lead to increased isolation for many people as they chose to remain at home instead of exercising or socialising with friends or family outside.
The furloughing of a large proportion of sports professionals placed a significant burden on an already stretched and under pressure social care sector. This impacted on both the number and quality of opportunities, as staff lacked time, confidence, and expertise to deliver sport and physical activity. This shifted the emphasis on staying active to the individual, although we know that people with a learning disability often rely on support to become and stay active.
To overcome some of these challenges, Mencap and our network of affiliated partners delivered several new programmes and initiatives. As part of our immediate response to COVID-19 and the first lockdown, we created our Move with Mencap packs. Over 2,500 of these simple, accessible resources were printed and posted alongside some basic equipment, allowing people to do exercises or play fun games in any environment. In the garden, the park, or the living room, without needing access to a computer or tablet.
We received crucial funding support from Sport England's Tackling Inequalities Fund to support our network partner organisations. This not only ensured organisational survival and COVID-19 safe compliance for venues, but also helped reduce the sports-skills gap by training staff and bringing in (or back) staff to work in physical activity specific role. The fund also enabled us to deliver some new innovative programmes, such as Midland Mencap's bike delivery scheme and the creation of activity booklets from Inclusive Sports Academy.
We know the road to recovery needs to be an inclusive one. So, we strengthen our links with national governing bodies of Sport and other organisations to help them reopen inclusively and accessibly. We have delivered our Learning Disability and Sport Workshop to over 300 coaches and sports professionals including specific sessions for the ECB, England Basketball and British Rowing. We have also launched a new programme with the LTA to deliver tennis at local venues, including the first Zoom tennis programme during the most recent lockdown.
These local and national partnerships will be crucial for our work in the next year, as we emerge from the pandemic. Despite all the negative experiences and challenges; the innovation and motivation to bring sessions into people’s homes, or make adaptations to venues has been amazing. I’ve no doubt that some people are accessing sport and physical activity for the first time because the activity was brought to them. The challenge we have now is maintaining this level of activity whilst also returning to traditional, community-based settings to ensure everyone can be active.
A blended approach to delivery is crucial at this stage, allowing people to continue to access sport and physical activity in a time, locality and format they are confident and comfortable with. We hope to achieve this through even stronger partnership-working and a second round of Sport England Tackling Inequalities Funding, designed to get people back to activity. We have a wonderful opportunity as a sector to ensure health and wellbeing are prioritised at the heart of society as people recover from the physical and emotional trauma of the pandemic. We are determined to ensure that sport and activity programmes are embedded across social care, medical campaigns, employment programmes, and all aspects of the community.
Next month, we will publish our commissioned insight report into sport and physical activity for people with a learning disability. Researched by SPEAR at Canterbury Christchurch University, the report will help us better understand the effects of the pandemic for people with a learning disability, and highlight the immediate priorities to ensure people get back to being active. We will also be launching our new strategy – the Big Plan – which will put local communities and their resources, assets and needs at the heart of our programmes. These, alongside Activity Alliance’s new strategy, a committed and skilled sector, a focus on innovation, and taking a person-centred approach to delivering activity will go a long way to supporting people with a learning disability to be active and access sporting opportunities.
