Active Partnerships welcome the report by Kim Leadbeater MP for ‘Healthy Britain’ published this morning, which outlines how the aim should be to ensure people live as well as possible for as long as possible, highlighting the link between a healthier population and building stronger communities and positively impacting on the environment and the economy. Realising that a healthier population is a more productive, economically active population.
The proposals embrace and reflect the Active Partnerships’ ambitions to put health and wellbeing at the heart of its approach to supporting their local communities. If we can harness this collective ambition to work holistically incorporating the power of physical activity, and develop strong co-ordinated cross-sector partnerships, the health of our communities and our nation will undoubtedly be significantly improved.
The evidence is clear: there are substantial benefits to reducing inactivity not just from improving physical health but the wider benefits of improvements to mental health, reducing social isolation and delaying conditions associated with the ageing process such as dementia and frailty.
That’s why Active Partnerships work collaboratively across national and local systems and work with their local sectors, to come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities they serve. A healthier population contributes to economic growth and therefore, by proritising prevention and early intervention by cross-sector working across local systems, this will build stronger more resilient communities and simultaneously reduce the pressures and financial costs on our struggling NHS.
Physical Activity and its expert workforce are untapped resources that would significantly contribute to creating the conditions for a healthier, more prosperous nation. By embedding physical activity across our local systems, it can help relieve pressure on the NHS by focusing on preventing ill-health as well as help manage increasing incidence of a wide range of long-term health conditions, particularly associated with an increasing ageing population.
This is why we welcome the report, the proposals embrace and reflect the Active Partnerships’ ambitions to putting health and wellbeing at the heart of its approach to supporting their local communities. If we can harness this collective ambition to work holistically incorporating the power of physical activity, and develop strong co-ordinated cross-sector partnerships, the health of our communities and our nation will undoubtedly be significantly improved.
Read report here
