Link into Leisure

1. Introduction

The healthy living centre is a concept with a discreet entity within the Moray Leisure Centre, Involving a number of different health related activities aimed at vulnerable client groups.

The centre was borne out of an evaluative activity examining the process and outcomes of an active GP exercise referral scheme in the Moray area. The evaluation was carried out by the Faculty of Health and Social Care at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 1998 and identified some key barriers to participation in physical activity including:

long travel times to leisure centres
negative perception of some to the leisure centre environment
childcare/care issues.

After careful consideration of these barriers a central project team (which became the ‘Healthy Living Centre’ project team) was set up, drawing from local projects and organisations including:

Moray carers
GP referral scheme
Moray Council
Grampian Health Agencies

This team evolved into the ‘Link into Leisure’ Partnership Network which is the present working group that includes service users as well as voluntary, public and private sector bodies. This group has a history of collaborative working and successfully bid for the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) in 2000.

2. Partners

Current Partners

- Lead Organisation: Moray Leisure Centre
- Grampian Health Agencies
- Community Care Voluntary Sectors
- Moray Council

The core partners at the start of the project were:

Crossroads (a ‘Caring for Carers’ charity)
Grampian Primary Care Trust
Grampian University Hospitals Trust
Moray Access Panel (a local charity)
Moray Local Health Care Co-operative
Moray Leisure Centre (MLC)
PRT Moray Carers Project (local charity)
Representatives of Service Users
Robert Gordon University
The Moray Council

3. Purpose and Objectives

The overall aim and mission statement of the "Link into Leisure" project is:

" To motivate, support and empower people to make positive lifestyle choices and develop life skills which will improve their health and maximise their potential to enjoy life".

A number of priority objectives together with specific aims and objectives for each scheme within the centre are outlined in the "Link into Leisure" Business plan. In summary these focus on promoting positive lifestyle choices and enabling access to health and well-being services for all groups in the community, especially those with special needs.

4. Methodology

Currently, two working project groups exist:

‘Out of School Hours Childcare’
‘Link into Leisure

Initially, two working project groups existed that went on to form the Healthy Living Centre Management Group.

The priority client groups are:

People with medical conditions (such as hypertension; heart disease; diabetes, obesity and mental health problems)
People with physical, sensory and learning disabilities
Carers and young carers
People who may be socially isolated.

The Centre has estimated that it will attract up to 18,320 visits per year, equating to approximately 8,200 people. This is based on the Centres knowledge of the nature of visits, waiting list and support from referring agents.

Local needs assessment consultations with service users have been undertaken by the Centre and other local carer and charitable organisations. Key findings from these include:

the need for equal access to facilities
physical access, transport, cost and respite care for carers and the cared for.
the importance of complementary therapies and physiotherapy for priority groups
difficulties in sustaining attendance
limitations of current services and activities.

The project includes a number of elements of activity, including the following:

exercise on referral schemes from participating GP practices in Moray
other health related referral schemes
the provision of ‘parent friendly’ childcare services
support services for carers
efforts to increase the variety and volume of healthier food choices in the cafeteria or bistro within the leisure centre.

The healthy food focus within the centre appears to have resulted from an interest and commitment from the Healthy Living Centre staff rather than the implementation of a nutrition policy.

4. Funding

The projects are funded by NOF. The ‘Out of School Hours Childcare’ group was awarded £32,000 in 2000 and the ‘Link into Leisure’ project was awarded £1 million in 2000 over 5 years.

5. Barriers

The main problem with this project was the complexity of communication because of the large number of partners involved, each with slightly different agendas. It is clearly important in such a project that there is ultimately just one person who takes responsibility for implementation and evaluation.

A ‘them and us’ situation arose at the start of the project between Moray Leisure Centre staff and the "Link into Leisure" staff which necessitated improved communication and integration.

Flooding of the childcare centre in 2002. This disaster knocked out the childcare centre for months. A flood management plan has since been developed to render the centre less vulnerable to flooding.

The After School Club Leader perceived many barriers in promoting healthier eating to children within the childcare centre, including:

parents resistance to change
difficulties in making healthy choices appeal to children
Children being given large amounts of spending money for the holiday club. These children then spend the money on chocolate and crisps from the vending machines in the Centre.

6. Evaluation

Responses revealed that a number of different evaluative activities have been undertaken.

A qualitative survey was carried out by Robert Gordon University to assess the views of users and to specifically explore perceived benefits of Healthy Living Centre participation. Data from this survey was collected in 2003 and response rates were disappointing. The write up was not available at the time of fieldwork for this report

The Childcare Centre had conducted some needs assessment work amongst parent users and as a consequence the Centre is now open until 5.30pm each afternoon. There are plans to monitor participation in physical activity and current procedures within the Centre.

7. Sustainability

The Healthy Living Centre plans to be self- funding within five years (by 2005). The Business plan sets out how this will be achieved through income generation from:

more clients being attracted into the Centre because of the "Link to Leisure" activities
entrance fees (currently used to cover staff costs and overhead)

However, currently the plan for income generation is not meeting the annual targets set out in the "Link into Leisure" project. Initially these were:

in the first year activities should generate £12,000 (only £500 was generated)
in the second year, the target was £50,000 (in reality £20,000 was generated).

The Project Development Leader felt the main reason for this poor income generation was the initial problems in getting the "Link into Leisure" project up and running within Moray Leisure Centre, and she considered that it would be prudent to consider applying for other grants in preparation for the NOF funding coming to an end in 2005, and to cover the shortfall in income generation.

8. Lessons Learnt

Childcare Centre lessons were listed as follows:

offer children a choice of foods and drinks
create a dialogue and involve parents through different activities such as open evenings, user feedback forms
use local suppliers for food commodities
role model healthy eating practices and integrate healthier food/drink choices right from the set up pf childcare services

In setting up the Healthy Living Centre within the leisure centre key lessons included:

conduct exhaustive consultation at the start of the project to identify and gain commitment from key partners
maintain ongoing communication to keep partners on board and ensure an effective dialogue with the user audience
remain flexible and open to new information or actions which may require some change in direction for the project. The environment surrounding the project is often fluid with situations changing and evolving continuously
ensure responsibilities are shared within key roles of the partners and members of the activating team. The latter can be managed through designing job descriptions that overlap
encourage team working and trust within the group of activators by making sure the team leader spends time with the team members and by holding regular reviews of the teams’ work plans and processes
gather information from other similar projects and learn from their experiences
start small and don’t raise expectations within the community until the correct project structures are in place
ensure there is ongoing monitoring and analysis to feedback into the process of the project design, its aims and its practical implementation.

Lead contact:

Contact: Michele Gilibrand,
Job Title: Wellbeing Leader,
Address:
Moray Healthy Living Centre,
Moray Leisure Centre,
Borough Briggs Road,
Elgin.
Tel: 01343 541 677.

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