Research The Research Institute aims to bridge the evidence gap between traditional laboratory-based 'exercise is medicine' research and real world interventions. The core aim of the research team is to generate academic publications and conduct research which will contribute to answering fundamental questions related to how to get 'more people, more active, more often'.
Promising Practice 2 is a project conducted by the ukactive Research Institute. In collaboration with the
National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine and
Public Health England, it is seeking to identify physical activity programmes that demonstrate good and promising practice in local communities, through surveys. This is the second iteration of the Promising Practice project; In July 2014, a total of 952 survey responses were submitted for phase one of the project.
Turning the Tide was a 2013 report that sought to measure and highlight the rising levels of physical inactivity in the UK. It found that one in four people in England fail to achieve more than 30 minutes’ moderate physical activity over 28 days, yet local authorities spent just 2.4 per cent of public health budgets on inactivity. The release of this report was welcomed by
David Cameron who was quoted in the report saying "Turning the tide of inactivity is essential to the health of our nation" MP
Andy Burnham also advocated the report at the ukactive National Summit 2014. It led to a doubling on local authority public health spending on England's 'inactivity epidemic', and also preceded the launch of 'Move More, Live More', a Government commitment to reduce the nation's physical inactivity levels. The report saw ukactive awarded 'Trade Body Campaign of the Year' at the Public Affairs Awards 2014.
Generation Inactive, published in 2015, established the scale of childhood physical inactivity in the UK. It explored the current understanding of children's physical activity in primary schools and investigated the measures that are used to track the activity and fitness levels of pupils, finding that just 40% of schools accurately tracked their pupils' fitness levels. It offered several recommendations to government, schools and the activity sector in how to reverse the trend of physical inactivity in young people.
The Rise of the Activity Sector was released in October 2016, and was the first report to analyse and estimate the value of the activity sector as a whole, based on analyses made by valuation specialist
Mazars and sponsorship experts
Nielsen Sports. It estimated that the gym sector would be worth £7.7 billion by the end of 2016, representing year-on-year growth of 17 per cent.
Blueprint for an Active Britain was released in November 2015 and set out the key changes required in Britain's physical activity landscape to inspire a more active nation. The recommendations and ideas in the report presented a system-wide roadmap for promoting physical activity for everyone, and a partnership approach to prevent the debilitating spread of physical inactivity. It was supported by Lord
Ara Darzi, the
Royal College of General Practitioners, the
Royal Society for Public Health, the
Nuffield Trust,
Mind and
Age UK. Many of these ideas have been incorporated into the Government's own policy paper: Sporting Future – A New Strategy for an Active Nation, as well as Sport England's subsequent strategy Towards an Active Nation. The follow-up to this report was the November 2016 Blueprint for an Active Britain: Milestone Review, which analysed the progress made in the post-Blueprint landscape. It outlined fresh, practical policy recommendations across a range of areas that Government and other key stakeholders including ukactive should work towards in the future. The organisation is actively involved with local authorities in the United Kingdom in developing plans to increase physical activity.
Public affairs '''ukactive's Public Affairs department''' engages with central government, including parliamentarians and ministers to highlight the importance of the physical activity agenda. Major policy recommendations led by the ukactive Public Affairs department include: • November 2015: November 2015: Every GP surgery should have access to a trained physical activity professional who can help patients work on their fitness to improve their cardio-respiratory and mental health. • January 2016: Baroness Grey-Thompson appealed to employers to treat provision of physical activity throughout the working day 'with the same importance as annual and sick leave', to achieve a much-needed culture shift in office life; suggesting more employers should incorporate activity plans, corporate gym memberships and sit-stand desks. • March 2016: Crucial that the extra funding from the sugar levy be put to use to tackle the childhood inactivity crisis and focus on ensuring that every child in the UK has the opportunity for an active start to life. • November 2016: Baroness Grey-Thompson called for a £1bn regeneration scheme to save the
NHS by transforming the UK's ageing fleet of leisure centres into its new preventative frontline. == Programmes and events ==