GM Network of Sport & Health
During 2010 Mike Farrar, Chief Executive NHS North West and National Physical Activity ‘tsar’ held two events challenging health services and local professional sports clubs to work closer together to mutual benefit. He described the golden opportunity for clubs to link closely to their communities, and to use the name and expertise of the club in supporting the chronic health inequalities that afflict many parts of the North West.
This network is Greater Manchester’s response to that challenge. ‘The Power of Sport to Improve Health‘ workshop held on the 27th January at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, brought together the professional clubs in Greater Manchester from a number of different sports, with the statutory services across Greater Manchester to discuss future opportunities for a network, and to share best practice.
The conference celebrated the very many examples of excellent partnership arrangements in place across Greater Manchester between clubs and local NHS and Local Authority Services and explored mechanisms that can further support these local partnerships through consistent access to national and Greater Manchester wide frameworks and funding opportunities and through shared working.
Using the dedicated management capacity identified to establish the network, the next steps are to develop a common work programme that can add value locally.
To seek to establish a more formal supportive environment for clubs to engage with health and local authorities at a time of enormous change in public sector commissioning and management arrangements may seem perverse. However, it may also be true that a focal point for joint working on this agenda for professional clubs at this time of uncertainty in public sector funding opportunity is exactly the right thing to do.
The presentations and notes from the group discussions on the shape of the Sport and Health network are available using the conference link below. Information on the development of the Network and its delivery against health outcomes can be found on the network priorities tab.
For more information please contact Louise Robbins at GreaterSport on 0161 223 1002 or louiser@greatersport.co.uk
