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THE BIGGER PICTURE - LINKING FREE SWIMMING TO OTHER AGENDAS
The social and health benefits of increasing participation in swimming fits in with several other agendas. Use these when seeking strategic support for your initiative.
Sources of information on your area
If you are part of the local authority find out who within your local authority looks after performance data - there may be a lot of information available within the council. The Primary Care Trust and other local partners will hold similar information.
www.auditcommission.gov.uk includes information on CPA scores and now has 'Area Profiles' for all local authority areas in England.
Data from the government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) are now widely used so is worth knowing about. The IMD include low level geographical information that can give you quite specific information about the areas around certain facilities. To find out more visit www.ons.gov.uk and click on 'Neighbourhoods'.
The Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process now includes a 'culture' block which assesses residents satisfaction with sport and leisure. This means good outcomes in sport and leisure are important for how the council is regarded overall. CLICK HERE for more information.
Local Area Agreements (LAAs): All areas will be developing these so even if your area is not already involved people will be aware of their impact at a strategic level. LAAs will set out priorities for each area under various headings. These include health and older people; safer and stronger communities; and children and young people - key areas that can be influenced by successful increases in participation in physical activity. The LAAs are high profile because they influence how funding comes into the area and how it is spent. The emphasis of an LAA is on partnership working and a free swimming initiative provides opportunities for local partners to work together. For example the involvement of the Primary Care Trust in identifying key groups and specific health needs, or local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in identifying at risk groups. Strategic policy makers will be interested in demonstrating successful partnership working that impacts on a range of agendas. Increasing participation in swimming could be a very good example. For more on LAAs, and the evolving role of Local Strategic Partnerships (out for consultation until 3 March 2006) visit www.odpm.gov.uk or www.idea.gov.uk
Community Strategies: Each area has a community strategy or community plan already - this will be owned by the Local Strategic Partnership not just the council, and will be developed into a sustainable community strategy (The LAA will be linked to the priorities identified in the strategy.) The strategy sets out priorities for the area as a whole. Look at yours and consider where swimming can contribute to aims such as communities and volunteering and employment opportunities, not just sport and health. Demonstrating that your swimming initiatives address wider priorities can increase corporate, political and partner support.
The Youth Green Paper - Youth Matters raises the profile of sport and leisure opportunities for young people. Proposals include a 'Youth Opportunity Card' which young people can 'spend' on opportunities such as sport, and an obligation on local authorities to provide at least two hours of sporting opportunities for young people per week.
Social services are focusing on independence and social inclusion both of which swimming can support. People who maintain exercise into their later years are likely to be able to remain independent for longer.
Most areas have or are developing cultural strategies in which sport and physical activity will feature.
There is a whole raft of physical activity strategies being developed - by Primary Care Trusts, Local Authorities and by Regional and Subregional partnerships. Find out what your area is trying to achieve and show how you are contributing. The public health team at the relevant Primary Care Trust should be able to help if this information is not available through the sports development or community development teams at the local authority.
Areas in receipt of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund money have a particular focus on reducing inequalities in the most deprived areas. The contribution of swimming to the equalities agenda will be of particular interest in these areas.
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