New Guide to Creating Safer Gym and Leisure Spaces for Women.

The This Girl Can campaign worked with ukactive to help facilities better communicate policies on harassment and intimidation.

This Girl Can and ukactive have published a new guide to help gyms and leisure centres be more welcoming for women and girls.

The resource, which is aimed at operators across the physical activity sector, is now available on the Safer Spaces to Move resource hub.

Entitled ‘From Policy to Practice: How to Share Your Stance Against Harassment in Your Facility,’ the guide offers examples and tips to improve communications with gym members, plus policies and training to help them feel informed and report issues should they arise.

For Claire Edwards, head of campaign activation for This Girl Can, considering the experience and points of view of stakeholders was key to developing the guide. “Every part of society has a duty to prevent harassment against women and girls,” she said.

“With millions of women and girls using gyms and leisure centres, the fitness sector must be ready to tackle harassment and intimidation, and today’s launch reaffirms our commitment to helping gyms and leisure centres put stronger safety standards into action.

“Preventing harassment before it happens is just as crucial as responding when it does. Only by ensuring women feel safe and confident when getting active can we truly progress. This Girl Can's aim is to tackle the gender activity gap.”

This Girl Can and ukactive developed the guide in tandem, with additional consultation from the Safer Spaces to Move Taskforce, which comprises of representatives from the industry, from both the public and private sector, plus independent operators.

Gym members were also given the opportunity to express their opinions by joining focus groups, where they discussed gym and leisure centres’ communications and how these contribute to creating a safe and trustworthy environment for all.

The guide offers facilities support in different areas, including:

• How to communicate clearly to members that sexual harassment and intimidation are not tolerated in facilities.

• How operators can ensure that members know how to report any concerns, what will happen next if they do and what support is available to them.

• How to build trust and confidence with their members in an operator’s policies and training so that more members feel able to report issues should they arise.

Gyms, pools and leisure centres play an essential role in supporting women and girls to be active, with the latest UK Health & Fitness Market Report revealing that 11.5 million people over the age of 16 are members of a health and fitness club.

Our latest Active Lives Survey also shows that fitness activities among women and girls aged 16 and over saw the largest growth compared to any other form of activity from the previous year (1.9%).

The study reflects that 7.6 million women took part in this kind of activity at least twice in the previous 28 days – up by almost 1.3 million since 2021, when the Safer Spaces to Move project was launched in 2021. Participation of women in public leisure fitness activities has also increased by 12% in the last 12 months.

The new guide follows the publication of resources in July 2025 that covered a range of guidance and staff training modules to ensure operators have the foundational protocols in place to respond to any instances of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Hattie Jones, head of membership and sector development at ukactive, welcomed the continuation of the work.

She said: “This guide is another step forward in the sector’s commitment to ensure that every woman and girl feels informed, confident and empowered to use the broad range of services within our nation’s gyms, pools and leisure centres.

“Given the growing demand our sector sees from women and girls and the popularity of these services, it is vital that all facilities play their part in addressing the societal issues of sexual harassment and intimidation.”