Refreshments served.

National and Local Government Strategies.

• Sports, Health and Well-being. A Nation's Progress.

• Aligning local, regional and national agendas to promote sustained physical activity. 

• Inter-departmental collaboration: Health, education, sports and green transportation.

• The evidence on why physical inactivity matters.

• The shift from treatment to prevention, and role physical activity can play.

• National, regional and local levers needed to bring about change.

• The journey so far.

• Challenges, evidence and impact.

• What's next for place? 

• The public health challenge and the need for prevention through physical activity.

• The evidence for group exercise as an effective, inclusive, and scalable health intervention.

• Embedding group exercise into NHS referral pathways and social prescribing to deliver measurable impact and value.

• A lived-experience perspective: A Keep Fit Association member will share how group exercise has supported their physical and mental wellbeing while living with ongoing health challenges.

Served for all attendees.

Investing in community health and well-being.

• Why devolution matters to people and communities of Greater Manchester.

• What has been happening so far, what difference it makes and what they are learning.

• How the learnings can be translated into other contexts.

• How it feels to work in this context- some personal learnings and lessons. Reflections on the kind of leadership that is needed to support our people and communities to thrive.

• Explore the progress made by the RCGP and partner organisations in supporting physical activity in primary care.

• Patient case studies.

• Age UK: act now, age better.

• Let's dance campaign.

• APC and Sport England anti-obesity medication information and guidance.

• Future ambitions of the RCGP lifestyle and physical activity team.

• Why physical inactivity is a significant concern to our industry and why we want to play a greater role.

• What the global sporting goods industry is doing collectively to help tackle rising levels of physical inactivity.

• How our industry amplifies the global call to action with WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, and OECD.

• Connecting with brands and global organisations to expand initiatives to inactive audiences.

Gain practical insights and actionable strategies from industry leaders through focused masterclass presentations designed to enhance professional development and support implementation.

• WHY: Constraints on public spending are severe. It is more important than ever to focus investment where it makes the most difference whilst supporting the sector as a whole:

• 25% of the population are inactive and public funding must focus on evidence of health outcomes for this demographic. 

• But there is a wider market that also needs support. We can finance the sector differently to deliver greater benefits and return on investment.

• HOW: Using grants more effectively and efficiently will create a more sustainable and impactful sector:

• Grants for physical activity need to be attached to consistent and robust evidence of social value (health and wellbeing). Our T-shaped evaluation model of estimates and evidence does this in a democratic and transparent way. 

• With support the sector can become more enterprising. In turn, this will allow more organisations to support themselves through repayable investment - loans. 

• WHO: This isn’t theory this is working effectively now:

• Sporting Capital demonstrates loans can be 4x more cost-effective than grants with wider ripple effects into local communities.

• Sport England’s model shows that the value of physical activity varies significantly based on WHO you engage. (the demographics).

• GM Active evidence for GP referral schemes shows that complex, place based system change across 8 Boroughs of Manchester can evidence x 10 greater value that working with the average adult.

• The development of the Hub concept.

• Changing facility designs and mix.

• ​Impactful changes in operational approach.

• 2-course buffet lunch.

Explore solutions and innovative approaches as sector experts set the scene with key insights, followed by private sector case studies that showcase practical application, measurable outcomes, and transferable learning.

• The salient learning from the past ten years of StreetGames and our partners' work to increase the activity levels and wellbeing of young people from low-income, underserved communities.

• The cross-policy connections that enable us to do more and go further – seeing the needs of young people from multiple perspectives.

• The challenges for the next five to ten years, along with some of the routes to addressing them.

• Fighting for Futures: How Boxing is Tackling Youth Violence Through Community Engagement and Prevention.

• High streets and town centres play a vital role in boosting health through active travel and easy access to sport.

• Economic regeneration often overlooks social value, limiting efforts to revitalise town centres.

• A healthy town centre is easy to reach — and worth visiting.

• The Royal Society for Public Health’s framework highlights sport and leisure as key to healthy high streets

• This session explores how to work with local partners to regenerate high streets and get communities moving.

• Social value is an important outcome of successful economic regeneration activity.

• The realities of funding mean that delivery is often focused on short-term and capital interventions, which require multiple players and stakeholders working together.

• High streets and town centres are being re-imagined as places of connection, health and wellbeing (not just consumption).

• Successful regeneration builds on an integrated approach to planning which designs in social value, and defines what this means to communities – leading to a shift away from narrow metrics.

• Developing frictionless pathways that build in support, not unintentional barriers, to empower people to move more, in ways that work for them. 

• Achieving the cultural shift to remove barriers associated with risk. 

• Enabling cross-sector collaborative working. 

• Designing for success: establishing key principles and engaging partners for optimal design.

• Overcoming hurdles: sourcing money, negotiating agreements, securing planning, soliciting support.

• Delivering impact: co-ordinating people and programmes in the pursuit of positive social outcomes.

• Light refreshments 

Participation in Sports and Physical Activity

• Why free bike schemes – they tackle our sector priorities of poverty, inactivity, lack of opportunities, community cohesion, health inequalities.

• Do they work? – The independent gold standard evaluation by Volterra proves outstanding value for money and return on investment.

• Lived experience – real people in our target communities – montage of 5 or 6 people from video footage.

• What do free bikes schemes add to Active Travel England and NHS 10 year plan.

• The power of parkrun’s community.

• Keeping it simple.

• Data led from the start.

• Looking forward - a parkrun in every community​.

• Ensuring Every Community has Access to Parks, Playgrounds, Playing Fields and Green Spaces.

• The future vision for parks and open spaces.

• Thank you for supporting the Why Sports 2026 Conference