Agenda item

This report provides an update to the Committee on progress in developing a new Sport & Physical Activity Strategy following public consultation via the council’s ‘Have your Say’ platform. The report outlines the next steps towards bringing forward a new strategy and action plan to a future cycle of the Committee.

Simon Ingyon, Assistant Director, Parks, and Leisure, gave a presentation on the Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for Hammersmith and Fulham. This focused on the progress in developing the strategy following public consultation via the council’s ‘have your say’ platform. The presentation outlined the next steps towards bringing forward a new strategy and action plan to a future cycle of the committee.

The presentation drew attention to the following:

• An overview of how the strategy was developing and details of the public consultation via the ‘Have Your Say’ platform.
• A reminder of the Five Strategic Themes of the Strategy.
• Details on the consultation feedback and the accessibility responses.
• An explanation of how other feedback: Beat the Streets, Playzones and GLL Annual User Survey would augment and feed into the Sports Strategy consultation  feedback.
• Information on the co-production and community engagement initiatives.
• Details of what the next steps were.

Referring to the consultation, Councillor Jackie Borland enquired if the backbone of the strategy was going to be based on twenty-one consultation responses. She asked if the Council could re-run the consultation and why officers thought there had been such a low response rate. In response, Simon Ingyon, explained that the strategy would not be based on just the twenty-one responses, and highlighted that it would include the responses from: Beat the Streets, Playzones and the GLL Annual User Survey which provided a much-improved insight (over one thousand combined responses) into residents perceptions and thoughts on sports and physical activity in the borough. It was noted that over 13,000 residents had signed up to Beat the Streets, over 8,000 from GLL’s research and 500 responses had been received from young people. Adding further comments, Simon Ingyon, mooted it may have been the time of year that the consultation went out, the impact of the European Football Championships and perhaps there could have been more publicity. However, he confirmed that the usual consultation process had been followed, key stakeholders had been written to and the consultation had been live for between five and six weeks from the end of April to the beginning of June. With this in mind, Simon Ingyon,  confirmed that the Council did not want to delay the strategy any further as it had taken longer than anticipated to reach its current state of development.

Commenting further, Councillor Jackie Borland confirmed that it was fortunate the Council had the additional pieces of research to augment the consultation as the response had been so low. So few responses meant that any feedback in a specific area would have disproportionate weight. She acknowledged that there were some great facilities within the borough and a considerable amount of activities were taking place. In turn, this meant there were pressures on the Council’s green spaces and challenges in balancing how these resources were used (paid for as opposed to community usage).

Councillor Adam Peter Lang remarked he was pleased with the strength of the co-production within the report, as its  importance had been highlighted by the Chair at a previous meeting. He commented that he had been impressed by the work being done by the Youth Council and asked that officers sought its input. This organisation had good access to a range of partners and it was important to recognise the  needs of young people which had been badly affected by the pandemic.

In terms of Play zones, Councillor Adam Peter Lang referred to the time he had recently been canvassing for the General Election and noted that he had discovered some areas which looked as though they could be possibilities (for Play zone sites) if the community was engaged. He acknowledged the timetable for the development of the strategy and thought this looked appropriate. He asked if the intention was for the final strategy to be presented back to the Committee in the new year. In response, Simon Ingyon, confirmed that the strategy would return to Committee in early February 2025.

Commenting on Playzones, Simon Ingyon confirmed that Young Hammersmith and Fulham did participate in the consultation (on Playzones) and he welcomed further feedback from Councillors on potential Playzone sites that they had identified within their individual wards.

Councillor Liz Collins asked what types of barriers had been identified for women to become more involved in sport and physical activity and what facilities had been identified as being under used, such as playgrounds. In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that it was a challenging area and safety was integral to it. He highlighted the importance of the LET Team, how Community Champions could be used to promote well-being such as the use of the community gym in Hammersmith Park and how instructor led, well-advertised community sessions could be used to encourage participation. Apart from the role played by paid instructors, Simon Ingyon highlighted the valuable role played by the volunteer network to promote sports and physical activity. It was noted that it was important outside gyms were located in prominent places with good sight lines to improve public safety.

Councillor Ashok Patel commented that the consultation had taken the Council forwards, but further work needed to be done. He noted that only 22% of the responses were from ages groups 19 to 34 and 11% were from black British which was not reflective of the diversity within the borough. He explained that in relation to some sporting events, there was an opportunity to focus on groups where their religion / traditional values meant they could not participate in sports like other groups, so it was necessary there was wider consultation.

Councillor Rory Vaughan acknowledged the progress which had been made and asked if there were any quick wins that could happen between now and next March. He commented that the top priority was getting more residents physically active and the ways in which this could be achieved. Ideas included encouraging some of the voluntary networks to become involved, more instructor led outdoor gym sessions and advertising current facilities more.

In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that the Council already had a range of sports development programmes (Active Minds, for example). He agreed that increasing participation in sport and physical activity was about getting the right information to the right people, at the right time, and that was where working with Public Health on the back of Beat the Streets and working through the Health and Well-Being Strategy were important. He confirmed the residents the Council wished to target through initiatives were the twenty to thirty percent that did not do any activity at the moment and to encourage them to become more active, without having to take part in any particular sport. Other work streams included the Council linking with GP referral schemes and health workers to identify those persons (including those with disabilities) that were at risk if they were not undertaking activity at the moment and then linking up and doing one to one sessions with them to help to encourage them to become more active. Simon Ingyon explained that Council had recently worked with a group of Somalian women to procure an additional hour at Fulham pool so there would a be a women-only session starting in the next month.

The Chair, Councillor Rory Vaughan was encouraged to hear about these types of initiatives and underlined that this needed to be advertised better and be brought to the attention of some of the community groups within the borough. On a grander scale, the Chair echoed Councillor Lang’s previous comments that the summer of sport and in particular the Olympic Games in Paris would hopefully inspire more people to become more active.

In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that Officers could develop a communications campaign on the back of the Olympics, as well as the tennis at Wimbledon and the ongoing Test Match. He highlighted there already was an A to Z of sports available within the borough and more needed to done to signpost information that was already available on the internet. The Chair also highlighted the success of the short videos on the council’s YouTube pages which promoted services and events and suggested more could be made of this outreach, especially by advertising them through social media.

Simon Ingyon also highlighted that the Council’s bi-annual sports awards would be taking place in September and so officers were in the process of writing to all the boroughs sports clubs in search of nominees for the awards. This was also another valuable opportunity to promote both the volunteers, coaches, and the sports clubs across the borough and this was being promoted at the moment and throughout the summer for those nominations.

Concluding the item, the Chair confirmed the committee looked forward to the further development of the strategy and he encouraged officers to implement those quick wins where possible. The Chair explained he was interested in how an increase in physical activity would be measured. He was encouraged by the work on co-production which was a vital mission of the Council. He thanked officers for all the work that was currently taking place and confirmed that the Committee looked forward to a further update in the new year.

RESOLVED

That the committee note and comment on the report and the presentation.