The Health Foundation Report - Using economic development to improve health and reduce health inequalities - landed just at the right time. I have committed myself in 2021 through SajeImpact to continue to tackle poverty and inequality in my areas of greatest interest - economic regeneration, sport and physical activity and general wellbeing.
This report sums up for me a wide range of the hundreds of thoughts that have been racing through my mind about what that might look like in practise. It makes sense of them. It makes the correct link how a healthy populations depends on more than the healthcare available to them - it is shaped by social, econmmic, commercail and evironmental condsiotins in whish people live. Alongside the recent Marmot report it highlights that the last decade have seen massive health inequlaties reninforced and amongst the porrest life expaceancy stagnate and decraese. At its simplest level the report reinforces the point that economci developemt has to be about creating an inclusive economy. Whilst I have raised this I certainly know I need to do more in this area.
It’s a lesson we would do well to remember everytime we get excited or annoyed with social media. Depsite it’s massive reach it isn’t the real world.
In politics I learned this a long time ago. If twitter was the electorate Labour would have onw in 2017 and 2020. But it isn’t. Like most platforms it is unrepresentaive of the wider public.
Algorithms create and reinforce our own echo chambers and many moderates ( i place myself int his category) won’t engage with the more extreme views on these platforms fo fear of abuse and trolling. I gave up on the some Labour facebook groups during the Corbyn era. I just didn’t have the energy to get into pointless arguments with the cultists.
So as you can see from this latest data from YouGov - await abuse about polling - the public is way ahead of Johnson and the government on Lockdown. Lke #Brexit he ahs listened far too much to the new ERG - the CGR wing of his party and not enough to the sensible centre!
How do Brits feel about the new national lockdown? | YouGov
Overall, the vast majority (85%) of Britons support the national lockdown measures introduced across the UK this week, including 62% who "strongly" support them. This compares to 93% of Britons who supported the first national lockdown in March 2020.
Only 11% of Britons are opposed to the new measures, including 5% who are "somewhat" opposed and 6% who are "strongly" opposed to the new measures.
The lesson is listen and get outside your echo chamber.
Over the years I have talked quite a lot about workplace wellbeing. Part of my pitch to joing the Board of the LLEP was about how I wanted to encourage an active workforce and active workplaces. I arrived with a health and wellbeing agenda which I have tried to help others understand and adopt. It has not always been at the front of mind for every business if I am honest and progress has been slow.
The Covid crisis has of course changed the dynamic around ‘workplace’ and as the first few weeks of the March 2020 lockdown showed people took up the government advice to get out and exercise daily. Our streets and parks seemed full of socially distanced examples of walkers, cyclists and joggers.
Fast forward to the Winter months and we know that this initial burst didn’t last. All the data from Sport England shows that activiity levels dropped. Like the New Year diet or gym membership people didn’t quite create new habits that lasted. Even for the most committed the dark eveneing and cold weather is enough to put you off that run! I know I am sitting here now looking into the gloomy skies and cold drizzle. I have decidied to go on my indoor bike instead.
But as my friend Hayley Lever has writte more eloquently than me in this blog - Lockdown wellbeing: leading, role modelling and enabling happier, healtheir staff it is down to leaders to both model the positive activity behaviours but also to show genuine leadership around the permissive natture of your organisaiton to allow time for physical activity during daylight and work hours - whatever they are these days!
I think many bosses have genuinely been surprised by lockdown and just how productive people can be whilst from working at home. We changed more in 2 months than we had in 3 decades of talking about more working from home. But it can come at a cost. Without the daily ‘commute’ and possible break for lunch it all too easy to sit in front of Teams/ Zoom all day long. We know sitting is the new smoking. We need to encourage our staff to at least get up and move around each hour. But as Hayley has said we should go further, we should encourage getting outside and using our allowed ‘local exercise’ to mean just that.
I hope I have always modelled this behaviour with my teams/ staff. I have modelled it personlly by suggesting that my gym/sport is diarised and kept as a commitment just like anyhting else. I always tell staff that they too can exercise during the day and as long as the work is completed I am not that bothered if it is in a strict 9-5 window (which also means telling people to switch off too!)
We know this is not always poosible for people in many jobs which require being physically present… you can fill in the spaces here ith hundreds of examples. But if you are home office bound this should be for you. This is where we need to think differently and to link this to our other work in inequalities in sport and physical activity. I know just saying this isn’t going to help change the behaviour of millions of people… but it canbe a start in one element of our lives that has become more sedentary.
As part of our build back better and fairer from this pandemic we hope this is one behaviour change we can all make.
I have been trying to move into the next season of life for the last 18 months. Like many people Covid-19 has altered things a little!
However, dsepite a slight set back I am not fully committed to stepping back from the day to day work at Saje Impact and instead will be concentraing my time on some of the big projects, strategy work and supporting the voluntary boards and NED roles I have undertaken in recent years.
Perhaps this short 90 second video explains the journey better than I can.
As i have written before I am not one to make too many New Years resolutions although I do find the period between Christmas and New Year a good time to reflect.
This year is different of course, because our confidence in our own planning will have been rocked by how 2020 turned out!
We had all sorts of plans; an 18th Birthday party, a wedding in the family, A-level and Final year Law exams, a big family holiday and a daughter heading onto University and a son entering the jobs market. Add on top of that plans to slow down and ‘retire’ Saje Impact. I think you can guess most of the list for 2020 never happened. (although thankfully heading to University and finally landing a potential job for our children did fall into place - just)
Re-inventing our neighbourhoods and High Streets - why we back the “15 Minute neighbourhoods” concept.
For us our work at SajeImpact around Physical Activity and economic regeneration has come together during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The changes in work practises and shopping habits (changing over a longer period of time), the decline of the commute and the supposed drive at the end of Summer to get people back into our cities has drawn attention to the possibility that there is a different way to live our lives.
It does not mean these changes are easy or without pain but what if we could embrace the end of the commute into the City and help regenerate our local neighbourhood. What if we could reshape the declining retail High Street with a far more inviting leisure, recreational and retail offer? What if.
Working with 'hard to reach' communities is a phrase that is widely used in the Sport for Development sector and it’s one that we’ve used at the Trust for a number of years without really challenging what it means. Recently Tim Hollingsworth, Chief Executive of Sport England, shared a story about visiting a centre in a 'hard to reach' community in Oldham, where the local leader told him: “We are not hard to reach. We have been here for 20 years. You’ve just never tried”.
I returned from a welcome break in Anglesey in August thinking ahead to a post Covid world and what our futures would look like. At the stage I wrote this below we didn’t know our daughters A level results, how Universities would open up, how this SajeImpact business would be working. I will reflect on what I wrote in August at the end of November and see how it fared!
Lockdown 2 has enabled me to set out some new personal targets and one has been to find more time to read and write. So here I am. I know throughout the day have multiple thoughts and inspirations. In fact I have too many and therefore I don’t manage to share these thoughts in a way that I may find useful and perhaps some others may find of use!
In response I am going to change the way I blog - by posing more questions rather than wanting to write perfectly thought through 1000 word blogs!
For those of us who serve on Boards the last few months during #lockdown have challenges many of our norms. How often have we heard the cry from our colleagues about being zoomed out?
The pattern of Board meetings has certainly changed in my experience over the last few months and some of the lessons learned are really positive - like less travel, better attendance, flexibility of timings for meetings. At the same time many bemoan the loss of the personal interactions before and after Board meetings, the reading of body language and the fatigue of concentrating on video conferences.
I was cleaning up my old website this morning (another of those #Lockdown jobs that has finally been completed) and I cam across the post and blog I did below.
Guess what. Whilst I love to think I have this work/life balance thing under control seeing this from 2013 and comparing to life in lockdown. I have finally found a new rhythm to life which is far more realistic to making a life - not a living.
At the start of the year we had already decided at SajeImpact to change course a little. After starting the business in 2010 I had wanted to maintain a wide interest in various policy areas. I had always been involved in Economic regeneration, economic policy, international development, good global governance, wellbeing as well as my main expertise in sport and physical activity policy . Over the decade we became increasingly known for our sport and physical activity work as we specialised.
We had increasingly taken a greater interest in the local economy by volunteering to serve on the Local Enterprise partnership for Leicestershire (LLEP) and later last year became the Deputy Chair. As usual this leads to other appointments - including the Loughborough Town Deal Partnership board. I have gone full circle. I chaired a similar Board as a Councillor on Charnwood in 1995 when Loughborough was awarded economic regeneration cash too and I was Chair of the Economic Development Committee.
There are so many challenges hitting the sports sector at the moment it's difficult to keep up with one issue per month in this column! However, there is one that I am hoping will dominate Board discussions this year is governance – specifically diversity on Boards.
Sport England & UK Sport quite rightly have highlighted improved governance as a key component of improving the sports landscape and long term sustainability.
So much of our world has been confusing in recent weeks. Even by the madness of Brexit since 2016 this last period has been quite extraordinary.
But this last week has caused me to shout out in anger too often.
I want to be reflective and as I said recently be more outspoken on things that matter - whilst doing it in a way that allows us all to disagree well.
In the UK my patience has been tested. We have a government that is playing with the population over its handling of the Coronavirus.
In the US the murder of George Floyd has rightly caused international condemnation and a massive rise in protests and some hope that Racism has been etched into the public discourse.
Quite rightly sports stars, teams and brands joined in the #blacklivesmatter and #blackouttuesday trends this week. Stars like Lewis Hamilton speaking out about their rage mean fans are reminded that racism isn't just a US problem.
Let us be really honest with ourselves. We have not rooted out racism in British sport. We cannot be complacent.
The highest profile cases are usually when something happens in football and these hit the back and sometimes front pages. There is always a cry of ‘something must be done’ and some short term high profile action follows. It happens in the domestic leagues and the international game.
During the Covid-19 crisis we have had to re-think a lot of what we take for granted.
For those who thrive on social connectivity this Lockdown will have been hard. I regarded myself as one of those but I think I have discovered something new about my ability to slow down and even stop.
Coming out of Lockdown it has been suggested that we might be allowed to socialise with up to 10 people at a time. Who would you choose in your top 10 friends and family? No Really who would you choose?
The campaign to keep the nation active during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Join the Movement, continued today with the launch of a television advert.
Made entirely with self-shot videos from members of the public embodying our #StayInWorkOut motto, the ad has been backed by the likes of triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Strictly Come Dancing's Karen Hauer, ex-England footballer Kelly Smith and former European 10,000m champion Jo Pavey.
A recent post by UKActive and the CMO causes quite a bit of a stir last week.
As most people know I am a consistent and passionate believer in the need for the nation to be more physically active. I recognised some years ago that physical activity was being designed out of our lives and was having a detrimental effect on our health and wellbeing. I have pushed the agenda at every opportunity over the last 20 years.
However, my wife suffers from #ME and I have learned a lot about this condition over the last 5 years. We need to educate the Physical Activity Sector about #ME and other conditions.
