Blogs from SajeImpact
What do we mean by innovation? I think it is like strategy as one of the most overused words in my circles.
It is a genuine question because every time i get involved in a session/ Board/ discussion it seems everybody in the room has a differing idea!
I have been on my own journey in sports policy over the last 20 years. Today the partnership we have announced with David Morley Architects to focus on Active Environments feels like another significant moment in taking a wider understanding of sport, physical activity and movement.
We know most of our supporters have been in what we might call the traditional sport and then wider physical activity sector. When I was in Parliament I was keen to raise the issue of physical activity - but probably more in the context of a public health issue. Since we worked closely on the Designed to Move campaign - which called for just 2 interventions around our physical environment and making children's experience of sport and physical activity fun and engaging - we have been trying to widen the debate in the sector to understand the interventions that work to get people moving. Its a tough message but these aren't always about sport, leisure and gym sector. As the Report from ISPAH has shown there are eight interventions that work and only 1-2 are inside our normal definition of the sport and physical activity sector.
A whole systems approach to decreasing the levels of inactivity in the UK will require us to get outside our normal conversations and into a wider eco-system we will find uncomfortable. At the launch of the Sport England strategy a poll was taken as to which of the priorities was the most important. Active Environments came last I believe. This is why we are really determined and excited by this new collaboration because we need the sector to understand what we mean, what active environments can and will deliver for activity. Of course we understand these discussions are uncomfortable. It takes us further away from our understanding of 'sport' But if we don't embrace this new systems approach we are denying ourselves an opportunity to be part of the solution.
Active Environments covers a facilities strategy so this is plenty of opportunity to shape this part of any growth, but this needs to be done in conjunction with a wider understanding of where and how people move. Big shiny facilities are nice for many of us but who do they serve? If the Sport England strategic direction is to tackle inequalities this will mean even with facility development we need to approach things differently.
This is the time - as we head into a period of rebuilding after Covid - to grasp these opportunities to really do things differently and to think about our local environment in a completely different way. It has taken 40-50 years to design activity out of our lives. It will take time to turn around decades of policy designed around the car. But we have to start somewhere. And it feels a post Covid world gives a chance to do just that! Making a healthy start.
So we have a new 10 year strategy for Sport England and endorsed by the Sports Minister at DCMS. But as we all know with a strategy launch this is just the beginning.
Firstly I would put down a marker to say I am deeply impressed by the process of the development of the strategy (despite its delayed start due to a General Election and the onslaught of a Pandemic on the sector). As I tweeted yesterday none of the strategy was a surprise because the process had been open, honest and transparent. The end product is what you could see on the website for the last few weeks around the key themes!
Secondly it's great it is an evolution of the current direction of travel since the Sporting Futures strategy and thankfully aimed at a 10 year timeframe. At last! However, the prospect of governments (or Ministers) changing affects how sure we are of a 10 year strategy being possible in reality. Fingers crossed. But that is part of our job to show to politicians and government it is right, its working and to build on success not tear down and start again. I have always been realistic that it is hard to convince a newly appointed Minister not to do anything or 'something'. You get 2.3 years on average. You want to make a mark. Who wouldn't? We need to show the overall direction doesn't need switching back and forth as we have for the last 20 years.
There are plenty of opportunities over the coming period of consultation to develop the business plan to dive into aspects of the strategy which we really like and other areas where there is clearly still room for work to be done (Measuring the impact springs to mind)
However, we are also very keen on developing the delivery mechanisms of the strategy. As recent research has highlighted there have been some 14 Obesity Strategies in the UK over the last 30 years containing 698 policies. I think we could all agree they have not been universally successful. We would argue this has been a result of a number of factors including the timidity of successive governments to tackle the vested interests, to avoid been seen as the 'Nanny State' as well as the strategy launch being seen by too many at the heart of government as 'job done'
We know full well that the team at Sport England really understand this and there will be further changes in culture, approach and organisation as the strategy is rolled out. But it won't be easy. It seems from reaction that most people welcomed the launch. But there are some tough choices ahead and when some of these impact on funding levels for those who may have been used to the old approach some of that support could slip away quickly. Those of us who support the central themes of this strategy need to support its implementation even when the going gets tough.
Now we have another period of detailed check and challenge and consultation as the Business Plan is developed, why not share your thoughts, aspirations and fears with us? We exist to help create a space for healthy and constructive dialogue. Let us know your initial reactions and how you will be working differently.
This strategy does build on a direction of travel away from purely delivering 'sport' in its traditional sense. Many of our supporters have questioned whether 'Sport England' is still the right title. We know this journey. Our own name of the Sports Think Tank doesn't really convey the breadth of our own interest in wider policies of physical activity. movement, wellbeing and health inequalities. But we think it's more important to spend time and energy on tackling this issues and not navel gazing on a name. if we ever get a breathing space we might consider a re brand but in the meantime we will concentrate on the issues!
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 is dangerous to look back with nostalgia. I have got to an age when I find myself doing it all the time.
I’ve just had another healthy debate on LinkedIn about trying to get sports put in front of children’s eyes on television in the hope that this will then inspire the generation to take up sport. We even fondly remembered Grandstand.
There is some evidence around eyeballs on sport and participation but it’s vital that we understand where those eyeballs are these days. I recall with one client desperate to get onto BBC1 to reach their audience that sadly the young people they wanted to reach aren’t there!
As this graphic from research in 2019 shows consumer consumption is changing fast. I know from my one children that Facebook is non existent for them. In just a few years new platforms have taken over and even since 2019 you would have to add in TikTok to this list.
So yes for people of my age the BBC, C4 are important for our sports coverage but as long it’s not behind an expensive paywall I will watch it anywhere. The next generation are already elsewhere..
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!
Getting into the ‘room’ wherever that may be for you or your career is hard. But what you do when you get there is more important.
I use the phrase - If you are in the room you deserve to be there so have confidence and use your presence.
I am not particularly good at anything specific. But I have managed to do quite a bit in my life - well beyond my abilities so I have used the last couple of years exploring why and how!
Having spoken to people to critically appraise me I have come to fairly simple conclusions.
It is about self confidence, engagement, self deprecating humour, interest in others, and positivity
https://psiloveyou.xyz/how-to-radiate-confidence-without-doing-a-lot-of-work-fc9bcdef4737
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.
