FIA UPDATE


NEWS


A responsible approach F


red Turok, chair of the FIA, has been invited to co-chair the Physical Activity Network in the


new Department of Health initiative: ‘A Responsibility Deal for Public Health’. The Responsibility Deal is an


understanding between government and business built on shared social responsibility. Turok is co-chairing this network alongside the Minister of State for Health, Simon Burns MP, and will report into a board chaired by Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health. The FIA thereby forms half of the Secretariat team driving the network forward, working in partnership with members of the Department of Health (DH) physical activity team. The Responsibility Deal board


also includes representatives from organisations such as Unilever UK & Ireland, Diabetes UK, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, the Local Government Association and The Co-operative. This provides the industry with a powerful network of potential partners with which to develop opportunities to support its members to get ‘more people, more active, more often’.


pledging action The core principles of the group include improving people’s health, promoting and enabling people to adopt a healthier diet, fostering a culture of responsible drinking, encouraging and assisting people to become more physically active and actively supporting the UK workforce towards leading a healthier life. The initial focus of the Responsibility


Deal is to secure ‘pledges to act’ from organisations involved in its networks, which focus on fi ve key areas: food, alcohol, behaviour change, workplace health and physical activity. While Turok and the Minister of State for Health head up the Physical Activity Network, the other networks are led by Dame Carol Black (workplace wellness), Dr Susan Jebb (food), Jeremy Beadles (alcohol) and Paul Lincoln (behaviour change). In time, FIA members will be asked to


sign up to a core set of collective pledges and make commitments of their own. These collective pledges are based on NICE guidance and have been developed


18


The FIA has taken on a leading role in a new government initiative. David Stalker, the FIA’s executive director, reports


The Responsibility Deal: Encouraging people to get active and eat more healthily


to engage not only organisations from within the physical activity sector, but also organisations from industries such as food, retail and the third sector. Those signing up will be recognised publicly for their efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation, including a presence on an offi cial DH website. Leverage lies at the heart of the


Responsibility Deal: how can we use the vehicle it provides to unlock commitments of responsibility – from the health service, local authorities, corporate partners and major third sector bodies – for the promotion of physical activity? To credibly do this, our industry will need to back up words with action. This will mean demonstrating that we are making a positive impact, over and above our usual levels of activity, on public health.


future focus While pledges are the initial focus of the Responsibility Deal, the FIA is keen to explore how it will develop going forward. This would involve a permanent network that seeks a sea-change in attitudes towards physical activity.


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital Turok’s ambition over the next 18


months is to encourage 100 partnership- based projects, delivered through a network of 1,000 partners. These may be specifi c commitments from major national charities to raise funds for their respective causes through the promotion of physical activity, through to professional sporting bodies using match days to engage people in physical activity. These efforts would combine to form a ‘big bang’ – a notable, sizeable impact on the nation’s activity habits. The project is certainly one that is still


in evolution, with an enormous amount of time, energy and resources going into making it a success. From this month, the wider FIA membership will be encouraged to sign a commitment to delivering on the Deal and start indicating the actions and pledges they can make in their local areas. By elevating physical activity and


our industry up the political and policy agenda, we hope to be well placed when the new Public Health Service comes into operation, seen as a valuable partner by all and recognised for the contribution we can make to public health.


march 2011 © cybertrek 2011


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