 | |
| Founded | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
Region | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Fitness |
Key people |
|
| Website | www |
ukactive is a not-for-profit industry association, promoting the interests of commercial fitness gyms and community leisure centres, [1] with more than 3500 organisations in membership. ukactive's central stated vision is to get more people, more active, more often and to improve the nation's health by promoting active lifestyles. [2]
ukactive originated as the Fitness Industry Association (FIA), which was founded in 1991 as a trade organisation for the fitness sector. Its stated aims were "to promote a healthier and more physically active nation through raising standards within the health and fitness industry". The FIA organised an annual 'Commit to get fit' campaign that raised awareness to member organisations to take part and to also raise money for charity, while the FIA's links with the NHS gave it added credibility.
In April 2011, David Stalker was appointed as the new chief executive officer of the FIA, having served as 'Executive Director' since 2009. He replaced Andree Deane. Stalker oversaw the rebranding of the FIA into ukactive at the 2012 ukactive Summit, developing the organisation into a sector representative health body that champions the cause of physical activity, health and wellbeing. David Stalker left in 2015, and is now running Oxygen Freejumping. [3]
ukactive's chief executive officer is Huw Edwards, who was appointed to the role in 2019. Mike Farrar is currently ukactive's chair. Farrar was the former Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation from 2011 until October 2013.
The other current members of the ukactive Board are:
ukactive governance also includes several sub-committees, who represent the various facets of the organisation's landscape in an advisory role to the main board. These include:
Andrew Lansley is an adviser. [7] Current partners include Sport England, Argos, DHL, Coca-Cola, Essex County Council, Legal & General and the National Childbirth Trust.
The Research Institute aims to bridge the evidence gap between traditional laboratory-based 'exercise is medicine' research and real world interventions.
The core aim of the research team is to generate academic publications and conduct research which will contribute to answering fundamental questions related to how to get 'more people, more active, more often'. [8]
Promising Practice 2 is a project conducted by the ukactive Research Institute. In collaboration with the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine and Public Health England, it is seeking to identify physical activity programmes that demonstrate good and promising practice in local communities, through surveys. This is the second iteration of the Promising Practice project; In July 2014, a total of 952 survey responses were submitted for phase one of the project. [9]
Turning the Tide was a 2013 report that sought to measure and highlight the rising levels of physical inactivity in the UK. It found that one in four people in England fail to achieve more than 30 minutes’ moderate physical activity over 28 days, yet local authorities spent just 2.4 per cent of public health budgets on inactivity. The release of this report was welcomed by David Cameron who was quoted in the report saying "Turning the tide of inactivity is essential to the health of our nation" [10] MP Andy Burnham also advocated the report at the ukactive National Summit 2014. [11] It led to a doubling on local authority public health spending on England's 'inactivity epidemic', and also preceded the launch of 'Move More, Live More', a Government commitment to reduce the nation's physical inactivity levels. The report saw ukactive awarded 'Trade Body Campaign of the Year' at the Public Affairs Awards 2014. [12]
Generation Inactive, published in 2015, established the scale of childhood physical inactivity in the UK. It explored the current understanding of children's physical activity in primary schools and investigated the measures that are used to track the activity and fitness levels of pupils, finding that just 40% of schools accurately tracked their pupils' fitness levels. It offered several recommendations to government, schools and the activity sector in how to reverse the trend of physical inactivity in young people. [13]
The Rise of the Activity Sector was released in October 2016, [14] and was the first report to analyse and estimate the value of the activity sector as a whole, based on analyses made by valuation specialist Mazars and sponsorship experts Nielsen Sports. It estimated that the gym sector would be worth £7.7 billion by the end of 2016, representing year-on-year growth of 17 per cent. [15]
Blueprint for an Active Britain was released in November 2015 and set out the key changes required in Britain's physical activity landscape to inspire a more active nation. The recommendations and ideas in the report presented a system-wide roadmap for promoting physical activity for everyone, and a partnership approach to prevent the debilitating spread of physical inactivity. It was supported by Lord Ara Darzi, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal Society for Public Health, the Nuffield Trust, Mind and Age UK.[ citation needed ] Many of these ideas have been incorporated into the Government's own policy paper: Sporting Future – A New Strategy for an Active Nation, [16] as well as Sport England's subsequent strategy Towards an Active Nation. The follow-up to this report was the November 2016 Blueprint for an Active Britain: Milestone Review, [17] which analysed the progress made in the post-Blueprint landscape. It outlined fresh, practical policy recommendations across a range of areas that Government and other key stakeholders including ukactive should work towards in the future.
The organisation is actively involved with local authorities in the United Kingdom in developing plans to increase physical activity. [18]
ukactive's Public Affairs department engages with central government, including parliamentarians and ministers to highlight the importance of the physical activity agenda.
Major policy recommendations led by the ukactive Public Affairs department include:
Phonographic Performance Ltd is the UK-based music licensing company which grants copyright licenses for the public performance of recorded music. Over a four-year period ukactive has negotiated, [33] and continues to negotiate to prevent large increases to PPL licensing as seen in other nations.
An NHS foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care. As of March 2019 there were 151 foundation trusts.
Citizens Advice is a British independent organisation specialising in confidential information and advice to assist people with legal, debt, consumer, housing and other problems in the United Kingdom.
Physical activity is defined as any voluntary bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Physical activity encompasses all activities, at any intensity, performed during any time of day or night. It includes both voluntary exercise and incidental activity integrated into the daily routine. This integrated activity may not be planned, structured, repetitive or purposeful for the improvement of physical fitness, and may include activities such as walking to the local shop, cleaning, working, active transport etc. Lack of physical activity is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, whereas increased physical activity can improve physical and mental health, as well as cognitive and cardiovascular health. There are at least eight investments that work to increase population-level physical activity, including whole-of-school programmes, active transport, active urban design, healthcare, public education and mass media, sport for all, workplaces and community-wide programmes. Physical activity increases energy expenditure and is a key regulator in controlling body weight. In human beings, differences among individuals in the amount of physical activity have a substantial genetic basis.
The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by controlling entry to the register, and suspending or removing members when necessary. It also sets the standards for medical schools in the UK. Membership of the register confers substantial privileges under Part VI of the Medical Act 1983. It is a criminal offence to make a false claim of membership. The GMC is supported by fees paid by its members, and it became a registered charity in 2001.
NHS Wales is the publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales, and one of the four systems which make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly–funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, supported by seven special non-geographic health boards, and Public Health Scotland.
Nursing in the United Kingdom is the largest health care profession in the country. It has evolved from assisting doctors to encompass a variety of professional roles. Over 700,000 registered nurses practice, working in settings such as hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, military, prisons, and academia. Most are employed by the National Health Service (NHS).
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services (NHS) of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is only free to UK residents and a charge may be made to those not entitled to free NHS care.
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care providers in England. In July 2024 it was described as a "failing organisation" by the Health and Social Secretary.
Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service, as health is a devolved matter; there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom, comprising the NHS in England, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS". The original three systems were established in 1948 as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, provided without charge for residents of the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care. In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60, or those on certain state benefits, are exempt.
The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is a UK-wide umbrella association of training institutions and professional bodies providing psychotherapy services to the public, mainly in the private sector. As implied in the title their therapeutic approaches are guided by analytical psychology and the psychoanalytic schools of psychology and treatment. It is a registered charity.
Worldwide there has been a large shift towards less physically demanding work and a more sedentary lifestyle. This has been accompanied by increasing use of mechanized transportation, automobile dependency, a greater prevalence of labor saving technology in the home, and less active recreational pursuits. At least 31% of the world's population does not get sufficient physical exercise. This is true in almost all developed and developing countries, and among children. Some experts refer to sitting as "the new smoking" because of its negative effects on overall health.
Obesity in the United Kingdom is a significant contemporary health concern, with authorities stating that it is one of the leading preventable causes of death. In February 2016, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described rising rates of childhood obesity as a "national emergency". The National Childhood Measurement Programme, which measures obesity prevalence among school-age pupils in reception class and year 6, found obesity levels rocketed in both years groups by more than 4 percentage points between 2019–20 and 2020–21, the highest rise since the programme began. Among reception-aged children, those aged four and five, the rates of obesity rose from 9.9% in 2019–20 to 14.4% in 2020–21. By the time they are aged 10 or 11, more than a quarter are obese. In just 12 months, the rate is up from 21% in 2019–20 to 25.5% in 2020–21.
NHS England, formerly the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It directly commissions NHS general practitioners, dentists, optometrists and some specialist services. The Secretary of State publishes annually a document known as the NHS mandate which specifies the objectives which the Board should seek to achieve. National Health Service Regulations are published each year to give legal force to the mandate.
Disability in the United Kingdom covers a wide range of conditions and experiences, deeply impacting the lives of millions of people. Defined by the Equality Act 2010 as a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, it encompasses various aspects of life, including demographics, legislation, healthcare, employment, and culture. Despite numerous advancements in policy and social attitudes, individuals with disabilities often encounter unique challenges and disparities.
The Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) is a standards-based network that replaced the N3 network in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. It went live in April 2017. Transition to the new network was completed by November 2020.
The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity(CIMSPA), formerly known as the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (IMSPA), is the professional body for the United Kingdom's sport and physical activity sector. Based at Loughborough University, it has partnerships with key sporting organisations across the United Kingdom. It is recognised and partnered with Sport England and Sportscotland. It awards chartered status ('Chartered Member' and 'Chartered Fellow') to qualified professionals.
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