There’s an expectation that, for leisure to be seen as truly credible in healthcare circles, we must learn a whole new language – the language of health. The Local Government Association’s guide, Sport and leisure – promoting health and wellbeing through public services*, goes so far as to state that ‘it is important to have a familiarity with the culture and language used by health partners to be able to talk in health terms’.
While I agree navigating where you sit within the fabric of the healthcare and understanding its commonly used terms is helpful for anyone providing health-related programmes in leisure, I don’t believe we need to go so far as learning to talk the NHS’s complex and often convoluted language. As a provider, what you ultimately need is a fantastic service and robust data to prove its worth. Let your successes do the talking, let uptake and completion rates demonstrate a programme’s effectiveness – this will gain you support from stakeholders and potential funding partners. Utilising community spaces and resources for health-related programmes can also help to bridge the gap between health and leisure services in a meaningful language for NHS partners.
The pace of collaboration with the NHS is already accelerating. We host more than 509 schemes on our ReferAll platform, which equates to more than over 785,000 referrals. With our digital integrations, the path to accessing data about these referrals is clear. Monitoring your health-related referrals from the start is the way to prove your programmes are not just a ‘nice to have’ but an essential service for a healthcare system that’s stretched to its limit. With the right proof and the right promotion, the healthcare community will take notice. And once healthcare see that people are engaging with your interventions and making changes, you’ll be talking the same language.
Until next time,
Stu
Stuart Stokes | Founder and Managing Director
P.S. Please don't hesitate to reach out and start a conversation: 📲 
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*https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/sport-and-leisure-promoting-health-and-wellbeing-through-public-services