At the 2023 ukactive Active Uprising Summit, ukactive chair Mike Farrar called on the then government to rally the physical activity sector to work with NHS. He quoted evidence that those of us who work in the sector every day know is irrefutable – physical activity is one of our best preventative weapons in the battle against chronic illnesses. More than a year on, at Elevate in June 2024, countless sessions talked about the social value of our wellness services, the significance of physical activity interventions and the fact that most people still feel the fitness industry is not for them. It seems the leisure sector’s readiness for and ability to pivot to active wellbeing remains a topic much debated.
For me, this is more about promotion of what we’re already doing, in many instances, very well. There’s no need to debate how we can work with healthcare; we already are. Now we need to promote our services and prove the good we do. For that promotion to be credible, it needs to be evidenced with data. Just give healthcare your numbers, show them how many people go through your interventions and demonstrate positive change.
Leisure needs a fantastic service that’s getting tangible results – this we already have. It’s not that the quality of our services is poor, it’s our data and comms. What’s missing is the collective demonstration of our worth to the people that matter. If you’re a leisure trust providing a fantastic stroke rehab programme, does your local healthcare team even know you exist?
Explore our essential 4-step roadmap:
Step one: start collating your data in an easily extractable, meaningful way. That’s where ReferAll can help!
Step two: look at your data. What is it saying? Interpretation is everything.
Step three: reach out to your local Integrated Care System or Primary Care Networks, show them your data and make sure they know how to refer to you.
Step four: make that referral process simple and foolproof.
It's becoming increasingly common for local authorities to seek leisure management systems that integrate with us, highlighting the growing interest in open APIs and data sharing. Being able to track where your longer-term participants started can demonstrate the worth of your health-related programmes. Through collaborative partnerships, ReferAll integrates systems based on customer requests. This secure connection with software platforms allows leisure providers to showcase data with a comprehensive set of KPIs, reporting on what happens from the point of referral through the entire client journey.
With more than 500 schemes managed on our platform, we are actively exploring API integration with NHS systems to extract clinical data in a meaningful language for NHS partners. The pace of collaboration with the NHS is accelerating. It’s up to us as a sector to prove why this should continue.
Checkout my Leading Change short video series which guides you through the evolving world of health referrals, blending expertise and innovation to help you enhance your health and wellbeing offering.
Until next time,
Stu
Stuart Stokes | Founder and Managing Director
Note: This blog post was adapted from the feature "Healthy Partnerships" originally published in Healthclub Management 2024 issue 4.