S&PAProfessional / Spring 2020
WATERLANE LEISURE CENTRE, LOWESTOFT
List of accredited sites (*indicates accreditation due to be confirmed in next few weeks)
BROADLAND LEISURE CENTRE, LOWESTOFT BRANDON LEISURE CENTRE
THE DOME LEISURE CENTRE, MILDENHALL
STRADBROKE POOL & FITNESS CENTRE*
BURY ST EDMUNDS LEISURE CENTRE NEWMARKET LEISURE CENTRE
MID SUFFOLK LEISURE CENTRE, STOWMARKET*
HAVERHILL SPORTS CENTRE KINGFISHER POOL, SUDBURY
He points to Abbeycroft’s non-profit social enterprise status, and the fact that it provides subsidised rates if users could not otherwise afford to take part. A key measure of success for the scheme will be whether its participants remain active beyond the initial ERS term. Lown explains: “What we don’t want is people going in to do a 12-week exercise referral, then feeling fine or better or whatever, and then not doing anything else again, and then in two years they’re back going through exercise referral.” He acknowledges that this may require a shift from the funding mindset whereby achieving a certain
HADLEIGH POOL
HOLBROOK PENINSULAR SPORTS CENTRE, IPSWICH
level of course attendance is considered success, and what happens after that is not measured. Lown recalls how in a previous job he pushed delivery partners to think more about long-term effects, after course completion, on participants’ lives. He is doing the same on this project. “We have asked and challenged partners to improve their process for tracking participants post the initial intervention; to think about how they can retain those customers and to understand the behaviours that need to be changed to achieve longterm participaction,” he says. Lown will not be drawn on how well the scheme is going - he wants the data
to do the talking. “It is very early days and there is nowhere near enough data to pull even any tentative conclusions yet,” he says, but adds that early signs “are promising around improvements in physical activity and wellbeing”. A report in May will give some idea of where things are headed at the halfway point of the 24-month scheme. It is promising to hear that Lown is currently in talks with Right Directions to make the QS accreditation criteria available nationally. Should the Suffolk Exercise QS turn out to be just what the doctor ordered, Smyth and Lown’s counterparts across the country would be wise to take note.
25 www.cimspa.co.uk
Agenda - Suffolk_Spring 2020_S&PA Professional 25
23/03/2020 17:04
