A Picture of the Health and Fitness of UK Community Leisure Facilities from Proludic as part of the Sports Legacy Zone package in partnership with Steve Backley and Roger Black

1. The
Social Fitness Report
A Picture of the Health and Fitness of
UK Community Leisure Facilities
November 2011

2. “The legacy from London 2012 will not come from
the event itself, but from what we do to actively
encourage and promote a greater involvement in
sports and leisure activities. This must start within
the community parks and sports facilities that
everyone can access.”
Roger Black MBE, Former European, World and Olympic Champion

3. The importance of Social Fitness
Promoting active and healthy lifestyles is a key goal for government and shapes the
policies that affects many areas for both the public and private sectors – including local
government, housing, health, leisure and community organisations.
There are two parts to achieving this aim. Firstly educating and motivating people to take
personal responsibility for their health, and secondly, ensuring all communities have access
to the facilities that allow people to turn their good intentions into action.
This report examines both sides of this issue within the context of ‘social fitness’.
‘Social fitness’ means the sports and leisure activities that can be undertaken free-of-charge
within a community. It includes the use of local parks, play areas, pitches, courts, trails and
pools that are freely accessible, with or without the use of a local authority leisure card.
For the majority of people in the UK (61%) these are the only sports and fitness facilities that
they use – meaning that the success of social fitness in a community is a crucial indicator
of its health.
The research contained within has been conducted to help better understand the state of
social fitness in the UK. Our purpose is to help professionals working in sports and leisure,
health, local and national government, housing and community associations to better
focus on the goal of improving social fitness.
About This Research
The findings in this research are based on a representative nationwide survey of
2,000 adults.
The survey was commissioned on behalf of Proludic in October 2011.
The authors of this report are Steve Leigh and James Crawford. Both are
communications and research professionals with over 25 years of combined
experience working with the public sector, health organisations and community
groups.
About Proludic
Over the last 20 years Proludic has become one of the world’s leading providers of
play equipment, creating play and sports areas for children and adults of all ages.

4. Steve Backley and Roger Black
“We both had very different journeys to reach the Olympic Games, but one thing we had
in common were the facilities and coaching that were provided within the communities
where we were raised. This gave both of us the window of opportunity that led us to
representing Great Britain at international level.”
“We believe passionately that encouraging social fitness, through good quality and freely
available community facilities is vital to promoting healthier
lifestyles and a lifelong interest in exercise, personal
health and sport.
It is for this reason that we’ve given
our support to Proludic’s efforts
to promote social fitness, such as
publishing and promoting this
report and also through innovations
such as its Sports Legacy Zone
concept and the Virtual Coach.
The Sports Legacy Zone is, a varied
and high quality range of exercise,
sport and play equipment for
all ages, we have worked with
Proludic to create a range of
activities and videos to support
and widen its use.
Coaches, teachers, parents or
individuals will be able to access
this material free-of-charge to
learn how to use the equipment
to improve different aspects of
physical strength and stamina. It
also provides recommendations
for how to use the facilities for
team activities and games.
This support is also available as instructional videos that can be viewed at the park using
smartphones, by scanning the QR codes displayed on the equipment.
Through such activity and our partnership with Proludic we aim to engage young people
in physical exercise that’s fun and support community coaches as part of the build up to
London 2012 Olympic Games. With the aim of supporting the creation of a lasting legacy.”

5. Michael Hoenigmann: Managing Director, Proludic
“As someone who has been involved in the play, sports and leisure sector for 20 years, I
know how important it is to understand community needs.”
“To be successful, schemes must provide something for everyone – young and old, able
and less-able, regular and casual users.
This sounds simple, but every location and community has a complex blend
of issues that need to be assessed on its own merits.
Getting it right means happier, healthier and
more cohesive communities. Getting it wrong
creates failed public spaces that can take
decades to put right.
For this reason, we see our role as being that
of expert advisor rather than a provider of
equipment.
This has led us to innovate with new ideas, both
in terms of the schemes we create, but also
ways in which we can help with the funding,
community involvement and marketing of
projects.
This report is the next logical step in that
process, a resource to help our professional
partners to make better decisions and use
their increasingly scarce resources to best
effect.
We aim to use this report to kick-start a series
of debates with thought-leaders in the fields
of health, housing, community, public policy,
corporate-giving and education.
In 2012, we’ll be gathering together all of this wisdom for a second report that will attempt
to create a joined-up agenda for social fitness that will help all parties to understand how
they can work together more effectively.
In the meantime, I’d welcome any thoughts or suggestions for future areas or study, or
ways in which we might be able to work together to promote the wider cause of social
fitness in the UK.”

6. Social Fitness in the UK
We asked 2,000 UK adults to consider 126 different
aspects of their (and their children’s) experiences
and use of the social fitness facilities available in
their communities.
The results provide a fascinating insight into how
such facilities are used and perceived. They also
indicate what impact has been made by recent
investment, such as the Labour government’s
£235m investment in play through the Playbuilder
and Play Pathfinder Scheme.
Finally, we have examined what factors are most
likely to increase use of facilities and social fitness
activities, helping to focus future investment and
planning to support strategy and policy decisions.

7. The Need for Social Fitness Facilities
To determine the extent to which people rely on social fitness facilities, we examined how
different groups made use of free or paid-for facilities for their exercise.
Finding: The majority of the population would have no exercise
without access to social fitness facilities.
• 61% of the UK population is totally reliant on free sports and leisure facilities for
structured exercise (this group spends nothing on paid-for facilities)
• This figure was highest for people in rural areas (71%) and for people over the age of 55
(74%)
Finding: Social fitness facilities are used to heavily supplement the
use of paid-for facilities.
• The average amount someone in the UK spends each month of the use of a gym or
sports facilities is £11.61.
• This spending was highest amongst groups with children in key stage 1 - 5 to 6 years –
(£21.98) and key stage 2 – 7 to 10 years (£20.32).
• However, these high spenders still show a significant need for social fitness facilities.
The research shows that people spending over £20 a month on such facilities were also
heavy users of social fitness facilities – those using free sports and leisure facilities at
least twice a week.
• This indicates that people with more active lifestyles use both free and paid-for facilities
in parallel rather than as an alternative to each other.
• The level of monthly spend would indicate that the use of social fitness facilities was at
least the same if not greater than that of paid-for facilities.
Finding: Over a third of the UK adult population is taking no form of
regular structured sport or exercise.
• 36% of UK adults report that they pay nothing on sports or gym facilities and make use
of free sports and leisure facilities less than once a month.

8. The Usage of Social Fitness Facilities
Finding: One fifth of the population can be characterised as heavy
users of social fitness facilities.
• 22% of the population use such facilities at least twice a week.
• 7% are using facilities more than 4 days a week.
• 2% are taking part in social fitness activity daily.
• This group of users is most likely to be:
• Between the ages of 25-34
• A parent with children living at home
• For those children to be pre-school or in key stage 1 (5 to 6 years old).
• To live in an inner-city area
• Higher than average spenders on paid-for sports and gym facilities –
most likely to spend over £20 each month.
• For there to have been noticeable investment to improve the quality
and availability of local facilities in the last 3 years.
• For their use (and their children’s use) of social fitness facilities to be
over 5 hours each week.
Finding: One quarter of the population can be characterised as
medium users of social fitness facilities.
• 25% of the population use such facilities between 2 and 4 times a month.
• 15% are using facilities weekly.
• This group of users is most likely to be:
• A parent with a child under the age of 1 or over the age of 7
• To live in a suburban or semi-rural area
• A significant spread of spending on paid-for sport and gym facilities
(between £9.76 and £17.50).
• To have access to best quality of free facilities, but for the availability
and quality of those facilities to be most likely to have declined in the
last 3 years.
• For their children’s weekly use of social fitness facilities to be between
4 and 5 hours per week.

9. The Usage of Social Fitness Facilities
Finding: Half the population can be classified as light users of social
fitness facilities.
• 52% of UK adults use social fitness facilities once a month or less.
• This group of users is most likely to be:
• Childless or have children over the age of 17.
• To live in rural or semi-rural areas.
• To have to drive to the nearest social fitness facilities.
• To pay below the national average for a gym or sports facilities
(range between £4.83 and £9.76)
• To have the lowest quality of social fitness facilities
• To have seen the least investment in improving the availability or
quality of facilities.
• To use facilities considerably less than their children if they have any.
Children’s use of facilities remains reasonably strong at between 3
and 4 hours each week.

10. Availability and Quality of Facilities
Finding: Parks and playgrounds are the most accessible social fitness
facilities and least likely to require a car or public transport.
• 73% of people have access to a park without need for transport.
• 59% have access to a play area, rising to 69% using transport.
Finding: The average rating for the quality of social fitness facilities
in the UK is remarkably consistent regardless of who you are and
where you live. However, this is not due to consistent standards, but
rather an even spread of very good and very poor areas.
• In almost all circumstances the quality of facilities is rated between 5 and 6 out of 10.
The UK average is 5.3 /10.
• The only notable exception is in regional areas where the average rating is 4.94/10.
• However – despite the average remaining consistent – there seems to be a fairly even
spread of very poor and very good facilities.
• 52% of respondents rate the quality of local facilities at 5 /10 or below. 1 in 10 area’s
facilities are rated at just 1 or 2 / 10.
• However, 66% of people rate their local facilities at 5 /10 or higher. A third of all facilities
are rated at 7/10 or higher.

11. Evidence of Investment
Finding: There is some evidence to suggest that investment has
improved the availability of quality of facilities in the last 3 years.
• Quality and availability is more likely to have increased than decreased.
• Investment has had most significant effect in inner city areas – 29% report increase in
both availability and quality (compared to UK average of 20% and 22% respectively).
Finding: However, the impact of investment has been limited either
to specific areas (inner cities) or to maintaining rather than improving
the availability or quality of facilities.
• 80% report no improvement in availability or a decline in availability in the last 3 years
• 78% report no improvement in quality or a decline in quality in the last 3 years
The Impact of Good Facilities
Finding: People place a very high value on having good quality
facilities for social fitness activities:
• 67% would be influenced to move to an area by the quality of facilities
• 92% believe good facilities contribute to health and well-being
• 90% believe social fitness plays a role in promoting positive communities
• 77% believe investing in social fitness should be a priority for public investment
Finding: Investment in the quality of social fitness facilities has a
correlation with increased use – more so than other factors such as
availability of facilities.
• 50% of those using 4 to 5 times per week reported an increase in quality of facilities,
compared to 14% of those using less than once a month
• The quality of facilities was rated highest by once a week users (5.9) and lowest by less
than once a month users (4.9)

12. What’s Next?
During 2012 Proludic will be leading a series of initiatives to examine how to use these
insights to support the role social fitness plays in improving the nation’s health and well-
being.
We will be seeking participation from experts and partners within specialist areas such as:
• Health
• Local Government
• Central Government
• CSR
• Education
• Housing
Our aim will be to examine the issues raised by this report and look
at how we can turn this insight into actionable change – ultimately
creating an agenda for improving social fitness in the UK.
By timing this activity to coincide with London 2012, we hope to contribute to the
discussions around how to achieve a meaningful legacy that increases participation in
sport and contributes to greater health and fitness.
We will also be working with partners on innovative ways to improve the quality of social
fitness within the UK – according to our research the biggest single driver of increased use
and participation.
One initiative will be continuing to look at ways to promote the supported use of social
fitness facilities through our partnership with Steve Backley and Roger Black.
As well as rolling out the Sports Legacy Zone concept, we’ll also be working with local
community groups, schools and coaches to make better use of the social fitness facilities
at their disposal.
Keep an eye out for some of our social fitness challenges, using
digital and social media to raise awareness and allow people to ‘take
on’ the Olympians.
We will also continue exploring new ways to help unlock the funding required to improve
social fitness facilities – both in terms of identifying the funds that are available and
exploring new models for public/private partnerships, corporate CSR and ways to make
schemes self (or part) funding.

13. We see our work in promoting social fitness as a
collaborative exercise that requires the input of
individuals and organisations across a wide range
of specialisms and disciplines.
If you would like to be involved, please register
your interest by contacting Dave Bailey at our
Nottingham Office:
Proludic Ltd
The Pump House
Abbey Road
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 5NE
tel: 0115 982 3980
fax: 0115 982 3985
email: marketing@proludic.co.uk
You can also follow our progress at
www.proludic.co.uk/socialfitness
Or via our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/sportslegacyzone