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Background

Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin is part of a Group in Telford and Wrekin which is partnering with Sport England to get more people active.

• 27 new Places across England announced on 27^th November to tackle inequalities in activity levels.

• Telford and Wrekin set to benefit.

• Each new place is in the top 20% of the country for inactivity, social need, deprivation and health inequality.

At a local level

Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, as the lead applicant on behalf of Telford Strategic Oversight Group, has received funding from Sport England to boost levels of physical activity among those in greatest need, from the most inactive communities.

Telford and Wrekin is among the 27 places set to benefit from a share of Sport England’s £250million investment into the heart of communities across England, designed to tackle inactivity and inequalities by making sport, physical activity and movement accessible for everyone.

Telford Strategic Oversight Group consists of representation and engagement from five partners:

1. Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

2. Telford & Wrekin Council

3. Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System

4. Lloyds Bank Foundation / Unlocking Potential In Telford

5. Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector led by Telford Chief Officers Group (Telford COG).

At a national level

Sport England research calculates that active lifestyles save £8 billion a year for the healthcare system through illness prevention. This relieves some of the NHS burden, preventing more than 3.3 million cases of chronic health conditions a year – including:

• 1.3m cases of depression,

• 900,000 cases of back pain,

• and 700,000 cases of type 2 diabetes.

Less than half of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for daily physical activity and women, people from lower socio-economic groups and Black and Asian people are still less likely to be active than other adults.

To tackle these stubborn inequalities and break down barriers to a more active life, Sport England is taking a ‘Place-based approach’ - partnering with local organisations and leaders who understand both the specific needs of their communities and the local assets that are available - to support people to play sport and get active.

Our place-based approach

All our work is, by its very nature, place-based across Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. To bring this to life, we’ve been taking a focused place-based approach in Donnington for over a year.

This new, funded work will build on that learning and continue our focused place-based approach in Telford and Wrekin.

How will this funding be used?

Across the borough of Telford and Wrekin, the initial first phase of funding of over £400,000 will be used until March 2027, to:

• understand the conditions needed to address behaviours around physical inactivity.

• understand how we can best embed behaviours and a change in culture across Children and Younger People, Acute Settings & Adult Social Care, Green assets, and the Workforce.

• encourage data sharing.

• change the system - the authority, influence and culture change needed to address physical inactivity at a system level, testing a new approach to working.

Following this first exploratory phase, the Telford Strategic Oversight Group along with wider partners, will be welcomed to submit a second larger application utilising the evidence and intelligence gathered taking the total partnership investment up to March 2028.

Pete Ezard, Chief Executive at Energize STW, said:

“We are excited and empowered to be leading on this award on behalf of Telford and Wrekin. This opportunity will provide the time and investment needed across both a systemic and local level to explore the approaches and conditions required to support the people and communities across Telford who are experiencing the most inequalities. Furthermore, to have equitable opportunity to gaining the benefits of movement for their physical and mental wellbeing. The collaboration with partners involved in this award will ensure the funding creates the evidence needed in engaging and supporting those most in need.”

We look forward to keeping our Telford and Wrekin webpage updated with news and insight about this work.