Agenda item

The Board received a presentation from Kelly Stead,Commercial Director – Mytime Active, Debra Weekes, Partnerships Manager – Mytime Active and Diane Friday, Active Lifestyles Programme Manager – Mytime Active regarding the work being undertaken improve wellbeing in the local community.

The Commercial Director informed Board Members that Mytime Active was a Social Enterprise, and a registered charity, with a mission to improve the wellbeing of the local community. Mytime Active ran a variety of leisure facilities, including gyms, swimming pools, golf centres, and operated in four community halls across the borough.

The Active Lifestyles Programme Manager advised that Mytime Active ran several health programmesto support people with a recent diagnosis or living with a long-term health condition. This included the Heart Smart and Fresh Start Exercise Referral Programmes; MSK Hub; and the Fresh Start Friendly programme. These health programmes were delivered by a team of trained exercise specialists, who assessed and monitored progress. Primetime was a weekly programme of more than 90 activities for older adults. This included seated exercises, aqua classes, dance and strength and stability sessions – it was noted that a number of these classes were dementia friendly. In addition to the dedicated Primetime team, there were a number of volunteer ‘buddies’ that who encouraged older residents to be more active, showing new people around the facilities and taking them to classes.

The Partnerships Manager informed Board Members that MyClub was for young people and adults with special educational needs and disabilities. Activities, including golf, dance, multi-sports and bowling, were delivered across three facilities and provided opportunities to increase physical activity levels and to socialise. It was noted that all the programmes highlighted played a vital role in supporting the loneliness and social isolation agenda.

Board Members were advised that other programmes delivered by Mytime Active included ArtsTrain, a Creative music programme for young people, which provided opportunities to tackle issues and improve wellbeing through song writing and music production. This targeted young people who were otherwise not engaged and music industry leaderssupported them to write lyrics, produce music and perform their tracks. Mytime Active also managed Team Bromley entries for the London Youth Games, working with sports clubs and schools to enter many different sports competitions. A number of volunteers selected, developed and trained young people before entering them into competitions – last year 320 young people been involved in 25 competitions across 15 different sports.

In terms of their latest partnerships, the Commercial Director advised that the Wellbeing Hub was a virtual triage, following referral though various pathways or self-referral, into services as a preventative measure. It was key to ensure that those coming in did so at the right level and would be assessed to see if ant additional support was required. In relation to young people, Mytime Active were working with the LBB Children in Care / Care Leavers Team; providing free swimming lessons for young mums in partnership with the Children & Families Voluntary Sector Forum; and providing activities for young people in partnership with Clarion Housing Group and the LBB Youth Support Team.

A Board Member said that the work being undertaken by Mytime Active to expand the scope and access to services was great, and noted that they were being creative in terms of securing additional funding streams. Congratulations were extended to Mytime Active for the awards won and to the Partnerships Manager for her active role on the Pro-active Bromley Board. It was noted that Mytime Active were also playing an important role in relation to the delivery and leadership of the night time economy event around sport and physical activity drawing people in Bromley Town Centre.

In response to questions, the Commercial Director said that take-up varied across the services. The Partnerships Manager advised that 8 activity sessions per week were provided for MyClub, and over 100 people were registered. Across the session the average attendance was between 120-130 per week – some people attended more than one session per week and staff at supported housing units brough residents along to certain activities. It was noted that over 90 Primetime sessions were delivered, and all were well attended – further outreach sessions had been provided as part of a project, and were continuing to grow. The seated session provided at Crofton Halls was attended by 40-45 people. The Active Lifestyles Programme Manager advised that the health programmes received around 1,200 referrals a year. There was a choice of 14 classes per week across four locations, and they were continuing to make links with other referrers and reviewing the pathways. The Director of Nursing – King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust noted the links with the cardiology services at the PRUH and South Sites and suggested that further links could be developed to create collaboration within other pathways.

There was also a health membership for those that had reduced ability to attend classes long-term, attended by around 600 people per month. The Commercial Director said that Mytime Active had launched a self-referral health membership towards the end of the previous year – over 3,000 referrals had been made into the programme, via various routes. The Active Lifestyles Programme confirmed that social prescribers made referrals into Primetime, as well as the health programmes.

Board Members enquired about the waiting times for the programmes provided. The Commercial Director advised that there was not a waiting list for the self-referral, and they were continuously building on their classes. The Active Lifestyles Programme Manager noted that, with regards to the health programmes, waiting lists were dependent if someone wanted to attend classes at a particular location or time, but was usually a maximum of two weeks – they also provided sessions on evenings and weekends.

In response to questions, the Active Lifestyles Programme Manager advised that when people came through the referral pathway they were assessed by the team and the exercises prescribed were relevant to their condition. There was a long-term session which provided a specific class for stroke and neurological conditions, and the exercises were tailor made for the cohort. The Commercial Director said that an online programme was provided. These were on demand and accessed via the Mytime app – it was noted that this was an area that they wanted to grow, and were continuing to develop.

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Partnerships Manager said that they wanted to ensure that residents knew what they did, and that their offer was much wider than leisure facilities. Their community venues offered support to overcome barriers and they encouraged Board Members to spread this message. A Board Member noted that there were a number of community champions who may be able to help publicise the programmes offered. The Partnerships Manager confirmed that they had made links with the LBB Communications Team. The Chief Executive Officer – Bromley Healthcare said that they would like to encourage staff to use the facilities/programmes on offer. The Commercial Director said that Mytime Active had schemes that offered discounted rates and they could provide information/brochures in different formats that could be circulated to employees. They were also keen to run wellbeing events, on- and off-site, for organisations.

The Chairman thanked the Commercial Director, Partnerships Manager and Active Lifestyles Programme Manager for their presentation to the Board and asked that a further update be provided towards the end of the year.

RESOLVED that the presentation be noted.