Success of Live Longer Better Celebrated at Conference

The Live Longer Better movement, which champions physical activity as a way of helping people to maximise their independence later in life, was recently celebrated at a conference in London. Organised to highlight the movement’s impact, the conference brought together national and local partners who have all contributed to its success.

The opening speaker at the conference was Kim Leadbeater MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Sport and Co-Chair of the APPG for Tackling Loneliness and Connected Communities, and, as well as outlining her background in health and fitness, she spoke about the role that physical activity and movement have in bringing communities together, improving mental health and tackling loneliness and she also highlighted the importance of different sectors working closely together.

Kim Leadbeater said: “We really need to look at sport and health working more closely together. I think because my background is in both, I’ve always done that but I have realised in the past few years that sometimes sports sits over here and health sits over there, and actually we should be working much more closely together, particularly when it comes to something like social prescribing, and creating closer links in communities with GP surgeries and sport and fitness facilities, and how they can work together.

“This is particularly important when it comes to prevention and early intervention and also looking at physical and mental health and social wellbeing, by addressing loneliness and social isolation.”

Other speakers at the conference included Sarah Price, NHS England’s Director of Public Health, Andrew Power who is Swim England’s Water Wellbeing Specialist, Peter Dutton, the Activation Manager for the We Are Undefeatable campaign and Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, a RCGP Lifestyle and Physical Activity Lead.

The event also notably included presentations from some of the 30 Active Partnerships that have been involved in the delivery of the movement, who presented alongside their local partners, highlighting the collaborative approach the movement has fostered and the positive impact on communities, clearly demonstrating why it’s important for Live Longer Better and the local projects / movement that have emerged to be sustained.

In addition to local partners, national organisations such as Sport England, Age UK, and the NHS have been key to the successful delivery of Live Longer Better in recent years, helping the movement to engage more than 20,000 people in active ageing activities so far.

Recognised in the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report as a model for utilising physical activity to enhance the healthspan of older adults, the Live Longer Better movement has been driving positive change in local communities and the conference provided a platform for supporters of the movement to connect, collaborate, and share innovative approaches to enhance quality of life through movement and activity.

Live Longer Better was originally inspired by Sir Muir Gray, whose insights have been instrumental in shaping the movement and he opened the conference, providing a warm welcome to all of the delegates and explaining the aims of and the rationale that drives the movement.

Sir Muir commented: “Our aim is to firstly increase healthy life expectancy and secondly to close the gap between the most and the least deprived because ageing by itself is not the cause of health problems until people reach their 90s. The issues are caused by loss of fitness and disease and the environmental factors that lead to these, as well as deprivation.  Our response has been to bring people together around a common purpose and then to deliver this through our networks.”

Sir Muir also chaired a lively expert panel discussion which featured Tom Burton from Sport England, Dr Amit Arora, Clinical Director for the Emergency Care Improvement Support Team at NHS England, Allison Streetly from NHS England and Professor Scarlett McNally, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon for East Sussex’s Healthcare NHS Trust, who also spoke at the event. The panellists were tasked by Muir to talk about two things that national organisations could do to enable better health for older people in the places that they live, and they also answered questions from the delegates.

Annie Holden, Active Partnerships National Organisation’s Strategic Health Lead and Live Longer Better Project Manager, who organised the conference, said: “The Live Longer Better movement has had a fantastic nationwide impact, and I am thrilled to see the collaborative efforts of our partners to promote active living for a healthier future. The success of this movement is a testament to the power of collaboration and the shared belief in enhancing the quality of life through physical activity.”

For more details about the Live Longer Better movement, and to keep up to date with future developments, please visit this page.