You founded Alliance Leisure 25 years ago. How has the landscape of the sector changed in that time?

When I started 25 years ago, the sector was very much about sport. Sports centres were all about 12-court sports halls and swimming pools, with the gyms being weights rooms in the bowels of the building. Then the private sector started to arrive and local authorities realised there was revenue to be had in fitness. So the landscape back then was very much about sport and sports centres. It’s only been in the last two to three years that we’ve started to see this change in language and positioning towards health and wellbeing. The early iteration of Alliance was how do we make facilities more engaging, more sustainable? Everything had a really commercial business case, predicated on looking at the opportunities, the competition, the demographics and where the gaps in the market were. Now we’re at a stage where we’re asking ourselves how we can make these facilities deliver real health and wellness. We’ve got an ageing population – we're living longer and not necessarily in good health – and we’ve got a diabetes problem and a rise in obesity. But there’s also a bit of misnomer that 85% of the population aren’t active. This research only relates to fitness memberships. There are many more active people who don’t go to gyms, but play football, tennis or badminton, go swimming, cycling, or even hiking and dog walking. In the last few years, there’s been a change in language regarding how we position public sector leisure and, in my view, the first thing we should do is get rid of the word ‘leisure’ because it’s frivolous – it's cinema, it's a disco, it's what you do when you go to the pub. We need to introduce the word ‘wellness’ or ‘active living’ because we have a ticking time bomb of health challenges.  

What sets apart health and wellbeing centres from the leisure centres of today, and how can these changes make a difference in terms of attracting those who don’t traditionally use them? Firstly, it’s about designing buildings more sympathetically for the audience you're trying to attract and providing spaces that aren't intimidating. Some of this can happen in the design, such as making sure you've got studios that don’t necessarily have lots of mirrors, because if you're trying to get people with mobility or weight issues to exercise, the last thing they want to do is look at themselves in the mirror. It's also about creating a changing provision with separate cubicles for people to get changed in, rather than the old rows of showers and open changing rooms – again, not good if you’ve got body conscious issues. Back in the leisure centres of the 70s, 80s and 90s, we typically put bars into leisure centres and then spent years stripping them out because we realised that nobody wanted to go and sink 10 pints after a game of squash – they didn't really resonate with the audience. Now every facility I build will have a really good cafe at the heart of the building, where people can socialise with peers, which also relates to the loneliness challenges lots of people face.

Primarily, though, it's not about tweaking the facilities but offering the best programmes that set these places apart from the traditional leisure centres. For example, there’s an amazing product called Future Studios that’s a fully immersive studio which, at the touch of a button, can become a rainforest for yoga or Pilates, or a martial arts dojo, but you can also replicate a Ritz tea dance for dementia patients, because music and dance are some of the last things those patients lose. With technology like this, you can deliver spaces that actually resonate, rather than just having a fitness studio with neon lights and pumping music. You can have spaces for, not only dementia, but also ADHD, autism and other disabilities. One of the biggest challenges for older people, for instance, is balance, so we’re promoting classes to avoid trips and falls – getting people to stand on one leg and making sure they can get in and out of armchairs properly, because sitting down is actually riskier than standing up. Another amazing product we’re advising clients to put in is Good Boost, which is an app-based therapeutic water exercise programme, designed for people with limited mobility and musculoskeletal conditions. It’s specifically designed to each individual but sessions are delivered in a group environment.

What are the challenges in integrating the fitness and health/social care sectors, and what does the fitness industry need to do going forwards?

One of the challenges in our sector is lack of data. Historically, we've tended to go to the health sector or primary care trusts and ask for money to do stuff, without having any data. We also need to take a long-term view on the challenges we face, but because our politics works in four-year cycles, that can be difficult – although I think the new government is certainly talking the right language. Lisa Nandy, the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, seems to recognise that we need to look at things differently and with a longer-term perspective. And I do think there’s a definite shift towards

“I’d like my legacy to be that we made a difference. Over the past 25 years, we pioneered the leisure element – now I’d like to pioneer the health element”

acknowledging that the sector has got a massive part to play in this. When we used to ask our clients what they wanted us to build, they would say, we've spoken to the badminton club and they'd like some more courts or, we’ve spoken to the diving club and they want a deeper pool tank. So they had only spoken to the people who were already using the facilities. Now, a lot of our research, and non-user research, is very much about what outcomes we are trying to achieve. Do people want a space where they can be active as a family? Do they want a space where they can socialise with their peer group? I think a logical starting point would be to create a national repository of good practice. There are pockets of brilliance around the country, but not everyone gets to hear about them, even on a local level. People need to know who’s doing what so we can roll out best practice across other organisations and other areas. We also need to think about repositioning our sector; looking at our design, our language, how we programme and how we attract a different population. I also think, we shouldn’t always be going for funding, cap in hand. I think as a sector, we need to take control and create our own value proposition, collect our data and, at that point, we’ll have something to talk about. Where would you like to be in five years’ time? I’ve been so blessed to have been in this sector all my life so I’d like to leave it in a better position than when I entered it, in terms of what it’s delivering today. Alliance Leisure is currently funding the Health Supergroup, facilitated by GM Active’s Andy King, which is about us giving back and helping to make a difference. I’d like my legacy to be that we made a difference. Over the past 25 years, we pioneered the leisure element – now I’d like to pioneer the health element. www.allianceleisure.co.uk