Wigan health and fitness scheme has given the borough a £13.5m boost, experts claim

The growing Be Well scheme, delivered by Wigan Council, provided £13.46m to help boost the health and fitness of residents across seven council-run leisure centres.

With tens of thousands of locals contributing to over a million combined visits, figures show that the wide-ranging activity within the local community helped contribute to a happier, healthier borough along with reducing the strain on health services.

The Social Value Calculator – developed by 4Global, Sheffield Hallam University and Experian – quantifies the impact of sports and physical activities on communities in monetary terms. It comes up with the figure by factoring in estimated savings to health services as well as the positive impact on happiness.

The aim is to give an industry-wide picture of how sport, leisure and physical activity providers contribute to targets identified in the government’s Sporting Future project.

Wigan Council leader David Molyneux said: “The goal of our Be Well movement is to help residents live healthier, happier lives and we’re proud of the massive positive impact that’s being made by our teams across our borough.

“By encouraging more and more people to get active and make better lifestyle choices, we’re improving people’s physical and mental health and also helping to reduce the burden on our under-pressure NHS.”

According to the model, Be Well improved the subjective wellbeing of locals to the tune of £7.29m last year while providing £3.3m in terms of social and community development.

The impact on the physical and mental health of residents was measured at some £2.76m – delivering major benefits with regard to condirtions such as Type 2 Diabetes (£900,733)

Coun Chris Ready, portfolio holder for communities and neighbourhoods, said: “This is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to invest in leisure and wellbeing services for the benefit of local people, and of the incredible dedication and expertise of our brilliant Be Well teams.

“Be Well is going from strength to strength at a time when our communities need us more than ever and rest assured we will continue to do all we can to support our residents to feel well, live well and be well.”

It has also contributed to a reduction in GP appointments – saving more than £116,000 and helped significantly with a variety of health issues such as breast cancer (£85,649) and CHD stroke (£257,947) to back pain (£104,858) and depression (£29,242).

As well as offering paid memberships for seven leisure centres and pay-as-you-go sessions for non-members, Be Well delivers many free services including weight management, the Let’s Get Movin’ initiative for younger residents, and a range of rehabilitation programmes including support for individuals suffering from long Covid.

Neil Tandy, account manager at 4Global, said: “These very impressive figures, based on data insights from 4Global, reflect the hard work and dedication of the Be Well teams and their commitment to improving the lives of people all across Wigan Borough.”

New members can currently get their first two months half price. Visit bewellwigan.org to find out more.