Written Evidence Submitted by Keir Lewis at
Merton Council (HAP0107)

 

 

 

The London Borough of Merton is proud to be the founder of a movement that reimagines how local government can champion healthy ageing. As a borough, we have embarked on an ambitious and unique journey to become London’s Borough of Sport - a mission that places physical activity and community wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.

Our vision is to create an environment where every resident, regardless of age, income, or background, feels inspired, supported, and empowered to lead an active life.

We are delighted that the Health and Social Care Committee has launched this inquiry and are grateful for the opportunity to submit evidence. Our submission showcases the effectiveness of the Borough of Sport as a public health initiative, providing clear evidence that local government can play a leading role in supporting healthy and active ageing. We have seen the difference it makes to our older residents, and we are ready to share the blueprint.

This submission addresses the terms of the inquiry most relevant to local authorities. Merton Council is happy to provide oral evidence and answer any questions from the Committee.

Executive Summary and Key Points

Evidence

  1. What are the opportunities in public health to promote physical activity to prevent physical and mental ill health at a population-level as people begin to age and help them remain healthy into older age? How can this be delivered?

1.1. Being physically active delivers significant physical, mental, and social benefits to both individuals and whole communities. Regular physical activity in older adults has been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and lower the risk of depression and anxiety by up to 30%. It also improves cognitive function, reduces the risk of dementia, and supports independence by maintaining strength and balance (World Health Organisation 2025).

1.2. Increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour is a priority in Merton’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025–2030, as it underpins healthy ageing and prevents avoidable ill health.

1.3. Merton’s public health approach through the Borough of Sport works across the life course; encouraging children and families to be active, building habits early, supporting adults to maintain activity through mid-life, enabling older residents to stay active, independent, and socially connected.

1.4. The Borough of Sport provides an integrated, borough-wide model with a clear and unifying identity. It moves beyond siloed sector-specific initiatives by engaging older residents in everyday settings (e.g libraries, parks, community centres) and directly supports local organisations and health services to improve their accessibility to sport so they can reach families, isolated older adults, and previously inactive residents.

1.5. This whole-borough ambition has created a virtuous cycle. By establishing a strong and engaging public identity and brand, the Borough of Sport mission has directly attracted £2.38 million of investment, in turn helping the council expand the local opportunities and sporting infrastructure available for older residents to become and stay active. Private business and community partners are motivated by the ambition and keen to be part of the mission to improve the health and well-being of older residents.

  1. What are the opportunities for health services to promote physical activity to reduce the impacts of ill health and reduce the development of multimorbidity and/or frailty in older people who already have a long-term health condition? How can this be delivered? 

2.1. Physical activity is one of the most powerful tools available to reduce the impacts of ill health and prevent the progression of multimorbidity and frailty in older adults. The World Health Organization (2025) highlights that physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for noncommunicable disease mortality, with insufficiently active individuals facing a 20–30% higher risk of death compared to those who are sufficiently active.

2.2. Local authorities and health services can seize this opportunity by embedding physical activity promotion throughout clinical pathways and community care. We believe local authorities are uniquely placed to act as conveners, bringing together health services, voluntary sector organisations, and leisure providers to connect older residents to free or low‑cost opportunities. The Borough of Sport exemplifies how this can work in practice: a council‑led initiative that transforms medical advice into community‑level action.

2.3. Encouraging physical activity in older adults with long‑term conditions is a win‑win. It improves the quality of life for residents - allowing older people to remain independent, socially connected, and active for longer - while reducing the demand on NHS and adult social care services. Research across academic disciplines consistently demonstrates that maintaining physical activity reduces the risk of falls, slows the progression of frailty, and can delay the onset of multiple long‑term conditions.

2.4. Our collaboration with South West London ICB ensures that physical activity is embedded in prevention and frailty pathways across the sub‑region. Delivery relies on integration with health services and social prescribing pathways. Merton’s Public Health team supports local GPs and social prescribers, enabling clinicians to confidently recommend physical activity and direct patients to appropriate community opportunities.

2.5. We have also invested in workforce development and system leadership. Merton Public Health participated in the pan‑London event ‘Harnessing the Benefits of Physical Activity’ (July 2025), focusing on: empowering health and care professionals to promote physical activity, integrating physical activity into clinical and social care pathways, supporting the NHS workforce with tools to recommend and deliver activity interventions, strengthening evaluation and innovation in partnership with South West London ICB.

2.6. A good example of a Borough of Sport initiative that integrated with our health services included ‘Beat the Street’ (2022). This engaged 22,500 residents, 10% of Merton’s total population, to walk, cycle, and wheel a collective 250,636 miles in six weeks. This gamified approach motivated people of all ages to be more active, including older adults with long‑term conditions.

  1. What are the key barriers to older people increasing their physical activity and how can they be encouraged and supported to do more?

3.1. Improving access to sport and physical activity for older people is a core public mission underpinning the Borough of Sport. We have adopted a whole‑council, whole‑borough approach to remove barriers to participation, investing in programmes that expand local opportunities and infrastructure. This has been supported by tailored and consistent council communications and delivered in partnership with the voluntary and community sector (VCS), local sports clubs, health services, and residents’ groups.

3.2. Throughout our work, we have identified the following barriers to older people staying physically active: cost, lack of motivation, lack of understanding of the benefit of physical exercise, poor knowledge of local opportunities (especially those who have limited access to digital media), confidence in attending a new session or activity, access to appropriate venues (especially during extreme weather periods), and appropriately trained staff. 

3.3. Following the identification of these barriers, we have implemented the following initiatives and schemes to improve access and increase participation:

3.3.1.    Free swimming sessions at our three leisure centres for over‑65s, removing cost barriers and offering a low‑impact, accessible form of exercise. This has been used by 1,086 over-65s since May 2024.

3.3.2.    A ‘Borough of Sport’ grant scheme, providing £100,000 a year over three years to local projects, clubs, and community organisations to boost sporting participation. This has funded dance classes for over-65s, chair-based exercises for older people, walking netball, and low-impact cycling (case studies available in references).

3.3.3.    The Feel Good Folder, which is a motivational tool developed with input from Sport England and co-designed by and for people living with dementia, encouraging more activity in daily lives. It contains health information, behaviour change activities, a progress tracker, an activity wallchart, and a Movement Deck with activity ideas and inspiration. It is used locally at the Merton Memory Hub, Alzheimer's Society, and by community partners.

3.3.4.    All our libraries now offer free, face‑to‑face exercise, health, and wellbeing sessions. In partnership with Nuffield Health, our libraries also provide specialist equipment, including massage chairs, blood pressure monitors, and self‑service machines to check weight, BMI, and pulse.

3.3.5.    Dementia friendly swimming – the council supports tailored swimming sessions for people living with dementia and their carers, with features like accessible equipment and a dedicated swimming teacher.

3.3.6.    We have commissioned a local VCS partner, Wimbledon Guild, to deliver the Merton Moves Programme, supporting older adults to improve strength and balance, tackle inactivity, and reduce falls, which remain the leading cause of hospital admissions among older people. Participants, who make a 6-week pledge to take up at least one exercise activity, are supported by a trained Merton Moves Co-ordinator to find an activity they enjoy. Access to free classes during the 6-week pledge and free equipment is given, but the main intervention is guidance and support. Many attendees report the benefit of making friendships and increased social connections, with the programme recently reaching over 300 participants.

  1. How can health services work with social care, the third sector, businesses and local government to support older people to be more physically active and address existing health inequalities?

4.1. Using sport and physical activity to reduce health disparities was a founding principle of the Borough of Sport. Residents in the east of Merton experience significantly shorter healthy life expectancy, living over nine years less in good health compared with residents in the least deprived areas, primarily located in the west of Merton. By tailoring opportunities to neighbourhoods with the greatest health inequalities, the Borough of Sport works to close this gap, focusing on areas where older residents experience shorter healthy life expectancy and higher risks of frailty or long-term conditions.

4.2. We have established a core cross-sector Borough of Sport Advisory Group, with representation from Age UK, AFC Wimbledon, All England Lawn Tennis Club, Better Leisure, health partners, local voluntary organisations, and community groups. This group co-designs delivery, shares insight, and helps ensure activity programmes continue to reach older people in neighbourhoods with higher inequality.

4.3. Merton Council leverages its role as a statutory service provider to unite health partners, the social care sector, VCS organisations, community groups, and local businesses in promoting access to free and low‑cost sport and physical activity across the borough. Through coordinated council communications and targeted outreach, we ensure that older adults in more deprived areas can access the same opportunities as those in more affluent wards.

  1. What progress has been made since the 2019 NHS England Long-Term Plan set out its ambitions to support people to age well and how could it be improved in relation to physical activity?

5.1. Merton Council has prioritised physical activity in its Prevention Framework, which aims to prevent, reduce, and delay the need for adult social care among our residents. As part of this we have partnered with experts in physical activity to deliver Moving Social Work training to our front-line staff; providing knowledge on the benefits of physical activity, the Chief Medical Officers’ recommended amount of physical activity and advice on how to make every contact count (ask, assist and act); recognising the unique role that social workers have in promoting increased physical activity.

5.2. Initially kick-started by the Merton Health and Wellbeing Board in 2016, social prescribing is delivering strongly across General Practices in Merton. The most recent update to the Health and Wellbeing Board, in November 2023, sets out the benefits of the programme that is now fully funded by Primary Care Networks across Merton and is being delivered by Merton Connected (a VCS umbrella organisation).

5.3. We have launched an online ‘Activity Finder’ which is actively used by health services and social prescribers to connect older residents with free and low‑cost opportunities to be active. This tool is particularly valuable for older people who their GP has advised to increase their activity levels, as it provides an accessible, trusted source of local options tailored to their needs. By simplifying access to information and reducing the barrier of ‘not knowing where to start,’ the Activity Finder helps residents turn medical advice into real, positive steps towards improving their health. As of July 2025, residents and visitors have conducted 31,700 searches with the Activity Finder.

  1. What should the Government prioritise in funding allocations for delivering services to support older people to become more active?

6.1. Our evidence shows the Borough of Sport demonstrates value for money in local government, supporting older people to get active. Merton Council has improved accessibility and uptake in sport and physical activity amongst older residents within existing local government finance settlements, despite the well-publicised financial pressures local authorities faced as a result of central government funding decisions between 2010 and 2024. Our model focuses on maximising partnership work across the borough, integrating sport and physical activity within existing statutory duties, engaging private, public, and voluntary partners to buy into the value of this approach – this has successfully leveraged external private funding, creating a virtuous cycle. 

6.2. The most cost-effective next step for the government would be to utilise the Cabinet Office’s Test, Learn, and Grow scheme to transfer knowledge, insights, and best practice from the Borough of Sport, enabling the model to be piloted and scaled in other areas.

6.3. The government could also consider awarding particular local authorities as ‘Boroughs of Sport’ to help boost the profile of sport and exercise opportunities for older people. For example, the government could introduce an annual competition or award, similar to the GLA’s ‘Borough of Culture’ or the national ‘City of Culture’, to encourage local authorities to increase opportunities for older people to get active.

  1. What could the Government learn from examples of best practice that exist in local authorities, the third sector, NHS Trusts, or internationally?

7.1. Merton Council is just three years into our mission to become the London Borough of Sport and we believe it has shown potential to be used as a blueprint for how local government can tackle the challenges of an ageing society head-on, by embedding physical activity into the daily lives of older people and ensuring opportunities for older residents to stay active are ever-present across the borough.

7.2. We are proving that sport and movement are not luxuries or afterthoughts in public policy for aging - they are vital tools for maintaining independence, tackling loneliness, improving health outcomes, and enriching the social fabric of our community. Each older person who has engaged with our Borough of Sport work represents a case study of how just a small increase in activity can be substantially beneficial in improving their health and reducing or delaying the development of multiple long-term health conditions.

7.3. We’re working with London Southbank University to develop a robust evidence base on the Borough of Sport’s long‑term impact on physical activity, prevention of ill health, and the extension of healthy life expectancy. As the initiative continues to grow, the natural next step is to refine and strengthen the model so it can be rigorously tested, evaluated, and piloted in new areas by the government.

References