Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton among 53 new places across England receiving new tranche of funding to tackle physical inactivity.

Black Country partners have been awarded a £1,287,710 development grant from Sport England to help address inequalities that prevent people from being physically active.

Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton are among the 53 places set to benefit from a share of Sport England’s £250million investment into the heart of communities across England.

Active Black Country are the accountable organisation for the funding.

Sport England research calculates that active lifestyles save £10.5 billion a year for the health and social care system. This relieves some of the NHS burden, preventing 1.3 million cases of depression, 600,000 of diabetes and 57,000 of dementia (the UK’s leading cause of death) annually.

Less than half of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for daily physical activity and women, people from lower socio-economic groups and Black and Asian people are still less likely to be active than other adults.

To tackle these stubborn inequalities and break down barriers to a more active life, Sport England is taking a ‘Place-based approach’ – partnering with local organisations and leaders who understand both the specific needs of their communities and the local assets that are available – to support people to move more and get active.

The two-phase grant award process, replacing Sport England’s historic ‘programme led’ investment model, is being rolled out after trialling in 12 local delivery pilots nationwide.

Under phase one, Active Black Country will use part of the development grant for a community engagement exercise to reflect the context and need across the Black Country. This will be coupled with the collective voices of local people, communities and partners, plus leadership and workforce development, built around collaboration with local government partners – Dudley MBC, Walsall MBC, Sandwell MBC and the City of Wolverhampton Council – as well as other valued partners such as community organisations and Black Country Transport.

This work will inform phase two – the full grant award submission. It is anticipated that partners across the Black Country will be in a position to apply for this second grant later in 2025. Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Sport England’s Executive Director for Place, said: “We are proud to announce our partnerships with 53 new places in every corner of the country today.

“We know that where someone lives plays a huge part in how active, or not, they will be. Through our Place Expansion programme we will work with local partners and communities to break down the barriers to physical activity so that everyone has equal access to a more active life. We are excited to see what we can achieve together in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.”

Ian Carey, Chief Executive of Active Black Country, said: “The Black Country needs this level of collaboration in phase one to address the large-scale challenges and underlying inequalities that prevent people from being physically active.

“Black Country partners share a commitment to tackling physical inactivity but recognise there is huge amount of work to be done to develop a shared purpose amongst stakeholders – from the health sector, community and voluntary bodies, and the transport and housing sectors – and a genuine commitment to collaboration to develop understanding of needs and identify community-based solutions.

“The development grant will enable partners to focus on smaller hyper local areas, connected assets and strategic infrastructure such as transport and housing that have a broader sub-regional impact and present significant opportunities to get people active and build stronger, more resilient communities.”

Black Country partners will use the knowledge and learning from the wave of community engagement workshops over the coming months to progress solutions to influence policy, planning, service delivery and wider investments that can create equitable, accessible opportunities for people to be active and move more.

Phase one will also highlight opportunities to build on and accelerate place-based work – extending partners’ reach into new areas of the Black Country.

Dudley Councillor James Clinton, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: “I am pleased we have managed to secure funding for the first phase of this very important project. We want to ensure anyone, regardless of background, regardless of their level of fitness, can take part in exercise and physical activity to improve health.

“We will be trying to work with people who perhaps aren’t as physically active as they would like and finding out what barriers and obstacles are stopping them.”