The Executive Director of the Sport for Development Coalition has praised the developers of an innovative health and physical activity programme within the Coalition’s network for highlighting its impressive social and economic value, which he believes is more important than ever during a cost-of-living crisis.
‘Beat the Street’ is a gamified preventative scheme created and managed by Coalition member Intelligent Health, which uses ‘beat boxes’ on lamp posts to track activity. This summer will mark its 10th anniversary, with more than 1.7 million participants having been engaged across more than 160 towns and cities since it launched in 2013.
Evidence indicates that £30 of social value is generated for each £1 spent, and that Beat the Street is six times as cost-effective as the NHS in generating wellbeing impacts. The NHS has an average cost of £15,000 to produce one QALY (quality-adjusted life years) compared to £2,565 for Beat the Street.
Intelligent Health, founded by Dr William Bird MBE (pictured above), commissioned State of Life to estimate the wellbeing impact and value of Beat the Street, and the findings were presented in Parliament and praised by MPs from across the House including Kim Leadbeater and Alok Sharma (below). Researchers from State of Life applied 2021 HM Treasury Green Book guidance to calculate the monetary value of the scheme.
Coalition director Hitesh Patel said: “Beat the Street is a fantastic example of how targeted sport and physical activity-based interventions are making a real impact, and producing greater social return on investment, for policy-makers and funders seeking to address key health and societal inequalities, especially in disadvantaged communities and amongst under-represented groups.
SUSTAINABLE
“The Coalition welcomes this important and timely report which adds to the growing evidence base for how sport for development interventions can make a tangible contribution to building a healthier, more equitable and sustainable future for all.”
Beat the Street is an excellent example of how sport and physical activity-based interventions across the Coalition’s growing UK-wide network can help to unlock greater social returns on investment for policy-makers, as emphasised by its #OpenGoal shared advocacy framework. Not only does the project improve health and wellbeing, but it also helps to build stronger communities and social cohesion and intersects other outcomes highlighted by #OpenGoal, such as reduced anti-social behaviour.
Collectively Coalition members are using the #OpenGoal framework to demonstrate how they can work together to deliver cost savings for Treasury, and alleviate the increasing pressure on public funds across multiple policy priorities.
Intelligent Health CEO Dr William Bird MBE said: “We are all aware of the pressures that the NHS has faced and continues to face, and we must enable individuals to make better choices to prevent the early onset of ill health. To do this we need to bring the essence of health back into our own hands. That’s why we want to connect people to the incredible resource that they’ve got themselves, their own networks and of course, what the natural environment has to offer. Through Beat the Street, this is exactly what we’ve endeavoured to do since its first iteration in its current format across Caversham back in 2013. To give people the opportunity and tools to take ownership of their wellbeing through building these connections, being active and importantly, having fun whilst doing it! This timely report provides further evidence on the programme’s impact on participant wellbeing, and we hope that policymakers continue to take note of the vast benefits a physically active lifestyle can have in tackling health inequalities.”
Find out more about Beat the Street.
Read the full technical report.
