2022 AWARD CATEGORIES OPEN FOR ENTRIES

Group A: Business Excellence

A1. Regional & National Club/Centre of the Year

Who should enter?

This category is open to any UK based club or centre that has been operating for at least 12 months by 31st December 2021.

You need not have the biggest facility, or the widest offer; this award is suitable for all types of facilities in the sector with the focus on the degree to which they meet the needs of their customers, staff and the local community. Some example of clubs or centres are:

  • – Small independents
  • – Studios and boutiques
  • – Low-cost budget gyms
  • – Local authority/leisure trust operated centres
  • – Clubs that are part of a nationwide chain. 

Entry is according to the region where your club is located:

Assessment Process:

Written Submission  Customer Insight Survey Mystery Shops & Digital Reviews

What the assessors are looking for?

This award is about running a great business that your customers love going to and your staff love working at – irrespective of the size of the facility, range of services on offer, or the part of the market you serve.

Hints & Tips

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• The assessors will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

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A2. Supplier of the Year

Who should enter?

This category is open to any organisation providing a product or service in the fitness, wellbeing and physical activity sector to support organisations delivering frontline services. You have to be supplying your product or service to the sector for at least 12 months by 31st December 2021.

There are a vast number of vital products and services provided to the sector.

Areas such as:

  • – Fitness Equipment
  • – Club Management
  • – Technology Providers (business and fitness technology)
  • – Learning & Development
  • – Professional & Platform Business Services
  • – Apparel
  • – Inclusion & Disability

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

This award is about being a stand-out supplier, striving for excellence and determination to do the very best for your customers.  It isn’t about what you do – it’s how well you do it.

Hints & Tips

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

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A3. New Concept, Build or Design of the Year

Who should enter?

This category is open to anyone or any organisation taking the lead in the re-imagining, re-energising or re-design process, delivery and activating compelling environments and/or spaces that serve to inspire more people, to be more active, more often. You need not have been operating for a 12-month period or even be permanent in nature – but we do need to see evidence of successful and trailblazing implementation/delivery.

This is about innovative and new approaches that push the boundaries.

We are looking for organisations and individuals such as: 

  • – Architects
  • – Designers
  • – Builders
  • – Owners 

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

This award is about being a stand-out, game-changing project – both the idea, its development and execution.

Hints & Tips

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

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Group B: Specialist Impact

B4. Generation Active Award

Who should enter?

This award has been designed to recognise any organisation with a programme, project or initiative that engages, promotes and sustains physical activity in children and young people. This is open to entries that have a focus on inspiring children and young people to be more active, more often.

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

-Something different – how is your approach innovative 

-What impact have you had on young people and can you evidence this 

-How do you keep children and young people engaged in a changing society?

Hints & Tips

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

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B5. Healthy Communities Award

Who should enter?

This category is open to any organisation leading/delivering a physical activity focused programme, product or initiative that is targeted at the wider community to encourage increased activity and participation, and has been operating for a minimum of 12 months by 31st December 2021.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your effort may be, what we are looking for is tangible and measurable outcomes, and widespread backing from your beneficiaries or local stakeholders.

Assessment Process:

Step 1: Written Submission – Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

This is about working to inspire the wider community to make physical activity a part of its DNA. Judges will be looking at the ways you engage with communities and how you’ve used their specific needs to shape your initiative and deliver significant results.

Hints & Tips

  • Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.
  • Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.
ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

B6. Activation Award

Who should enter?

This category is open to any organisation that has activated a current event, campaign or project, or has been running one in the last 2 years that has inspired and encouraged people to be more active in any setting: whether that be in their home, in the gym or leisure centre, on the way to or at work, or outdoors.

Key areas of activation to be considered:

  • Workplace Wellbeing Programme(s)
  • Community Engagement
  • A specific and innovative campaign/activity or event

Assessment Process:

Step 1: Written Submission – Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

The judges will be looking to see if your event, campaign, activity, engagement or programme has successfully implemented and inspired the target audience to be more active. Key areas they will be looking at are:

  1. What reach your activation has had. Did achieve what it set out to do?
  2. How you implemented your activation piece? Include stakeholder engagement and how you delivered your communications and engagement in the run up.
  3. What impact did your activation have and what measurements and evaluations did you undertake.

Hints & Tips

  • Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.
  • Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.
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B7. Marketing Campaign Award

Who should enter?

This category is open to any organisation that has delivered an advertising or wider marketing campaign over the last 12 months which has been creative, innovative, impactful and helped raise the profile or change the perception of physical activity and its importance, whilst meeting the wider campaign objectives to your business.

Assessment Process:

Step 1: Written Submission – Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

The judges will be looking to see if you have successfully delivered an innovative marketing campaign to highlight the role of physical activity which in turn has helped deliver your business objectives and what the campaign set out to highlight.

Key areas they will be looking at are:

  1. That there is a key and clear link to physical activity and a specific outcome
  2. What reach your marketing campaign had, its overall aim and the channels you chose to engage with your audience.
  3. What impact the marketing campaign has had on your business and audience.
  4. What you are doing to evolve your marketing campaign in the future

Hints & Tips

  • Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.
  • Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2021. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.
ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

B8. Diversity & Inclusion Award

Who should enter?

This award has been designed to recognise any organisation with a programme, project or initiative that embodies the very best of an inclusive and diverse mindset and is able to demonstrate how they utilise this mindset to welcome, celebrate and support their customers/colleagues. This is open to entries that have a focus on engaging people from varied backgrounds who may be underrepresented in the sector (for example, women, ethnically diverse groups and disabled people).

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

  • – What difference/impact you have had on your target group
  • – How have you supported staff or customers and made adjustments or pro-active efforts to engage and welcome them?
  • – Innovative work undertaken to progress the sector in this area

Hints & Tips 

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

B9. Digital Transformation Award

Who should enter?

This category is open to any organisation that has successfully adopted a digital approach within their business and completed a journey of digital transformation. This could be digital technologies that enable better business operations, increased performance, deeper insight and enhanced experiences, ultimately getting more people, more active, more often.  Have you got a story to shout about which can inspire others, and demonstrate the position of the sport and physical activity sector at the vanguard of the digital industrial revolution?

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

Judges in the Digital Transformation category are looking for applications from businesses who have successfully used digital technologies to create positive and long-lasting impact within their businesses.  They are especially interested in hearing about stories of digital journeys that have led to fundamental changes in mindset, operation and performance at all levels of a business, and enhanced physical activity experience exemplars using innovative, technology driven approaches to getting more people active.

Hints & Tips

• Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny.

• Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 and end of February 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

B10. Business Continuity, Recovery and Success following on from the Covid-19 pandemic

Who should enter?

This category has been designed to recognise how an organisation has adapted, adjusted and recovered throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and how they have continued to deliver / work on products and/or initiatives in order to keep the nation active and supported throughout this period. This is open to all organisations that have been able to develop innovative ways to continue to engage with their target audience, maintain a sense of continuity and ultimately keep the nation active – no matter the challenges faced.

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

– How did your approach change or how was it developed specific to the Coronavirus pandemic?

– Was the use of digital platforms and transformations used to aid your offering?

– How did you find out what your audience wanted and how did you reach your audience? 

– Has your programme, project or initiative evolved or adapted since originally launching? If so, what were the reasons for doing so?

– How have you continued to adapted and adjust to the new ‘normal’? what are you plans for the future?

Hints & Tips

-Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny. 

– Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 – January 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates. 

ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

B11. Developing and Supporting Communities following on from the Covid-19 pandemic

Who should enter?

This category has been designed to recognise any organisation with a specific programme, project or initiative that engages, promotes and sustains physical activity, in particular communities such as children, young people, and underrepresented individuals during the recovery phase from the Coronavirus crisis. 

This is open to entries that have a focus on engaging and inspiring children, young people and people from varied backgrounds who may be underrepresented in the sector (for example, women, ethnically diverse groups and disabled people).

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Judges’ House

What the judges are looking for?

-How your project, programme or initiative has kept the target audience engaged during the unknown times and the recovery phrase as a result of the pandemic. 

– Has your programme, project or initiative evolved or adapted since launching? If so, what were the reasons for doing so?

– How your approach is innovative and how you have continued to reach your audience.

-The timeframes for implementing your project, programme or initiative and how you have measured the successes and overcome challenges.

Hints & Tips

– Please provide tangible evidence of success in statistics, anecdotes, and facts and figures where necessary and if applicable. Evidence should be concise and stand up to scrutiny. 

– Judges will be looking to reward recent success and will therefore expect to see evidence relating to achievements between January 2021 – January 2022. While the programme/project/initiative does not necessarily need to be ‘new’ or ‘recent’, make sure the successes outlined within your submission fall within these dates.

ENTER NOWSAMPLE QUESTIONS

Group C: Individual Achievement

C12. Physical Activity Hero Award

Who should enter?

This category is open to any individual with a story to tell that has impacted and inspired those who they engage with by proving that physical activity can have a transformational impact on health, happiness and wellbeing. We want to hear about the individuals that have used physical activity as an essential part of their life, to go that extra mile for their customers, colleagues, family, friends and communities.

We are looking for stories about: 

  • – Volunteers
  • – Instructors
  • – Trainers
  • – Colleagues
  • – Friends

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Public Vote via ukactive Awards website

What the judges are looking for?

Our judges want to hear about inspirational, go-getting individuals who change lives – their goals, motivations, challenges and successes. They want to see an extensive track record of showing the impact that they have achieved and who are the very embodiment of the ukactive mission.

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C13. Outstanding Leadership Award

Who should enter?

This award is open to any high performing leader and/or management team from any type of organisation. We are looking for a leader and/or leadership team that has had a positive impact through teamwork and demonstrated how they have overcome challenges and celebrated successes through different strategies, development plans and inspirational leadership approaches. Whilst fundamentally supporting the mission of getting the nation more active. 

Assessment Process: 

Step 1: Written Submission  Step 2: Public Vote via ukactive Awards website

What the judges are looking for?

Judges will be particularly keen to learn how the nominated leader and/or leadership team worked with colleagues and partners to develop the skills and competencies required to address the challenges, whilst delivering tangible strategies and goals through motivational leadership.

ENTER HERESAMPLE QUESTIONS

C14. The Jan Spaticchia Special Recognition Award

Who should enter?

The purpose of this award is to recognise someone’s outstanding contribution to the physical activity sector. This award category has been created in memory of Jan Spaticchia’s legacy and influence that Jan has had on the sector. The award aims to acknowledge an individual from the sector who has made continued and significant impact across the breadth of our sector.

Jan was a great pioneer and innovator, and respected business leader who prided himself on the commitment of his teams to serve their communities. Jan also led the foundation of National Fitness Day at the énergie Group in 2010, before gifting the campaign to ukactive in 2014 to grow its reach for the whole sector. All of these qualities are what this award aims to shine a light on and acknowledge.

Assessment Process:

Step 1: Written Submission which will be marked by members of the ukactive board

What the judges are looking for?

The judges are looking for an inspiring story about an individual that has made a difference and impact through their work and involvement within the physical activity sector. The judges will want to hear the reasons why you think that this individual should be recognised for their outstanding work, achievements, and how this has encouraged to get more people to be more active more often.

ENTER HERESAMPLE QUESTIONS

The Physical Activity Excellence Award

The Physical Activity Excellence Award aims to highlight outstanding institutions who are striving towards excellence in recognising and supporting health and wellbeing.

This award is about creating a sector standard for higher education institutions to achieve and demonstrates good practice for increasing physical activity engagement across a student and staff population.

British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and ukactive will work together to highlight a winner for the ukactive Awards 2022, The Physical Activity Excellence Award.

Assessment process

Stage 1: Written Submission > Stage 2: Judges’ House

Entry Guidance

It is to be noted that the PAEA is designed to be an acknowledgement of good practice, and a recognition of excellent physical activity provision. It is not designed to be a benchmark against other institutions.

The award is designed to be aspirational in that institutions can aspire to achieve the award, with the potential to develop further levels to the awards in the future. It is hoped they can do so by exploring other institutions’ provision and practice so that, as a sector, we are constantly and collectively looking at innovative ways and methods to increase physical activity engagement.

Applications are encouraged from institutions who are more focused on participation through physical activity or social & recreational sport in addition to BUCS competition. The PAEA might be of more interest to those institutions whose focus may be more towards physical activity and/or social and recreational sport rather than competitive sport and the BUCS league table. We want to highlight to the sector that the purpose of the PAEA is centered around promoting and increasing physical activity engagement, whether that includes sport or not.

Read about the 2019 winners for the Physical Activity Excellence Award here

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Judging Process

This year we are delighted to announce that ProInsight will be leading the judging process for both stage 1 and stage 2 of the awards. ProInsight is an independent organisation with a wealth of knowledge, expertise and a directory of highly experienced professionals to provide honest and objective feedback to each category entry marked.

Stage 1 – Written Submission

An independent professional, with specific experiences and skills that are relevant to each award category (A1 – B11), will review and mark each entry against a set criterion. A standardisation review will be done on completion of the marking to ensure objective and fair analysis. This analysis will be shared with all applicants in the form of a feedback report after the awards ceremony.

Find out more about the adjudicator below.

Mick George

I had a 36 year career in HMRC taking on many varied job specifications and grades. I started in 1980 as a clerical assistant and left in 2015 as Deputy Head of Debt Management. In that time I assessed peoples abilities via a performance management system – assessed the probity and rigour of suspected Fraud cases for potential prosecution in an Internal Audit function and also assessed grievance cases as a decision maker and grievance champion. This work gave me a forensic eye for detail and the ability to assess standards in quality and metrics. I assessed performance outputs as measured by performance indicators and in general assessed systems of internal control for adequacy across the department. Since leaving HMRC I have undertaken varied packages of work as a sole trader notably as a member of a Quality Control function - and in assessing students who are training to be Opticians. I’m also vice chairman of a Governing Board in a local Senior School assessing standards in School life.

Stage 2 – Judges’ House

ukactive’s virtual Judges’ House is back for another year. Representatives from each finalist organisation, in award categories A2-B11, will be invited to present to our independent judging panels. With the use of ProInsight’s online platform, comments and a score from each judge will be collated to confirm a winner for each category. The collated marking will be added to complete the feedback reports.

Full details of what each finalist will need to complete for their presentation will be shared prior to the day.

Find out more about each judge below.

Sophie Lawler

Sophie Lawler was appointed as Total Fitness CEO in June 2018, bringing her 20 years industry experience to the company with which she began her fitness journey in 2001.

Courage and an unwavering pursuit of progress have been the hallmarks of her career to date, with a track record of challenging but successful business transformations, both in the UK and internationally for Fitness First, and now at Total Fitness.

Driven by a belief that the potential of a business lies in the growth of its people, Sophie is known for her people powered approach, and passion for leadership – going so far as to deliver Total Fitness’s leadership programme personally to all levels of the business.

Since taking the helm at Total Fitness, Sophie set out to repair Employee Engagement and retention levels as an urgent priority. Reviving the brands great purpose and belief and bringing it to life with a shared culture and powerful values. A 59% increase in Employee Net Promoter Score, to a world-class level of 46%, led the revival of the mid-market health club chain demonstrable by a 10% growth in its membership base over an 18-month period leading to a doubling of EBITDA performance.

Sophie has received national recognition for her success in transforming Total Fitness with a string of accolades, being awarded 2019’s National Businesswoman of the Year and named as one of the Top 100 Women in Hospitality and Leisure and the Insider’s 42 under 42, to name just a few.

Recognised as a leading figure within the fitness industry, Sophie has recently been appointed to the UKactive Membership Council, allowing her to share her crucial insights and experience in the industry to help steer the decisions of UKactive.

In the wake of the enforced closure of the industry during the pandemic Sophie stepped into a leading public role as a voice of the sector – raising its profile and highlighting the essential nature of the great work its people do every day to build the physical and mental resilience of its members.
Sophie reached an audience of over 900 million campaigning for the safe re-opening of the health and fitness sector. With over 300 appearances across print, online and broadcast media throughout the course of 2020, Sophie has been applauded for stepping forward and speaking up.
Bravely navigating one of the most challenging crises the business world has witnessed, Sophie tenaciously steered Total Fitness through a confident re-opening and business restoration that saw the health club brand welcome back existing members at pre-covid rates of visitation, and support 52,000 new members begin their fitness journeys since April 2021.

Sarah Edmonds

Sarah Edmonds is well known in our industry, having for many years been at the forefront of driving up standards in the education and training of our workforce. Starting out herself as an instructor, PT, Duty and Programme Manager, she moved into training and qualifications, with stints in charge of quality and standards at both YMCA Awards and Active IQ. She was one of the original judges for the FLAME awards, and the (FIA) Code of Practice, has a Masters Degree in Educational Assessment and can now be found supporting CIMSPA among other clients building relationships with key stakeholders ensuring valid and fair assessments and regulatory compliance.

Jon Reay

Jon Reay is CEO & Founder of strategic consultancy Rewrite Digital, helping clients keep the pace of digital change.
Jon partners with ukactive's Digital Futures programme, supporting the fitness & leisure sector to grow its digital maturity & effectiveness.
In his consultancy, and in previous roles at top digital agencies, Jon’s developed digital strategies for the likes of Edinburgh Leisure, Optimum Nutrition, Manchester City FC and Team GB. Jon’s also worked on digital programmes for GLL, Life Fitness and Fitness First.
Jon has established a proprietary system for scoring the digital maturity and effectiveness of organisations with a comprehensive measure that adapts as digital does. It enables organisations to benchmark with peers/competitors and re-evaluate their score over time.
Jon has previously conducted extensive research to produce regular reports on the state of digital within specific sectors such as food and drink, travel and insurance.

Gemma Marks

Gemma Marks is Client Services Director at LimeLight Sports, working with brands and charities to engage their audiences through active experiences. Gemma has worked at LimeLight Sports for over 16 years, in which time she has built up extensive knowledge, experience and understanding of all aspects of creating and organising major participation sport events.
Gemma works across all aspects of the business including strategic and long term planning for existing events, finance management, creation and development of new events and working closely with sponsors, charities and other partners. Within the client services team, Gemma has specific responsibility for the Royal Parks Half Marathon and RBC Race for the Kids. Gemma is also responsible for leading LimeLight’s sustainability strategy.
In her spare time, Gemma likes to keep active through running, fitness classes and playing in a weekly netball league.

David Monkhouse

Has worked in the industry since 1985 in many roles such as lifeguard, head pool attendant, duty manager, assistant manager, manager and group manager for the private sector, Local Authorities and leisure management contractors.
His last employed role was with a leisure contractor, taking responsibility for quality, health and safety, human resources and training and development for 60 centres and 3000 employees.
He merged his consulting business of 6 years with Leisure-net Solutions in April 2014. Leisure-net now works with Sport England delivering Moving Communities – the monitoring and evaluation tool of the National Leisure Recovery Fund (in England). We also manage active-net, virtual and face to face networking events.
David specialises in assisting organisations, to understand that how through an excellent customer experience they can generate referrals, retain customers for longer and enhance the team experience.
David is a member elected Trustee of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, he chairs CIMSPA’s Audit and Probity Committee, is a Non-Executive Director of LeisureSK, is a member of ukactive’s Membership Council, a member of ActiveIQ advisory panel and a member of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport (Active Partnership) Business, Audit and Oversight Group.
David’s qualifications include an MBA in International Sports Management from Loughborough University, a National Examination Board Occupational Safety and Health Certificate and a Preparing To Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector qualification.

Andy Gilbert - Dunnings

Andy is a Product Development Manager at Active IQ, working on the development of qualifications, EPA, assessments and supporting resources.
Andy has worked in education for over 15 years across a range of sectors in both general and vocational education. Andy has a particular interest and expertise in mental health and shares the Federation of Awarding Bodies mental health forum.
Andy is also a senior examiner and Team Leader in Psychology and is involved in question and mark scheme writing and marking exam papers for students both in the UK and internationally.

Allison Savich

Allison has worked in the sector for over 13 years, and has accumulated expertise in the fields of insight, behaviour change, business appraisal and finance. Allison is currently leading Sport England's work on digital and innovation, where their mission is to support others to apply data, innovation & digital in ways that help to improve the experience of getting active. She is particularly passionate about applying these topics to reduce the systemic inequalities and barriers that are stopping people from benefiting from being physically active.

The current work of her team includes ground-breaking sector change initiatives, such as testing the latest data analytic technologies, guiding the strategic direction of OpenActive (which uses open data to help people get active), and testing Sport England's role in growing & supporting innovation through a range of approaches, including an Innovation Open Call, work with the Design Council and our Innovation Learning Partner. Her team is also working in partnership with ukactive to evaluate the sectors digital maturity & effectiveness via their new Digital Futures programme, while exploring critical topics such as digital inclusion & accessibility. Twitter: @alsav25

Alex Peacock

As Chief Commercial Officer, Alex leads growth and customer engagement for SweatWorks - the leading global technology agency for the fitness and wellness industry.
With over two decades of experience in building and scaling companies across the fitness technology space, Alex was previously CEO of Netpulse, a leading provider of branded apps to fitness operators, which was acquired by EGYM in 2018. Prior to Netpulse, he established

Liz Aitken

Liz is Head of Children and Young People at Sport England, with a particular focus on working with a range of organisations to support families to be active together. Experience also working with National Governing Bodies, Active Partnerships, School Games Organisers, and other national and local children’s charities.

Amy Porter

Amy is the Head of Development at the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) leading a team to deliver on Physical Activity, Workforce Development and Inclusion strands of the BUCS strategy, with the mission to create the best university sport experience in the world. Amy has 15 years of experience working in the sport industry, prior to BUCS she spent six years at Volleyball England in a multitude of different roles including leading on a participation campaign to get more young people playing volleyball.

Brett Jenkins

Wellbeing Expert|Extraordinary Innovator & Influencer In ActiveAgeing| Business & Product Developer of Retirement Wellbeing Services

Brett is a recognised Health & Wellbeing professional, with a proven 30-year international track record in both the health & fitness, commercial leisure industries, and retirement communities. He is highly recommended experienced individual, who has inspired the development of teams and individuals both in their personal and professional lifestyles.

Vince Mayne

Vince is CEO at British Universities and Colleges Sport and has led the organisation through significant change and challenges in the last 6 years. Prior to this he was Deputy Director, Student Services: Sport, Health and Wellbeing at Coventry University and previously Head of Fitness and Performance at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
He is co-founder and Board member of the Positive Youth Foundation charity in Coventry, aiming to help young people raise their aspirations and reach their full potential. He co-founded and remains a director of EnV, a Community Interest Company to deliver events and volunteering for people in Coventry and Warwickshire, including the 2500 City Hosts for the City of Culture.
Vince is a firm believer in the power of sport and physical activity to make positive changes to communities and peoples lives and that they should be an inclusive and positive environment for anyone wishing to take part.
Having undergone a kidney transplant in 2013 he took on the challenge not just in recovering but in re-training, culminating in representing Team GB at the World Transplant Games in Argentina, Malaga and Newcastle.

Brett is a recognised Health & Wellbeing professional, with a proven 30-year international track record in both the health & fitness, commercial leisure industries, and retirement communities. He is highly recommended experienced individual, who has inspired the development of teams and individuals both in their personal and professional lifestyles.

Oliver Robinson

Oliver is Key Account Director at Brandwave Marketing - one of the world’s leading sports marketing consultancies and the chosen agency of many of the sports industry’s leading brands including adidas, SCOTT Sports, Les Mills, INEOS, SHIMANO, The North Face and Lazer.
As a firm believer in sports as a catalyst for positive change both on a personal and professional level has led Oliver to pursue a career dedicated to sports and delivering global behaviour change campaigns.
Oliver is a trustee of the Youth Adventure Trust - a UK based charity supporting vulnerable young people learn valuable life lessons via positive outdoor experiences.
He is a member of the UK Sport & Outdoor Leaders Forum and is also a mentor to tech start-ups as part of the Web Summit Mentor Hours programme.

Jade Harris

Jade joined Mayors Fund for London in January 2022. Before working at the Mayor's Fund, Jade worked at ukactive as Head of Children, Young People and Families and at London Legacy Development Corporation (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) leading the Sport and Health legacy programmes for local residents. Jade has worked on supporting young people to thrive for the past 10 years across the UK through creating meaningful sport/community and wellbeing programmes and partnerships with stakeholders including Nike, Disney, Sport England and Paramount.

Lawrence Kay

Lawrence has over 25years experience in the health and physical activity sector. He has been a senior leader for over a decade with a successful wellbeing social enterprise, leading health and wellbeing, strategic leisure facility management and business development.
Lawrence has a wealth of experience of managing both health development services and facility operations teams. He has led numerous teams and programmes to win national awards including ukactive, Quest and StreetGames.
He is an active member of the national CLUK Health Special Interest Group and the Northampton Health & Wellbeing Locality Board. Furthermore, he holds Non-Executive Director positions with West Northamptonshire Social Enterprise Town and Adrenaline Alley, the largest indoor urban sports park in Europe.

Stuart Dickinson

Stuart is Quality Development and Apprenticeships Manager at Virgin Active leading a team to deliver both high quality apprenticeships and internal training. With over 15 years’ experience in the sector he has progressed from leisure management into undertaking key roles in independent training providers and employer provider settings. This has seen him lead teams to achieve an outstanding Ofsted Inspection and external recognition along with winning national awards including ukactive.

Currently part of the CIMSPA professional development committee for Exercise & Fitness he has also previously chaired the AELP Sport Sector Forum and remains committed to promoting and driving up standards in training and apprenticeships within the sector.

Andrew Heald

Andy is a results-oriented, innovative, and strategic learning and development professional with 20+ years of substantial accomplishments focused on improvising and implementing physical activity plans, facilitating quality coach, and teaching enhancements, and integrating effective solutions to drive success on a national scale in the school and community environments.
Andy has also held senior coaching and management positions within the English Football Association tiered system, winning several league and cup championships with Atherton Colliers and currently with Ashton United Football club
Experienced Education Director and Consultant with a clear vision and in-depth technical knowledge of the Business, Leadership and Coaching, and an experienced leader on the implementation of organisational and behaviour change turnaround strategies. Highly responsive leader with exceptional ability to develop partnerships and alliances with key strategic industry role players.
Leverages innovative thinking in solving complex problems, creates collaborative working environments and is recognised as an influencer and astute negotiator. Interpersonally gifted individual with a strong ability to coordinate with the workforce or communicate with clients to establish the best company opportunities.
Andy is currently consulting several organisations to develop innovative and strategic opportunities to influence the education PE, School Sport and Physical Activity sector including support international organisations to impact on the global inactivity in young people. Andy is currently the co-chair of the CIMSPA (Chartered Institute Management Sport Physical Activity) Community Coaching Professional Development Committee, and a member of the CIMSPA Professional Development Board, Andy holds directorships and is a business owner for over 20 years of companies that operate across the Sport and Physical Activity sector

Ian Mitchell

Ian has been in the leisure and wellbeing industry for over 30 years, working within the commercial, charity and local authority sectors from Lifeguard to CEO. He has led several charitable trusts with a passion for community wellbeing innovation and has a wealth of experience in business growth. During his career he has been fortunate to take his drive for community wellbeing across the UK and into Europe.

Tom Fairey

Tom is Development Director at Alliance Leisure. Having worked in the leisure industry for over 25 years, he has been delivering transformational development projects for the public sector over the last 10 years with Alliance Leisure, from re-modelling existing leisure stock to creating new build leisure centres. Alliance Leisure develops facilities on behalf of leisure operators that want to improve or expand the leisure products and services they offer and to date have carried out over 160 developments and are responsible for £175m delivered into public leisure.

Claire Edwards

Claire is part of the Digital, Marketing and Communications directorate at Sport England, working as part of the This Girl Can campaign team. She oversees a number of the campaigns’ national partnerships and activations which focus on creating or improving on-the-ground opportunities for women to be active within their communities. Claire is passionate about ensuring women are given equal opportunities to be active in ways that work for them, and helping partners embed the ethos of the This Girl Can campaign into their own marketing activities and physical activity offerings.

Verena Quin

Verena Quin is the Head of Healthy Communities at Freedom Leisure, one of the UK' leading not-for-profit charitable leisure and cultural trusts. Freedom Leisure operates a wide portfolio of 108 facilities on behalf of 25 local authority partners. The trusts mission is ‘improving lives through leisure’ with a focus on devising bespoke programmes that support prevention, tackle health inequalities and respond to local needs.

Verena has 25 years of experience of the leisure, sport & physical activity sector and over her career has worked for Fusion Lifestyle, Mytime Active and has delivered public-health funded initiatives in Brighton & Hove, London Boroughs of Croydon, Wandsworth, Camden and Hounslow. Verena has also supported the development of NICE guidelines as a topic expert member for 'Physical Activity & the Environment' and specialist committee member for the 'Physical Activity Quality Standard; Encouraging physical activity within the general population'

Verena has been a senior manager in local authority settings and was a Head of Active Lifestyles in London Borough of Croydon delivering a service spanning parks development, sport/ physical activity and an integrated lifestyle service Live Well Croydon. More recently Verena worked for Brighton & Hove City Council as an Active for Life Manager for Children & Young People in addition to project managing the Council's Whole Systems Obesity agenda.

Sally Grimes

Sally is currently Head of Partnerships at ITN Productions, the creative arm of news broadcaster, ITN. Sally joined ITN Productions in 2016 where she is now responsible for the management of all programme partnerships within the Industry News department who create industry specific news programmes on behalf of leading bodies, associations and brands.

Sally’s background before joining ITN is predominately in travel where she began her career working on cruise ships, before being relocated to Miami where she was involved in the strategic planning of new ship launches. On returning to the UK, Sally worked for the largest cruise and ski online retailer, Iglu.com where she worked across various roles in digital marketing and events.

Sally has a passion for mental health awareness and has a number of certified achievements and is currently involved in many of the ITN mental health initiatives.

Outside of work Sally is a mum, a swimming instructor and a keen runner.

Nick Mennell

Leisure industry veteran Nick Mennell started out in professional sport with York City Football Club before moving through to sports development within City of York Council. Following this, he gained overseas experience with three years spent operating facilities in Auckland, New Zealand.

Returning to the UK, Nick became part of the team that developed, operated and managed Dearne Valley Leisure Trust and Centre in Doncaster, leaving it three years later turning over £1m. His next move took him back into football as Sheffield United’s Academy Operations Manager, running the facilities and developing a leisure division portfolio of circa £11m.

10 years in management roles encompassing Sales to Global Education with fitness equipment manufacturer Life Fitness preceded Nick joining Willmott Dixon 5 years ago, where his national role across frameworks and sectors utilises his project and people management leadership and leisure sector network as well as a wealth of 25 years’ experience to full capacity.

Kevin Mills

Kevin is the Director of Capital Investment at Sport England.
He has led the cross-sector work to make the case for the £100m National Leisure Recovery Fund to support Local Authorities and their service delivery partners in meeting the additional costs of public sector leisure provision being incurred as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Having joined Sport England in 2007, he leads a team responsible for lottery investment in major capital projects. Kevin was on the steering group for the Olympics Aquatic Centre and has overseen the investment into over 70 major sports and leisure facilities with total project costs of over £1bn. He and his team support Local Authorities through resources including the Strategic Outcome Planning Guidance and Leisure Services Delivery Guidance. Kevin regular presents at the LGA Leadership Academy programme and represents Sport England on the Local Government Physical Activity Partnership.
Kevin is responsible for the National Sports Centres at Bisham Abbey, Lilleshall and Plas y Brenin and ran the procurement of the National Sports Centres operating contracts currently let to Serco Leisure and Mountain Training Trust.
He also leads the Sport England Technical Section providing design, cost and project assurance support to the leisure sector.
Kevin has spent 30 years in the leisure industry. His experience ranges from sports development and events, leisure contract management and facility rationalisation projects.

Scott Radcliffe

Scott is a Senior Manager working in Partnerships and Business Development at Sport England. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the sports & leisure industry with a focus on the commercial side of the business and a particular interest in working in partnership with other brands & organisations to grow revenue & audiences.

Scott’s current focus is working on the This Girl Can campaign and bringing on board brand partners to help grow the reach of the campaign and ultimately get more women active

Laura Spooner

Laura is Senior Account Director at 23red, a purpose driven creative agency. Her experience is in developing campaigns which make a positive impact, with a particular focus on getting people to take positive actions which impact their health, including Public Health England campaigns to get people more active.

Lauren Best

Lauren Best leads the Marketing and Communications department at Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owner of Lord’s Cricket Ground and also sits on the Executive Management Board. She has previously worked at the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and leading agencies including H+K Strategies, The Red Consultancy and Popcorn PR on a number of sector and industry clients. Lauren is also involved as a judge and mentor with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Career Colleges Trust’s project which supports the development of digital skills in young people and previously a PRCA council member.

Dr Mark Fosbrook

I was born with my disability and from a young age I realised that Sport and physical activity were an ideal platform to show that my disability didn’t need to stop or define me. I would go to sports holiday clubs and enjoyed at school, competing in athletics and hockey. I continued my studies based around this passion all the way through to achieving a degree in Leisure Management and Sports & Exercise Science.
I have been fortunate enough to have been fairly successful in sport representing Great Britain at volleyball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. I also competed at a national level in swimming and indoor rowing. Among my numerous accomplishments, I represented GB in the Atlanta Paralympics in Standing Volleyball, and was also part of the GB wheelchair rugby team competing in a World Championships, however, due to classification issues missed out on competing in 2008 Beijing Paralympics. I was also their Performance Manager and took on the team manager role for the games instead.
As part of the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball team in 2014 I competed in the World Championships before winning gold in the 2015 European Championships in Worcester and qualifying for Rio 2016. Being dropped to first reserve for Rio made me more determined and regained my spot to take silver with the team at the 2017 European Championships.
I worked alongside my sporting achievements throughout my career and have been a fitness instructor, leisure facility trouble shooter and manager, Head of sport department at a college for students with physical impairments and acquired brain injuries, Performance Manager, disability sport development lead. I am now a Strategic Partnerships Advisor at the Activity Alliance charity, and am currently on secondment to West Midlands Combined Authority to make the West Midlands an exemplar region for engaging disabled people and those with long term health conditions to be active. Leading on developing and delivering the strategy to place disabled people at the heart of the process and influence wider determinants such as transport, housing, infrastructure. It is planned this will help influence at a Government level and make a difference to policy and systems.
In 2019 I received an Honorary Doctorate for my services to disability sport and development from University of Gloucestershire.

Dr Chris Whitake

Chris is a disability expert who has worked in disability roles for over 10 years with experience in roles supporting elite athletes and community sport development. He also has specialisms in areas as inclusive governance and relationship management. Prior to joining Sport England, he worked as an Engagement Advisor for Activity Alliance. Outside of work, Chris is a big follower of football and cricket. He can be found on Twitter @christheowl.

Daniel Palmer

Daniel is Sports and Physical Activity lead at FLAIR. Prior to joining Flair, Daniel spent 4 years with ukactive Strategic Partners OurPeople where he helped operators across Europe and North America better engage, train and communicate with their teams. Daniel speaks on topics including Engaging Deskless Teams; Communicating with Diverse Workforces and the Business Impact of Racial Equity & Diversity of Thought.

FLAIR helps leading organisations (inc. The Premier League, EY and the NHS) break down the barriers to racial equity. Presenting employees with a safe platform to share their lived experiences while their data analytics engine uncovers bias blindspots, benchmarks racial equity performance, and generates roadmaps to meaningful action on ED&I.

You can find out more at: https://flairimpact.com/

Steffie Bryant

Steffie Bryant serves as the EMEA Customer Success Manager of GymSales powered by ABC Fitness Solutions. Her career accomplishments include over 12 years of experience in the fitness industry in sales and operations both in and outside of health clubs.Her prior roles have encompassed building and overseeing high performing teams. She has a passion for teamwork and collaboration along with a true love for the wellness space.

Utku Toprakseven

Over the last 10 years Utku has led the delivery of major digital transformation projects across sport and physical activity in the UK, Europe, Australia, Latin America and the Middle East.
As the Chief Product Officer at 4global, he oversees the design, development and implementation of data solutions and business intelligence products that empower high profile clients such as Sport England, national federations, operators, cities and governments to get more people more active more often and maximise their return on investment.

Utku holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and MBA from Imperial College and has a strong background in programme management, computer sciences and data analytics.

James Foley

James Foley Biography
James has over 20 years of management experience in the leisure industry and has directly led the delivery and launch of over £100 million new leisure projects.
Having worked in the Private, Local Authority and Leisure Trust sectors, James also has considerable commercial experience as a Director with MBA credentials and has successfully consulted for a variety of local authorities and leisure trusts including the launch planning for an Olympic legacy facility.
James is focused, determined, and has a strong drive for perfection in helping to transform underperforming sites into thriving new leisure centres, and bringing better quality leisure facilities to local communities to help improve the health of the nation indoors and out.
James admits the need to practice what he used to do starting out as a Community Sports Development manager but trail biking and travelling keep his fun activity levels high.
Email: james@allianceleisure.co.uk
Telephone: 07737 086110

Rhiannon Morgan

Rhiannon is currently Regional Health Manager for Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL). GLL, operating under the brand "Better", is a non-profit charitable Social Enterprise organisation which runs over 250 sport and leisure facilities and libraries on behalf of local authorities in London and across the UK. Rhiannon oversees the health interventions, services and partner links for her region which spans over 10 boroughs in London/Surrey.

Rhiannon joined GLL in 2016. Prior to this, she worked for local authorities in health improvement overseeing service areas such as lifestyle programmes, health inequalities and community NHS Health Checks.

Rhiannon is a registered UK Public Health Practitioner (UKPHR). She is also an assessor for the UKPHR, supporting those completing the registration.

Born Barikor

Born is the hugely successful CEO and Founder of Our Parks, which provides free group exercise in parks and outdoor spaces, working in partnership with local authorities.

He has additionally built a brilliant NED career over the past few years, including roles now with the LTA, Active Surrey, the British Olympic Foundation and British Universities and Colleges Sport.

Our Parks was founded by Born Barikor, a former athlete from a council estate in Tower Hamlets, who after finding himself with no money to join a gym but wanting to keep fit, came up with the idea of creating an accessible pathway to exercise for people from lower incomes by working with councils and development agencies to offer the public free outdoor exercise classes. After graduating with a degree in Pharmaceutical Science and a career in sports development and personal training, Born left his job to realise his vision. Starting with the aim of getting 500 people #FitForFree within the founding borough of Waltham Forest, he has grown Our Parks to cover all London and branching out to core cities and towns across the UK, with over 1000 coaches and 250,000+ Parkers (users). As company CEO, Born is involved in every aspect of the business from coach recruitment to new client development, as well as attending many of the Our Parks classes.

Over the past 2 years, Born has developed Our Parks Live, the livestreamed offering of FREE exercise sessions by qualified Our Parks coaches, and also created the extremely successful digital, on-demand, Couch to Fitness series for people to get fit at home. The Couch to Fitness programmes continue to grow, getting more people than ever fit for FREE.

Born wants to get 1,000,000 Parkers fit by 2025. His aim is to create a mass user, sustainable model for free fitness in the future to spread the positive life- changing effects as he knows first-hand that sport, fitness and teamwork can have a beneficial impact on an individual’s health.

Stage 2 – Mystery Shop

Club/Centre of the Year finalist organisations will have three mystery shops, conducted by ProInsight, completed over a period of 3 weeks.

Stage 2 – Public Voting

Physical Activity Hero and Outstanding Leadership finalists will be uploaded onto the ukactive website for a period of 3 weeks. The direct link to the page will be shared with the nominator.