Is the health and fitness industry fully-qualified to deliver professional advice and guidance?

That was the question as the SIBEC UK 2014 got underway with a panel discussion this morning (20 May) – chaired by ukactive CEO David Stalker – with a selection of industry figures offering their views.

The four-person panel comprised of Rachel Gomm, Birmingham City Council Sport and Events business development manager; Michelle Dand, Everyone Active group fitness development manager; Tom Fairey, Alliance Leisure Services business development manager; and Stuart Lockwood, head of Oldham Community Leisure Trust.

Stalker began the discussion by saying the reallocation of public health responsibility to local authorities (under the 2013 Social Care Bill) meant the health and fitness industry now had the opportunity to provide solutions for a sector worth £8bn. Yet, he said, two thirds of health and fitness industry managers hold the minimum level of qualifications required to do their job.

Gomm noted the importance of building relationships and knowledge exchanges with public health bodies – particularly with GPs to establish exercise referrals for conditions such as heart disease.

Dand, meanwhile, pointed out that Everyone Active’s new sister organisation Everyone Health demonstrated the industry was already making moves to engage with this new market.

“But while it’s possible for highly-trained fitness motivators to work across both the health and leisure sectors, less experienced staff currently lack the training required to be able to deal with subsequent challenges, such as working with patients with mental health issues,” added Dand.

“We need to build bridges so that fitness motivators have clear career pathways towards these key roles. It would be a shame if we needed to resort to bringing outsiders rather than utilising the talent already in the industry.”

These sentiments were echoed by Lockwood, who said leisure operators must become a “one-stop shop” if they are to provide solutions to the nation’s inactivity crisis.

One of the key stumbling blocks, according to Fairey, is not necessarily the lack of qualified staff, but the lack of funding for any staff at all. “At a local authority level, it’s true that only a small percentage of staff are fully-qualified, but one of the main issues at the moment is simply accessing funding to ensure there are “bodies on the floor” in leisure centres.

The topic closed with a question from the floor, with the suggestion raised that training bodies need to be looking at pathways to close the skills gap faced as a result of the new health landscape. They added that given the push into public health will be operator-led and funded, trainers need to be engaging with discussions with these organisations to develop solutions.