Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru

Substantially increasing levels of physical activity across Wales is a key commitment of our national strategy Prosperity for All, and it is important to provide high quality resources to support disabled people to engage in physical activity and promote good health. UK Chief Medical Officers Physical Activity Guidelines highlight the importance of daily physical activity for disabled adults and recommendations include the need for at least 150 minutes each week of moderate intensity activity; and do strength and balance activities on at least two days per week.

The Healthy and Active Fund is an integral part of our drive to increase physical activity levels amongst the population of Wales. The fund aims to sustainably increase the physical activity of those who are currently sedentary or have very low levels of activity and improve mental well-being, with priority given to projects that reduce inequalities in outcomes across a number of groups including people with a disability or long term illness. We have funded West Wales Lets Walk and a national project Actif Woods which both support disabled children and young people up to the age of 24.

Opportunities to participate at local level are key to encouraging disabled people to develop their potential. An excellent example of this is the National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS).  This evidence-based health intervention incorporates physical activity and behavioural change techniques to support referred clients to become more active to improve their health and wellbeing. NERS provides subsidised access to tailored and supervised exercise for people aged 16 and over who are inactive and at risk of, or currently experiencing, a long term or chronic health condition. Programmes are specifically tailored for disabled people and pathways are available across Mid and West Wales, specifically:

• Carmarthenshire (eight NERS condition specific pathways across four leisure centres and six community venues)
• Ceredigion (eight NERS condition specific pathways across leisure centres)
• Pembrokeshire (nine NERS condition specific pathways across leisure centres)
• Powys (ten condition specific pathways across seven locations)
• Neath Port Talbot (nine condition specific pathways across community and leisure centres); and
• Swansea (ten condition specific pathways offered across five leisure and five community venues.)

I am also very supportive of positive action taken to encourage and support disabled people to participate in physical activity.   For example Disability Sport Wales aims to promote and develop opportunities for disabled people to participate in sport and physical activity, they provide over one million participation opportunities each year. Sport Wales provide over £1million to support communities in gaining access to inclusive sport. Disability Sport Wales’ provide 750 clubs and sessions across Wales that provide a range of activities, from Archery to Wheelchair football.

For the calendar year of 2019, Sport Wales also awarded 77 community grants (totalling £181k) for projects that specified disabled provision as the primary focus. In addition, Sport Wales report that Disability/Inclusion is a priority within all the local authority Local Sports Plans in Mid and West Wales. Examples of projects/programmes are as follows:

• Aberystwyth Basketball Club were the first club in the region to receive insport gold standard and Pembrokeshire Special Needs Gymnastics Club have also just received this (insport aims to support the physical activity, sport and leisure sectors to deliver inclusively of disabled people). 

• Pembrokeshire County Council and Ceredigion County Council are insport silver local authorities and Carmarthenshire is bronze.

• Pembrokeshire “Get Out Get Active” (GOGA) is part of the Disability Sport Wales Spirit of 2012 Project and has just received a funding extension to be rolled out regionally.