1.  INTRODUCTION

  The Football Foundation is the UK's largest sports charity, financially supporting a wide range of community projects. We are funded by the Premier League, The Football Association and the Government, who provide a total of almost £40 million a year.

  Our mission is to improve facilities, create opportunities and build communities by:

—  Putting in place a new generation of modern sports facilities in parks, local leagues and schools

—  Providing capital/revenue support to increase participation in grass roots football

—  Strengthening the links between football and the community, to harness the game's potential as a force for good in society, promoting health, education and social inclusion

  Since 2000, we have funded over 4,000 projects worth more than £500 million and secured over £280 million in additional inward investment in sports facilities.

  We believe that the causes of health inequalities are multi-faceted, including deprivation, literacy, crime and the built environment in which people live. We believe that football can play an integral role in addressing each of these causes, as well as encouraging people to lead healthier lifestyles. We therefore welcome the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry.

2.  THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC HEALTH INTERVENTIONS

  As well as running a very successfully facility programme, the Football Foundation also funds projects which contribute to redressing health inequalities such as obesity and smoking.

  There is evidence to support the use of football-related interventions, which can appeal to groups in society who may not be engaged with traditional health services. Examples of the projects we currently support include:

—  Middlesbrough FC's "Fit through Football" project (Foundation Grant: £148,920)—in one year 2,318 pupils at 56 local schools took part and a further 481 took part at after-school clubs. The key messages delivered were: diet and exercise, promotion of sport, anti smoking/drugs. Participants demonstrated a 40% average increase in the practise of healthy lifestyle issues.

—  Northumberland smoke-free soccer (Foundation Grant: £3,080)—20% of 14 year olds smoke in Northumberland which is above the national average. Smoke Free Soccer takes places over ten-weeks and consists of hour-long sessions of football and informal smoking education. It reaches over 600 children aged 4-17 (mostly girls), many from rural and isolated parts of North Northumberland. 48% of girls who had previously not exercised now participate regularly.

—  Federation of Stadium Communities with Port Vale FC and MEND (Foundation Grant: £123,134)—the programme runs for 10 weeks, involving one hour per week of physical activity (football or swimming) and one hour per week of health awareness workshops.

  We believe that there is much more that can be done to harness the unique appeal of football to engage people in health issues. By targeting these interventions at groups in society with particularly poor health outcomes, football can play a significant role in reducing health inequalities.

  We therefore welcome the commitment by the Department of Health in the recent Cancer Reform Strategy to work in partnership with the Foundation to pilot innovative approaches using football to raise awareness about the signs and symptoms of cancer, as well as prevention.

3.  THE SUCCESS OF THE NHS ORGANISATIONS AT CO -ORDINATING ACTIVITIES WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS TO TACKLE INEQUALITIES

  There are good examples of joint working between the NHS and other organisations, such as:

—  Manchester City FC City in the Community—Getting Manchester Moving (Foundation grant: £205,080)—a city-wide campaign that promotes and raises awareness of physical activity, its benefits and where these activities can be accessed. It has a particular focus on weight management and obesity. The strong partnership between City in the Community, Manchester City Council and Manchester PCT was formed in an attempt to address some of the critical health issues affecting the population of the city and has a wide reach due to a number of activities being run at Manchester City FC's stadium and/or using the hook of football to attract participants.

  However, much more can be done in this respect. The Government's "Football and Health" document, which we played an integral part in producing, set out how PCTs could work with football organisations to deliver innovative interventions, but unfortunately too few have acted on this advice and therefore the true potential of football as an agent for better health has yet to be realised. Feedback from community groups as part of the Foundation's grant application process suggests that they would like to work more closely with PCTs, but find it difficult to identify the most appropriate person with whom to engage.

4.  RECOMMENDATIONS

  We would welcome consideration by the Committee of the following recommendations:

—  The Department of Health's commitment to work with the Football Foundation to test innovative approaches to improving the awareness and early detection of cancer is to be commended and, if successful, should be extended to other disease areas.

—  The Department of Health's "Football and Health" document should be re-publicised and PCTs should be encouraged to consider how best to work with football organisations as part of their strategic planning process.

—  PCTs should be required to publicly identify a point of contact for community sports groups to engage with, promoting greater opportunities for joint work to tackle health inequalities.

—  Strategic Health Authorities should engage with the Football Foundation's regional planning process, ensuring that the health needs of local populations are accurately reflected. Strategic Health Authorities should also work with PCTs to encourage more applications to the Foundation for health-focussed projects.

—  Given the cross-government nature of health inequalities and the cross-cutting role that football can play in tackling these, a health minister should be identified who can act as an ambassador for football and wider sport to the Department of Health and the NHS.

January 2008