I was interested to read your recent piece on how health clubs can get involved in mental health (‘Emotional Wellbeing’, HCM Feb 17, p52). South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture has not only recognised the percentage of residents affected by mental health issues, but has made a conscious effort to embed solutions into our services.

This has not been a specific marketing tool but more a shift in organisational focus, which is very much welcomed by the recently formed Health and Social Care Partnership.

From an operational point of view, the key driver has been to engage GPs to proactively prescribe physical activity while encouraging patients to ‘invest in their health’. However, it has taken time to build partnerships with the NHS and convince GPs that services and programmes are both professional and have positive outcomes.

SLL&C has also noticed that not every mental health referral from a GP results in physical activity prescription. Many referrals instead focus on weight management, walking or even cultural pursuits like reading or pottery. We do, however, have some specific programmes that are a perfect fit for people suffering from low mood, stress or anxiety like the Weigh To Go: New Mum, Active Mornings or Healthy Families programmes.

Unfortunately, I feel that both the general public and our health partners have a long way to go in discussing the stigma that surrounds mental health issues. I strongly feel there is a true opportunity to get behind the evidence that simple physical activity has an almost immediate benefit to an individual. We need to make that very clear when an individual seeks advice.

In his first budget announcement, the Chancellor pledged £500m to new ‘T Levels’, a technical alternative to A Levels. In doing so, the education routes for more than half of UK occupations have been left out in the cold.

The definition of what constitutes a ‘technical’ occupation has never been properly explained. The 15 technical routes earmarked for investment were decided by a five-member panel and were included in the government’s new Post-16 Skills Plan, without consultation, by the then Skills Minister Nick Boles.

Given previous pledges to restore the nation’s health, it came as a great surprise when fitness was left out for not being ‘technical enough’. This could drastically undermine the government’s own ambition to reduce strain on the NHS by creating a more active nation.

The £4.4bn fitness sector isn’t just about leisure time. It needs a rich supply of highly technical, trained professionals who can work with the rising number of patients referred by GPs, as well as hard-to-reach populations at grassroots level.

The investment in T Levels may result in training providers gravitating towards funding and cancelling courses in neglected sectors. This will de-professionalise the sector and create future problems.

We need a properly funded skills strategy, aligned to the economic and health needs of the country. If the government is serious about improving the UK’s health, it needs to invest in its future workforce now.

I was disappointed to read The Sun’s recent article ‘Flipping Dangerous’, which stated that more than 35 people are taken to A&E every day with trampoline-related injuries.

With over 34 per cent of year six children (aged 10–11) currently overweight or obese in the UK, it’s important to find new and innovative ways to get them active. Trampoline parks have cornered this niche, by being so much fun, children don’t even see it as exercise.

It’s estimated that thousands of people visit trampoline parks every week; while injuries do occur, they are few compared to the number of people using the parks, and considerably fewer than in sports such as rugby and football.

However, safety must be the number one concern, and that’s why the International Association of Trampoline Parks was behind the launch of the BSI Publicly Accessible Specification (PAS) 5000:2017 that came into effect in March. Alongside our Trampoline Park Safety Operating Plan – which sets out how a trampoline park should operate on a day-to-day basis – the PAS helps operators identify key risks at both design and operational stages, establishing an effective approach to managing, if not entirely removing, the risk of injury to customers and staff.

The last 10 years has seen significant downward pressure on the price of gym memberships, with many clubs charging less for a membership today than they did a decade ago. At the same time, the UK government has repeatedly refused to remove VAT from gym memberships and has consistently increased the minimum wage.

This, together with rapidly rising utility and facility costs, leaves many operators with shrinking profits and a dilemma. Raising prices in such a price-sensitive market is too bold a move for most, and with facility costs fixed, the only alternative is to employ fewer people.

Sites that previously employed 20 people are now running with two or three members of staff. Fitness instructors have been replaced with freelance personal trainers. No employment rights and no guaranteed income mean many PTs leave the industry for more secure work after only a short period. Meanwhile, most management positions are now rolled up into one multi-purpose manager with a tiny team and few upward progression prospects.

Fitness has traditionally been a haven for youngsters who perhaps struggled academically. With so few jobs now available in the industry, what does the future hold for them?

It was good to read three great articles in the January 17 issue of Health Club Management, all on different aspects of customer service: Paul Bedford’s ‘War on attrition’ (p48), Andy Bourne’s ‘A service culture’ (p74) and Chris Brindley’s ‘Creating fans not customers’ (p80).

However, if you look back at past issues of HCM you’ll see similar messages from similarly enlightened contributors over the last 10 years. So why haven’t things improved?

During the 14 years I’ve been running Leisure-net – with only a few exceptions – we haven’t seen a measurable improvement in customer experience, despite the time, money and effort put in and the advances in technology, data and insight. In fact, a lot of the ‘new thinking’ is made up of the same ideas many of us had over a decade ago, just wrapped up in new technology.

Increasingly, I believe the UK lacks a service culture. When visiting countries like the US, Chile and New Zealand, I see a different understanding of ‘service’ and pride in its delivery.

So can we change this culture? Perhaps, but it will take time, because we need to attract and recruit a different sort of person and spend time developing their communication and motivational skills. Then, finally, we must reward them as the professionals we expect them to be, to stop them leaving for jobs that pay significantly more and are more highly valued by society.