Sport England North East Sets ‘Healthy’ Example for Region with Working for Health Award

The Sport England North East team is celebrating yet another gong by picking up a Silver Award in County Durham’s Working for Health Scheme.

Hot on the heels of an ‘excellent’ rating in Quest, the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure, this proves that Sport England really do lead by example placing importance on the health and fitness of their staff as well as the region as a whole.

Sport England works to get people from all walks of life and different backgrounds to get fit in a fun way, by encouraging and improving opportunities to take part in sport and other activities.

To bag the silver award Sport England North East had to make the grade by providing regular health checks, health awareness days and sports days.  Free fruit was also given out to staff to encourage the recommended ‘five a day’.

As well as meeting the requirements to achieve the award, the organisation has benefited internally from creating a healthier workplace with sickness absence now reduced to 1.9 days per year, compared to the national average of 7.8.  

Judith Rasmussen, regional director with Sport England North East, said: “We’re all really proud of this award and the achievement it represents.

“It’s important to us to provide a healthy lifestyle for our staff as it’s what we encourage other organizations to do, so to go from bronze to silver in 12 months is fantastic.  

“Morale and work life balance of the team has definitely improved throughout the year and we don’t want to rest on our laurels yet. We need to decide if we are going to rise to the challenge and, like the North East athletes in Beijing , go for gold in 2009.

“I would definitely encourage other businesses to do the same; there are great benefits – for the employer and individuals.”

Judith continues:  “As well as maintaining our own workplace fitness we will of course be continuing with our hard work to try and get as many people across the North East active and involved in sport throughout 2008.”

Stephen Singleton, Medical Director for NHS North East and Regional Director of Public Health, added: “It’s great to hear that Sport England North East are practising what they preach. It’s well known that the health of people in the region lags behind the rest of the country, and any initiatives that help turn this situation around are welcome.

“We have an ambitious strategy – Better Health, Fairer Health -  to make people living in the north east the healthiest in the country within a generation, and initiatives like this will help us to achieve this goal.”