Each exercise referral delivers £20,000 worth of social value

Delivering physical activity as a health intervention via exercise referral programmes in leisure centres has been proven cost-effective. A study by GM Active – a collaboration of 12 leisure and community organisations from across Greater Manchester – shows the value of physical activity in health programmes using two recognised measurements.

According to the study, exercise referral programmes provide more than £20,000 of social value per person using the HM Treasury-endorsed WELLBY measure and £5,600 worth of health improvements using the NHS Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY).

GM Active commissioned State of Life to undertake the study, which is based on a survey dataset of more than 3,000 respondents across eight Greater Manchester localities.