Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       The purpose of this report is to seek approval for use of Belfast City Council’s (BCC) allocation of £90,000 to support Active Belfast Partnership (ABP) in 2024/25 to deliver the programme of activity detailed in the report.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to approve the use of the BCC allocation of £90,000 to support Active Belfast Partnership in 2024/25 to deliver the programme of activity detailed in the report.

3.0       Main report

            Key Issues

3.1       Active Belfast Partnership (APB) is a multi-agency partnership supporting physical activity and healthy eating in Belfast. It is jointly funded by BCC (£90,000) and the Public Health Agency (PHA) (£157,189.25). Physical activity and healthy eating remain priority areas within the refreshed Belfast Agenda (Our People and Communities, Health Inequalities) as well as wider health-focussed strategic documents. ABP therefore, both as an approach and as a partnership, plays a vital role in facilitating collaboration with key partners to take forward relevant and novel approaches.

            Proposed Active Belfast 24/25 Budget Profile

3.2       The table below lists the recommended allocation for 24/25 following discussions with partners in line with the agreed Community Plan. The rationale for supporting these projects is outlined below and Table 1 shows the budget breakdown.

Proposed expenditure 24/45.

·        Development of a 3-year ABP action plan. The allocation would enhance the action-planning process by enabling the recruitment of independent technical support/facilitation.

·        ‘Emotional Wellbeing/Get Active’ Participatory Budgeting (PB) - 24/25 delivery. The allocation would enable continued testing ofparticipative and innovative methods of engaging citizens in programme delivery and will contribute directly to BCC’s performance improvement plan 2025 and Belfast Agenda. Successful projects will be designed to improve residents’ Mental Health and Emotional Well-being and physical activity levels, based around ‘Take 5 Steps to Well-being’.

ABP Innovation Projects.

·        Whole-system approach (WSA) to Obesity Leadership Group - mapping the system (phase 3). The allocation would support the continued development of a WSA to Obesity in Belfast (following completion of phase 1 ‘set-up’ and 2 ‘building the local picture’).

·        WSA Test & Learn. The allocation will enable stakeholders to prioritise areas to intervene in the local system in the form of collaborative and aligned actions designed to address obesity within Belfast (phase 4 ‘action’).

Business continuity.

·        Jog Belfast (£42,411.60 - 7 sites x 3) – Allocation of funding will support 7 sites across the City of Belfast, within North, South, West, and East to deliver 3 programmes across the year. A Task and Finish group will be established to review current model and funding of the initiative.

·        AB PB Move More Phase 2 Delivery & Celebration Event. The funding was ring-fenced as part of the Phase 2 of PB led by BCC Sports Development under the ‘Move, more, eat well to feel better’ brand.

·        Resources/Training/Evaluation.The funding would enable purchasing of resources, training, and/or professional services (OBA development) to support the delivery of the ABP approach described. The approach includes PB and WSA to Obesity which aim to contribute to improving physical activity levels and healthy eating within Belfast.

            Table 1 – Budget Breakdown

            Financial and Resource Implications

3.3       All activity outlined in this report can be delivered within existing budgets.

            Human Resources

3.4       Belfast Health Development Unit will continue to lead on this work. Oversight will be provided at organisational level by Nicola Lane within BCC and David Tumilty within PHA, as well as at a partnership/thematic level with the stakeholders involved in the ABP.

            Asset and Other Implications

3.5       N/a.

            Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

3.6       The Participatory Budgeting programme has been equality screened and all other activity will be delivered with due regard to any equality/good relations and rural needs considerations.”

            The Committee adopted the recommendation at paragraph 2.0 of the report.