I read with great interest Liz Terry’s passionate letter in HCM April 14 (p3)– particularly her comments that, as an industry, we must “aim to get more people from deprived areas really engaged in an active, healthy lifestyle. Anything less is patronising and cynical”.

Stockport is a microcosm of the UK, with some very wealthy areas and some very deprived wards, and a 14-year disparity in life expectancy. Life Leisure has set about addressing this head on.

Five years ago, our Avondale Leisure Centre in Edgeley (one of the most deprived wards) was offering a poor range of facilities, cost the local authority around £170,000 a year, and was not meeting the needs of the community. Now, five years later – following only a modest facility upgrade but a massive investment in the range, reach and quality of public health initiatives – membership has doubled and the site is no longer a financial burden. This has been possible thanks to partnership work with local public health providers including GPs, charities and community groups. Most gratifying is that our members in 2014 do not regard themselves as members of a gym; they come to the community ‘health hub’ where they are welcomed and encouraged by our team, and no longer fear exercise.

Our industry must help find a solution to the problem of inactivity, but we mustn’t wait for that ‘silver bullet’ to be provided by someone else. We’ve had the ‘5 x 30’ and Change4Life campaigns: the ball’s now in our court to turn these into real, welcoming opportunities to get people exercising. A range of public health programmes already exists, with a market waiting and wanting to take part. Our job isn’t to reinvent the wheel: it’s to liaise with health providers, to facilitate, to communicate, and to use our facilities as welcoming health hubs for all.

I’m pleased to see HCM is featuring a series of articles on management in the health and fitness industry. Management is certainly a buzzword of the moment – there are clearly talented professionals in our sector, but we can’t assume that all are pre-programmed to be strong leaders. It’s our responsibility, as an industry, to provide those with ambitions to manage and lead staff with the support and resources to drive their careers and their business forward.

I vividly remember Liz Terry’s announcement at last year’s Health Club Awards that there’s a dire need for tailored, effective training for managers in the industry. As a training provider, this struck a chord and served as a catalyst to further develop our partnership with the Institute of Leadership Management. We now have 28 professionals completing the ILM Level 3 in Effective Management, which has been tailored specifically for the fitness industry.

It’s not enough to deliver generic course content: training must be aligned to scenarios that directly impact the daily lives of our managers. Only then will we have leaders who inspire their peers, manage successful clubs and engage more people in active, healthy lifestyles.