Get Out Get Active programme impact

Get Out Get Active (GOGA) is a UK-wide programme led by Activity Alliance, designed to bring disabled and non-disabled people together through physical activity. With inclusion at its core, GOGA champions a person-centred approach, listening closely to local communities and shaping opportunities around what individuals truly want and need.

GOGA places people and partnerships at the heart of its work, using the powerful lens of disability and inclusion to design activities that are welcoming, accessible, and meaningful. It creates spaces where everyone, regardless of background, ability, or confidence can be active in a way that feels right for them.

• Disabled people, or those with long-term health conditions, are twice as likely to be physically ‘inactive’ as non-disabled people (41 per cent compared to 21 per cent for non-disabled people).
• We estimate the ‘activity gap’ at a cost to society of £10.9 billion, i.e. this would be the additional value if activity levels of disabled people were the same as non-disabled people.
• Even with a ten per cent shift in disabled people’s activity levels to the activity levels of non-disabled people, the value to society would be approximately £1.1 billion. A 20 per cent shift would be approximately £2 billion
• Data from Sport England’s Active Lives shows that 4 in 10 (40 per cent) disabled adults are inactive, constituting less than 30 minutes of activity a week. (Sport England, Active Lives 2022-23).
• Get Out Get Active (GOGA) want to see this activity gap reduced.

• reaching the very least active disabled and non-disabled people in “active recreation” through locality driven outreach, engagement and effective marketing
• supporting disabled and non-disabled people to be active together through genuinely inclusive environments
• focus on engaging people and developing workforce through use of the talk to me ten principles
• three types of sustainability - individuals active for life, inclusive local system and practice and transferable learning.

One example of where this working in practice is Blackpool, Active Blackpool, within Blackpool Council, have led the delivery of GOGA since 2020. The programme targeted the most deprived communities, responding to specific local challenges, such as Blackpool having the lowest male life expectancy and highest male suicide rates in England. Working with Blackpool Costal Housing and Jobs, Friends and Houses they hold regular activities special events that bring people together to be active. For example, in September the Recovery Games, held at the leisure centre, brought together recovery communities and welcomed around 110 people who came to strengthen ties, share experiences, and build new friendships across the region.

Spirit of 2012 (Spirit) were the main funder of GOGA Phase one and two investing 20 per cent of their funding commitment (£7.5 million) across the two phases. In 2020, additional investment for GOGA 2 was secured through the London Marathon Foundation (£1 million) and Sport England (£1 million) to extend the GOGA provision further across the UK. Spirit was designed as a spend-out trust meaning it was always intended to distribute its endowment by 2026. This meant they were unable to fund a further three year phase of GOGA. Further Sport England investment of £1.28 million has covered a further delivery to June 2026.

• for every £1 invested, GOGA has delivered £4.60 in social, environmental, and economic value
• GOGA was delivering around £3.70 of wellbeing benefits for every £1 spent
• over 58,000 participants have taken part in 3,510 activities and interventions to date, and over 4,490 volunteers have given their support
• on average, almost half of people (47 per cent) are physically inactive when joining GOGA
• GOGA has supported four in five (81 per cent) to do more physical activity
• Seven in ten (74 per cent) have continued to be active and maintained their activity levels outside of the GOGA programme
• Nine in ten (92 per cent) state improvements in their mental wellbeing after taking part in GOGA activities
• More than three quarters (78 per cent) of non-disabled participants and nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of disabled participants became more involved in their local community because of GOGA
• GOGA leads by example with a representative workforce.
• Almost three in ten (28 per cent) volunteers have an impairment or long term health condition.

The GOGA approach is being sustained through various methods including; 

• embedding and adapting the GOGA approach into place based delivery
• building sustainability through new partnership working and collaboration
• building sustainability through external stakeholders and local strategies, through alignment with local strategic imperatives and embedding inclusive delivery across service provision
• building sustainability by actively involving group participants, through using groups/participants to support sustainability and actively supporting participants to sustain their participation
• embedding GOGA approach and principles within organisations, through strategies and training of the workforce. 

Find out about the programme latest learning and resources to support organisations and partners to engage inactive disabled and non-disabled people successfully.

Helen Derby, Strategic Lead – Programmes, [email protected]