Sports Council of Wales invests £2m in Welsh workforce fitness

The Sports Council for Wales  is to invest funding of £2m into growing the fitness of the Welsh workforce.

The council will work with Welsh businesses to foster a working environment to include regular physical activity. The cash will go towards the employment of physical activity instructors and for the purchase of equipment such as bikes, badminton posts, basketball hoops and pedometers.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE)  recently revealed that 2.2 million working days were lost in Wales during 2006 because of workplace injury and work-related ill-health.

Philip Carling, chair of the Sports Council said: “Physical activity is a straightforward and cost effective way of helping employees to be healthier and happier. Taking a broader approach to the health and wellbeing of your workforce and looking after their physical, mental and social wellbeing will not only benefit staff but the business at large.”

The new initiative falls in line with an ambitious Climbing Higher strategy, announced by the Welsh Assembly Government, which aims to provide all public sector employees and three quarters of all other employees with access to sport and physical activity facilities, at or within a 10-minute walk by 2025.