HE1.1
Increased Physical Activity
Health
- Physical Health
Increased Physical Activity
By increased physical activity we are talking about a wide range of activities that lead to increasing a person’s overall physical movement throughout their week.
This could include formal sporting activities such as football, netball, hockey, or rugby; or exercise such as going to the gym, running, swimming, or exercise classes. It could also include walking or activities such as gardening, cleaning the house or DIY.
Key Value
A monetised social value of £3,400
This is the monetised value of 1 person ‘walking, swimming or doing sport’ once a week, for 1 year.
There are existing values relating to different frequencies of physical activity, and there are validated (tried and tested) ways to most accurately ask about these.
The values are guided by government policy (The Green Book) and sophisticated research into the relationship between physical activity and wellbeing (measured by life satisfaction.) The Green Book recommends that life satisfaction is expressed as £ monetised wellbeing, using the value of £13,000 for 1 WELLBY, over one year (see section on life satisfaction.)
Research using national datasets can estimate the isolated impact of a change in physical health on life satisfaction, after accounting for important controls such as age, health, socio-economics and other demographics. This research has been done by State of Life (The WELLBY Value Guide), which found that even after accounting for all these other factors, compared to someone who ‘never / almost never’ does physical activity, someone who does this ‘at least once a week’ is associated with an increase in life satisfaction by 0.22500 (Table 2 in the above link). Therefore this change in physical activity is worth 0.22500 WELLBYs, or 0.22500*£13,000 = £2,925 (rounded to £3,000).
Adjusted value for inflation to 2023 prices is £3,433 . Our approach to inflation adjustments is explained on our Methodology page HERE
A rounded value of £3,400.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
To assess local needs related to the value HE1.1 ‘Increased physical activity’, you can use indicators that reflect how active people are and their participation in sports and exercise. Key data sources include:
% of people who are active (Sport England) – Measures the proportion of the population meeting physical activity guidelines. Data is updated annually and available at the local authority, region, and active partnership levels.
Sports engagement (Office for National Statistics) – Captures broader participation in sports and recreational activities. Data availability is at the local authority level, with update schedule TBD.
These indicators help identify disparities in physical activity across communities and support the development of targeted programmes to promote healthier, more active lifestyles.
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver, Gold and Gold+ give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Multiply the proportion of your participants you expect to do weekly physical activity by £3,400
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider what frequencies of physical activity you might shift people from and to. Therefore you can calculate an estimate of the overall shift, by applying the appropriate WELLBY values.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: Measure actual amounts of difference that increased physical activity makes to people’s lives.
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeking consent from participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music from creative interventions) can add more to the story, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having and value you are creating.
