Lifestyle Hub in Pennine Lancashire

The Lifestyle Hub is part of the wider Together an Active Future (TaAF) programme, a Sport England-funded place-based approach to reduce inequalities in physical activity. The ‘Lifestyle Hub’ refers to a virtual team of Hub Advisers and a central data system that coordinates referrals to physical activity services across Pennine Lancashire. Locally, it is also known as Up & Active and ReFresh. The Lifestyle Hub was created to make it easier for people in Pennine Lancashire to get involved in physical activity. By standardising the referral process, it helps individuals connect with local opportunities, whether they are referred by a health professional or choose to refer themselves.

The key aims of the Lifestyle Hub are to:  

• Increase physical activity levels, enhance wellbeing and reduce inequalities in physical activity. 
• Bring together physical activity referral for six localities across Pennine Lancashire under a single referral pathway. 
• Make a simpler, more joined up offer for people and referrers.

How are the Public involved?

Three members of the public are part of the evaluation project working group, advising the research team throughout this project: two are members of the PHIRST PHRESH Public Advisory Committee (PAC) and provide a link between the research team and the PHIRST PHRESH PAC for further consultation; one is a local representative with lived experience of the Lifestyle Hub. This local representative will provide a local perspective and will also work with the local authority in convening a local public advisory group of individuals engaged with the Lifestyle Hub for ongoing advice throughout the project. This advisory group will reflect the local population, ensuring representation from South Asian communities, who make up a large proportion of the population. Our public members will support the evaluation in a variety of ways, by:

• Reviewing and feeding back on project summaries to ensure the content and language is appropriate.
• Considering and discussing recruitment strategies.
• Reviewing and providing feedback on participant information sheets to ensure the content and language is appropriate.
• Discussing the content and wording of surveys and interviews.

Lay summary of research

What is the evaluation about?

In Pennine Lancashire, people who are less active and have one or more long-term health conditions can get support through the Lifestyle Hub. They can refer themselves or be referred by a health professional. Most people receive 12 weeks of personalised help to become more physically active in ways that suit their needs.

This evaluation will explore how the Lifestyle Hub works across different areas, who is being referred (and who isn’t), how people engage with the service, and whether the support helps them reach their goals. The aim is to understand what’s working well and how the service can be improved for everyone.

Why is the Lifestyle Hub important? 

There are lots of physical and mental health benefits to regular physical activity. However, in the UK many people are still not active enough to get these benefits, especially in areas that are more deprived, in some ethnic minority groups and those with existing health problems. Physical activity referral schemes (like the Lifestyle Hub) are a way to encourage and support people to become more active. But how they are run and how well they work can vary across different places and population groups. 

What will we do?

We will explore differences in who gets referred, who takes up that referral (and starts the programme), who goes on to achieve their lifestyle goals, and if people are more active or report better health after taking part. Using this information, we will look at how different communities use the Hub and how it can be improved for everyone. 

We will look at real-life examples (case studies) from different areas to understand how the Hub has changed or adapted its support to better reach people who do not usually get the help they need.

We will work together with local people and partners to come up with practical suggestions for how to improve the next phase of the Lifestyle Hub. We will also make recommendations for how to keep track of how well the Hub is working overtime, especially for people with long-term health conditions who need support to be more active.

How we will do it

We will use a range of methods to understand how the Lifestyle Hub is working and how it can be improved:

• Talk to staff running the Hub in different areas to learn how the programme is delivered and what varies from place to place.
• Analyse existing data collected by the Lifestyle Hub, including participant demographics (e.g. age, sex, ethnicity) and health and physical activity levels before and after the 12-week programme.
• Hold group discussions with people who have used the Hub—and those who haven’t—to hear about their experiences and views.
• Collect feedback on barriers to access, support needs, health outcomes, and satisfaction with the programme.
• Interview staff to understand what is working well and what could be improved.
• Work with local teams and wider networks across Pennine Lancashire to develop practical recommendations so the Hub can better reach and support those who need it most.

Public involvement is really important, and we will work with local groups to advise us on the design and delivery of the evaluation. The research team will ensure public members are involved as much as possible, with particular efforts to engage people from South Asian communities who make up a large proportion of the local population.

What will we do with the results?

The evaluation findings will be shared with potential funders or commissioners, Leisure Services CEOs, delivery partners and public. It will be used to make recommendations for expanding and improving the programme in the future. We will work with the local authority and PPI members to decide how to share our results. We anticipate disseminating findings through a final evaluation report or slide deck for the local authority (March 2026), a peer-reviewed journal article, and an end-of-project stakeholder event (online or in person) in March/April 2026. We also anticipate producing evidence briefs and recorded explainers tailored to policy and practice audiences, building on successful local approaches.