BPL is delivering two complementary Health & Wellbeing programmes across Barnsley and Bassetlaw, serving different community needs, for the same mission: helping people feel good.
In Barnsley, Active Together is a free, evidence-based cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation programme, co-delivered with the NHS and funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research, running weekly at the Metrodome for over two years and at Dorothy Hyman Sports Centre for six months.
In the past 12 months, 93 patients have been referred. The programme has grown year on year, progressively adding cancer tumour sites to its inclusion criteria and developing a blended delivery model in which BPL staff deliver sessions alongside Barnsley Hospital physiotherapists, pioneering in community leisure.
In Bassetlaw, our Long-Term Exercise Referral Programme has been running since 1999, providing structured health and wellbeing support for residents referred by GPs, cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, MSK physiotherapy, stroke and neurological teams and mental health services.
In 2025/26, 864 referrals were received, weekly sessions across three sites delivering 3,100 individual and 1,488 group sessions, with100% of participants completing the full 12-week programme and 100% still exercising at its end.
Barnsley and Bassetlaw face above-average rates of chronic and life-threatening illness, compounded by high deprivation. Neither community has had adequate access to structured rehabilitation within NHS pathways. BPL fills that gap, not by replicating clinical settings, but by providing something they cannot.
Accessible, trusted, community-based delivery that reaches people where they live. The innovation is the depth of NHS partnership. They are co-deliveries, BPL and the NHS designing, delivering and evidencing impact together.
Both programmes directly support NHS England’s Long Term Plan commitments to embed rehabilitation within cancer and chronic disease pathways and the Core20PLUS5 framework for reducing health inequalities. Active Together aligns with the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Cancer Alliance’s strategic goals and NICE guidance on cancer rehabilitation. The Bassetlaw programme supports NHS Primary
Care Network priorities across long-term conditions, cardiac rehabilitation, respiratory health and mental wellbeing. Locally, Barnsley has higher-than-average cancer rates and lower survival outcomes. Bassetlaw has significant levels of cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness and mental health challenges, all represented in the referral mix. BPL is not delivering a nice-to-have. It is delivering an evidence-based response to a measurable health inequality.
Active Together patients are referred directly by NHS cancer nurse specialists and consultants at the point of diagnosis, with a personalised needs assessment within 48 hours and a tailored programme offered within seven to eight working days. 43% of referrals come from South Yorkshire’s most deprived communities, confirming the programme reaches those facing the greatest health inequalities. The Bassetlaw programme engages communities through a comprehensive referral network spanning GP practice and PCNs, Bassetlaw
Hospital, physio outpatients, cardiac and COPD services and self-referral, ensuring visibility across the entire clinical system. Delivery across three community sites maximises geographic reach, and the five working day referral-to-session standard ensures patients are supported before motivation or clinical condition can deteriorate.
Active Together: 95% one-year survival rate vs 85% for those who declined. 97% of patients reported improved health and wellbeing. £366.36 net NHS saving per patient. 93% of NHS professionals consider it fully integrated into the cancer care pathway. 43% of referrals from the most deprived communities.
All independently verified by Sheffield Hallam University (2024).
Long Term Exercise Referral Programme: 864 referrals in 2025/26. 88% acceptance rate. Of those completing the 12-week programme, 100% still exercising at programme end. 95% reported improved health. 100% would recommend. Referral to first session in five working days. Blood pressure, BMI and resting heart rate improved measurably every quarter.
Active Together restores something a cancer diagnosis threatens to take away: a sense of control.
Participants improve aerobic capacity, strength, fatigue, anxiety and depression. The one-year survival rate is 95% compared to 85% for those who declined. One patient said: “Without Active Together I wouldn’t be alive.”
In Bassetlaw, Phil suffered a major cardiac emergency requiring 48 stents and high dependency care. Today he regards every day as a real bonus, having progressed from Bassetlaw Hospital Phase III cardiac rehabilitation to Phase 4 recovery at our 3 leisure centres. His words: “I truly believe that attending exercise sessions helped save my life.” Across both programmes, lives are measurably longer, healthier and more active because a community leisure trust showed up, week after week, person by person, and refused to leave anyone behind.
Both programmes are built on sustainable foundations. Active Together’s positive return on investment, a net NHS saving of £366.36 per patient, makes a compelling case for continued NHS commissioning and Yorkshire Cancer Research funding. Sheffield Hallam University’s evaluation explicitly recommends continued implementation and expansion, noting that impacts are likely to increase as the service matures.
BPL’s community leisure facilities offer the accessibility, familiarity and community trust that clinical settings cannot replicate, making them the ideal long-term home for both cancer rehabilitation and long-term condition management.
Over the next two years, Active Together will expand to include all cancer tumour sites, meaning anyone with a cancer diagnosis will be able to access support, whether in the prehabilitation or rehabilitation phase of their treatment. BPL also has a dedicated programme enabling people who complete Active Together sessions to continue being active and receiving specialist support through an exclusive referral membership, ensuring the benefits of the programme extend well beyond discharge and become a lasting part of participants’ lives.
In Bassetlaw, the Long-Term Exercise Referral Programme’s near-zero waiting list, 88% acceptance rate and 100% completion rate demonstrate a service operating at high efficiency with strong and growing demand.
The breadth of its NHS referral network spanning GP practices, PCNs, cardiac, respiratory, MSK, neurological and mental health services, makes it structurally embedded within Bassetlaw’s integrated care system.
Together, these two programmes demonstrate that BPL’s Health & Wellbeing model is scalable, replicable and financially viable across different geographies, different conditions and different NHS partnership models.
For Active Together in Barnsley, BPL is committed to expanding referral pathways to include additional tumour groups and treatment modalities, strengthening engagement with the most deprived communities where acceptance rates remain lower, and developing longer-term follow-up support to sustain exercise behaviour beyond programme discharge.
For the Bassetlaw Long Term Exercise Referral Programme, development is already underway across several clinically significant new strands. In partnership with the MSK team, BPL is supporting a community assessment day, offering open appointments to patients and walk-ins who would not qualify for physiotherapy, alongside a new six-week lower back programme to ease waiting lists and extend support to those who need it most.
Two new water-based programmes are also launching in Bassetlaw with NHS. Good Boost delivers AI- powered water-based physiotherapy aqua sessions across all sites, with programmes created for all levels of ability, extending rehabilitation into an accessible, low-impact environment. Bump Boost, developed in partnership with midwives, will offer structured pre- and post-natal aqua aerobic wellbeing sessions using
AI-created programmes, supporting new mothers physically and mentally by reducing the isolation that too often accompanies early parenthood.
Across both programmes, BPL’s ambition is the same: to deepen NHS integration, broaden community reach and ensure that every person in Barnsley and Bassetlaw facing a health challenge has somewhere to turn. A warm welcoming space, friendly faces, accessible, trusted and free from clinical barriers.
Helping people feel good. Today and every day.
