Active Lincolnshire is working with communities and partners in South Holland, Boston and East Lindsey to understand local challenges, tackle inequalities and create more opportunities for people to be active.
Through our Sport England-funded Place Expansion programme, we're bringing together residents, community organisations and local partners to build a better understanding of what affects people's ability to be active and what needs to change. While each area has its own characteristics and challenges, our approach is rooted in local insight, strong partnerships and community-led solutions.
Read about how we've developed our Theory of Change for South Holland, a district where rurality, transport, affordability and the needs of the local workforce are shaping our priorities.
Understanding South Holland
South Holland is a predominantly rural district, home to 95,100 residents across 287 square miles. Agriculture shapes local life: employment in food manufacturing is 13 times the national average, and around 10,000 people work in the agri-food sector during peak season.
Despite these economic strengths, South Holland faces significant health and wellbeing challenges. In 2021, the district recorded the fourth-highest rate of inactivity in England. Among children, 48% do not meet recommended activity levels, while 38.4% of Year 6 pupils are classified as obese. In addition, 67% of adults are overweight or obese, and 12.7% of residents often or always feel lonely.
Engaging with resident to understand barriers to being active
To understand what prevents people in South Holland from being active, we engaged with residents, stakeholders and local organisations to build a fuller picture of the barriers they face.
By building trust and rapport, our Community Connector helped residents share detailed insights into the challenges facing underserved communities, deepening our understanding of rural life. Building on our experience in East Lindsey and Boston, this work highlighted the varying degrees of rurality across Lincolnshire and showed how residents’ experiences and outcomes can differ from one village to the next. South Holland’s priority MSOAs are among the areas where these rural challenges are most acute.
This evidence has shaped the South Holland Local Theory of Change, providing a clear focus for our work as we enter the next phase of our Sport England funded Place Expansion programme and begin delivering the work strands.
Rurality, poor transport, affordability, limited safe spaces for children and young people, inaccessible countryside and fragile volunteer capacity combine to restrict opportunities to be active. For the agri-food workforce, shift patterns create additional barriers to participation. Partners across the system recognise the need for stronger collaboration, shared learning and better use of local insight to inform investment and decision-making.
The challenge in South Holland is therefore not simply a lack of opportunities for physical activity. It is the interconnected barriers that make it difficult for rural communities to access these opportunities, stay involved and experience the benefits, leaving people feeling disconnected and overlooked.
The key themes that will shape our work in South Holland
Our approach combines a focus on two rural MSOAs, where barriers to being active are particularly interconnected, with district-wide work to address the unique challenges facing South Holland’s significant agri-food workforce. Four priority themes have emerged from community engagement and learning gathered throughout the development phase.
In Long Sutton East and Sutton Bridge, Long Sutton West, Gedney and Holbeach Hurn
1. Embedding everyday movement in rural places and spaces
We will empower residents, community champions and anchor organisations to shape local priorities and create the conditions for everyday movement. By building trust, relationships, skills and capacity, we will strengthen community-led provision and improve communication, signposting and connectivity to physical activity opportunities.
2. Creating positive experiences for children and young people
We will co-design opportunities with children and young people, ensuring their voices shape local provision. We will help shape and activate safe, trusted community spaces and address barriers including transport, affordability and limited rural provision, creating inclusive opportunities that support belonging, wellbeing and support positive intergenerational community connection.
District Wide
3. Supporting shift workers across the agri-food sector to be more active
We will work with employers, employees and partners to further understand how shift work affects physical activity, wellbeing and community participation. Insight and shared learning will inform innovative active workplace approaches that fit around shift patterns, family life and rural living, supporting healthier, more productive and resilient workplaces.
4. Systems leadership and collaboration
We will build the skills, confidence and relationships needed to work across organisational and sector boundaries. Bringing leaders, organisations and communities together will strengthen shared priorities, learning and coordinated action, using local insight, lived experience and evidence to influence investment and embed physical activity within planning and decision-making.
View our Theory of Change illustration for South Holland here.
View our Plan on a Page for South Holland
Work with us to create change
Our work in South Holland is about creating lasting change by understanding the challenges facing local communities and working together to address them. By connecting residents, community organisations, employers and partners, we can build on local strengths, develop new opportunities and make it easier for more people to be active.
As we move into the next phase of our Place Expansion programme, we're looking forward to working with partners across South Holland to turn local insight into action and create healthier, more connected and active communities.
Whether you're already involved in place-based working or interested in exploring what partnership could look like, we'd love to hear from you.
To find out more contact Niki Shepheard, Strategic Partnership Lead
niki.shepheard@activelincolnshire.com
Find out more about our work in Place
Find out more about our work in Place. Find out more about our Place partnership work in South Holland, East Lindsey and Boston on our Place pages.
