Section:GDN 1N PaGe:23 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:30 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •
National^23
Exercise is good even in short
bursts, say new guidelines
Homeless
man left
for dead
given his
own home
Nicola Davis
Exercise is good for you even if clocked
up just a few minutes at a time, new
UK guidelines state, overturning pre-
vious recommendations that physical
Helen Pidd
North of England editor
A homeless man who spent six months
in hospital after being left for dead in
an attack is one of 301 “entrenched”
rough sleepers to be given their own
home under a payment-by-results
scheme in Greater Manchester.
Keith, who does not want his sur-
name published, was beaten up in
Salford in February 2018 and ended
up in a coma. No one was charged.
At 43, he is one year off the aver-
age life expectancy for a male rough
sleeper in England and Wales: 32
years less than the average man. He
had spent more than 25 years between
prison, the pavement and people’s
sofas and was released from jail fi ve
years ago, straight on to the streets.
Shortly before his attack, Keith
had been referred by Salford coun-
cil’s rough sleeper team to the Greater
Manchester Homes Partnership. This
three-year project, funded via a social
impact bond (SIB), fi nds permanent
homes for the long-term homeless,
with social investors paid more accord-
ing to the success of the participants.
They receive up to £19,000 per par-
ticipant if they successfully detox from
drugs or alcohol, hold down a tenancy
for two years and fi nd and keep a job.
When the SIB was launched in
November 2017, Andy Burnham, the
mayor of Greater Manchester, said
it would provide 270 homes for the
region’s “ most entrenched” rough
sleepers. But 532 people ended up
being referred to the programme, with
400 engaging with the project and 306
fi nding permanent accommodation.
The numbers are “just the tip of
the iceberg”, according to Paula Mills,
Keith’s caseworker at Shelter.
Yesterday, Burnham launched the
second year of his Bed Every Night
Scheme , a £6m project that promises
400 beds each night as a stop-gap for
rough sleepers. Last year, the scheme
supported 2,003 people, 688 of whom
moved on to secure and long-term
accommodation, but experts predict
an increase in demand due to austerity.
activity) that adults are recommend to
undertake every week.
“We are emphasising the benefi ts of
all activity at all levels, ideally working
towards this threshold ,” said Dr Char-
lie Foster, of the University of Bristol,
chair of the UK CMO’s expert commit-
tee for physical activity.
The report reiterates that adults
should minimise time spent sedentary
and undertak e activities to develop
or maintain muscle strength twice a
week , such as gardening or carrying
heavy shopping bags.
Dame Sally Davies, chief medicalKeith, who wears a brace on his leg
as a result of the attack and has signif-
icant speech and memory diffi culties,
moved into his fl at in Salford in July
last year. It has been a long journey
for someone with long-term addic-
tion issues who was kicked out of
numerous hostels and rehabilitation
centres after a traumatic childhood
“surrounded by alcohol”.
He spent almost six months in hos-
pital last year learning how to walk and
talk again before being asked to leave
a month before his treatment was due
to end. He had befriended a patient
whose visitors provided a steady
stream of cannabis and alcohol. “The
ward was humming with weed,” he
said this week, with a guilty chuckle.
The fi nal straw for the hospital was
when he, in his own words, “decided
to have a mad one”.
He was sent to Salford council to
present as homeless, but went missing.
It took Paula Mills, Keith’s caseworker
at Shelter, three days to fi nd him. She
managed to accommodate him in a
succession of B&Bs, even persuad-
ing the fi nal B&B manager to keep his
presence a secret so that his “associ-
ates” from the street could not fi nd
him. “They put him in a secret room,”
she said. “I used to go and buy food so
that he didn’t have to go out and get
led astray .”
Since moving into his one-bedroom
fl at, Keith has turned his life around.
He has taken great pride in furnishing
the house, paying with vouchers pro-
vided by the SIB, and hopes to start a
painting and decorating business once
his leg improves.
Sarah Cooke, the SIB project man-
ager, said: “He could be considered
as one of our hardest to reach indi-
viduals, but many of our participants
follow a pattern where they disappear
for weeks or months.
“ This is where the SIB is diff er-
ent from other programmes as this
doesn’t matter. They remain on the
programme for the three years. We
understand how long it takes people
to trust services and are able to wait for
them to be ready, continuing to sup-
port them each time they get back in
contact with us.”offi cer for England, said: “Physical
activity is an under-appreciated asset
in our clinical arsenal. It is cheap and
brings a long list of health benefi ts .”
Foster stressed that advice on the
need for muscle strengthening was too
often overlooked.
“It has become the forgottenguideline,” he said, adding that such
activities were important in staving off
a natural decline in muscle mass and
bone density as we age.
Holly Holder , evidence manager
at the Centre for Ageing Better, wel-
comed the report.
“It’s great to see these guidelines
focusing on the importance of exer-
cises which improve muscle strength
and support good balance, which
we know can have a huge impact on
keeping us healthier for longer and
reducing the risk of falls in later life,”
Holder said.activity needs to last at least 10 min-
utes to bring benefi ts.
The updated guidelines on physi-
cal activity, released by the UK’s chief
medical offi cers , mean that even a
quick sprint up the stairs can contrib-
ute to the 150 minutes of moderate to
brisk exercise (or 75 minutes of intense150
Number of minutes of moderate
to brisk exercise recommended
for adults every week‘Many participants
disappear for weeks
or months. This is
where the SIB is
diff erent from other
programmes as this
doesn’t matter’Sarah Cooke
Project managerRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws