There are currently five million people in England at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, which is largely preventable through lifestyle changes. If current trends persist, one in three people will be obese by 2034 and one in 10 will develop Type 2 diabetes. About 10 per cent of the entire NHS budget is spent treating complications from diabetes. Reducing this would have a major impact both on people’s well-being and on resources.

The new pilot programme will include all of the diabetes education and self-management aspects included in a typical programme but will be marketed as a combined education and fitness programme for diabetes prevention. It will be designed to offer choice to patients who can only currently access the NDPP.

The Diabetes Prevention Decathlon will:

• allow participants to try a different sport each week, and with their teams achieve goals based on activity levels and weight loss and participate in organised team activities at the end of every session;
• hold sessions in sports centres, overseen by qualified coaches;
• pilot the benefits of gamifying weight loss, while incorporating key messaging about diabetes prevention, psychological support, and healthy cooking advice;
• provide every applicant with a basic activity tracker, to encourage them to continue to remain active between sessions, and reward those who meet their goals with points for their team;
• integrate with mental health support from a psychologist;
• be considerably shorter in length than the national diabetes prevention programme: 10 weeks compared to nine months.

The diabetes prevention space is well represented by the National Diabetes Prevention Programme, which is the largest of its kind in the world and includes both digital and face-to-face providers. While it’s a proven programme, the dominance of a centrally funded programme has led to a lack of choice as CCGs/Public Health teams are under no pressure to seek alternative local solutions. This new programme seeks to offer more choice and test new ways of combining curriculums and activities for patients in south London.

All diabetes prevention programmes, both digital and face-to-face, need to align to the same NICE guidance and provide broadly the same advice, and this programme will be no different in that respect. The course will be designed by expert diabetes clinicians and will align to NICE guidance to ensure it provides the best possible health advice to people at risk of diabetes. The programme will also be designed with input from local people in Merton.
Its key innovation is to pair the usual behaviour change advice with a truly engaging physical activity programme, psychological support, and live cookery classes to provide a more holistic experience in the one programme.

The funding will help the team co-design and deliver this course.

Find out more about our work in diabetes