RAF Coningsby scoops the inaugural RAF Central Fund Station Sport Award

Halton House once again played host to the RAF Sport Awards, an annual celebration of sporting achievements across the Service including individuals, teams, officials and administrators. Making its debut this year was the RAF Central Fund Station Sport Award which went to RAF Coningsby recognising the Station’s multidisciplinary and flexible approach to physical and wellbeing provision. Their intent is to combat personal and physical isolation, while overcoming infrastructure limitation to enable their critical Defence outputs and increase resilience.

Coningsby Connected is a unique physical education programme which works in conjunction with station support services to deliver holistic Health and Wellbeing provision. And Project Delapsus  utilises Astra funds to better support Front-Line personnel by forward basing PTIs on squadrons using sustainable transport and mobile gyms.

Wing Commander James Poynton, OC Base Support Wing at RAF Coningsby said, “As a very busy station with a critical defence output, it is vital that our personnel are able to maintain their fitness and wellbeing. Coningsby Connected and Project Delapsus are two of the enablers that we have developed to promote and deliver health and fitness across the station. We are extremely grateful to the Astra programme for helping us to provide resources, kit, and information to support our personnel, and then in turn, equally grateful and proud that the initiative has received this recognition via the RAF Central Fund Station Sport Award.”

With a Service population of approximately 1,300, a Whole Force population of 2,600 and with four typhoon squadrons and the BBMF, RAF Coningsby it is an extremely busy unit where accessing sport can sometimes be challenging. High-tempo deployment cycles and the need to meet NATO mandated ‘at readiness’ commitments not only places considerable strain upon the Station’s people and their families but also necessitates the continual maintenance of a resilient workforce both physically and mentally. The PTIs at RAF Coningsby face a difficult challenge in catering for the ‘high-end’ sport science interventions needed to ensure the physical fitness of our Front-Line fast-jet pilots, alongside the need to deliver for the wider general population some of whom require additional and bespoke support. Coningsby Connected and Project Delapsus have been devised to meet this challenge.

Coningsby Connected has delivered a platform to routinely bring together wellbeing services (mental health, charities etc) across the unit with sports clubs, to match people to physical activity on offer most beneficial to them. To be responsive to individual needs, the PEd timetable now runs from 0600 to 2200 with PTIs providing health and fitness assessments, signposting to station clubs and FD opportunities. The coaching element of the PTI instructor role is as important as the delivery of physical activity itself, consequently Coningsby Connected is now delivering and developing physical fitness whilst also providing coaching, recovery and yoga sessions during the working day so that time is used effectively.

Concurrently, Project Delapsus, is taking sport directly to the Front-Line. A successful Astra bid has delivered sustainable mobile gyms, taking PTIs into the squadrons and delivering sport at a time and place of their choosing. This increases access to sport while also reducing the impact of time spent ‘off-task’ for the squadrons.

Both projects are designed to have a symbiotic relationship, delivering access to sport that is agnostic of people’s roles on station and demonstrates a determination to provide the benefits of sporting activity to the largest possible population. Undoubtedly, this will improve resilience and best support the operational outputs of one of our busiest stations.