Designing Physical Activity into Health and Care: Continuing our Journey

Last week, the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), along with key national partners, hosted an event in Birmingham exploring, challenging, and considering solutions to enable increased physical activity integration into health and care systems.

The purpose of the event was to reflect on the progress made so far, learn from past experiences, and strengthen connections to further unite efforts in promoting physical activity within the health and care sector.

This followed a successful event in Manchester in September last year, and brought together the Active Partnership network, showcasing innovations, facilitating insightful discussions, and providing valuable networking opportunities.

Speaking about the event, Annie Holden, APNO’s Strategic Lead for Health said, “There was so much dynamic energy, enthusiasm, and positivity in the room. This event enabled the network to share national updates, and provided an opportunity for all attendees to integrate, connect and collaborate, with the aim of maximising our collective resource, sharing our learning and unpicking the complexities across health and social care landscapes.

“We were delighted to be joined by key national partners including Sport England, NHS Horizons, Richmond Group of Charities, Move Consulting, Sheffield Hallam and the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) who outlined policy updates and highlighted specific initiatives that provide local engagement opportunities. Everyone, in their own space, in each Active Partnership area, is doing great work, and the challenge now is, we need to shout about it. We need these opportunities to connect, to collaborate and to share local insight, informing those discussions at a national level, and this event is helping to start that process.”

After an introduction from Annie and Graeme Sinnott, Director of Relationships for APNO, delegates enjoyed a presentation from Tom Burton and Suzie Gittus from Sport England who discussed the national journey and the health and wellbeing advocacy commitments set out in the Uniting the Movement strategy.

Workshops were delivered during the morning and facilitators included Emma Hutchins and Michelle Roberts from the Richmond Group of Charities who explored the journey from lived experiences to national policy, and its impact on local integration.

Sarah Durkin and Sarah Dewhurst from Sheffield Hallam discussed strategies to mobilise physical activity knowledge within the diverse NHS workforce through the Physical Activity Clinical Champions programme.  Elaine McNish and Craig Blain from Move Consulting presented on implementing Physical Activity for Health Pathways, and Tracy Lines, National Lead for Physical Activity at NASP, focused on integrating physical activity into social prescribing systems.

The event concluded with an interactive session facilitated by Sasha Karakusevic and Tom Underwood from NHS Horizons, reflecting on the national direction, identifying opportunities for collaboration, and strategising on activating systems to promote physical activity.

The day was summed up nicely by Graeme: “One of the key things that today has highlighted for me is the power of the network and the strength of belief. Every conversation seems to be underpinned by a real belief in this work to integrate physical activity as part of the support for improving the health of our population. It’s also clear that there is a real appetite for helping each other, understanding the language we should be using and knowing what is happening within the sector.”

The event was planned with the help of the Health Working Group who played a key role in developing the day and will be supporting the next steps.