Sectors collaborate at London health event

At the start of April, the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), alongside its partners, Sport England and NHS Horizons, hosted the latest in a series of events to bring together representatives from both the physical activity and the health and care sector.

The event, which focused once again on the crucial topic of integrating physical activity into health and care systems, was held in London and more than 160 people from across the two sectors, including representatives from the Active Partnerships network, the NHS, local government, integrated care boards, national and voluntary organisations, and physical activity providers, attended.

Key speakers at the event included Sarah Price, Director of Public Health for NHS England, whose session provided delegates with a detailed look at the fresh approach the NHS is taking to harnessing the benefits of physical activity through the launch of its ‘Four Ways Forward’.

Sarah explained the purpose of the information that was recently published to delegates: “The Four Ways Forward have been published to ensure that we embed physical activity into NHS care. This is all about the NHS saying that we want to work with all of you to help support people to be more active.

“We know that physical activity contributes to both physical and mental wellbeing. It helps people to manage and prevent long term conditions and helps people live longer and happier lives. We wanted to really make sure that everyone in the NHS had a clear statement to work towards, that they were working together, and that they were really understanding what the benefits of physical activity are.”

Sarah added: “We also need to look at how we go into older age, being much fitter and more active, not just because of the health benefits but also because of the social interaction it brings and the opportunity to be part of a community, as this can also bring longevity.”

Throughout the day delegates also heard success stories from across the Active Partnerships network, with the work of Active Cumbria, WASP, Active Sussex and Active Oxfordshire showcased by Scott Hartley from Press Red. James Brown, from the Yorkshire Sport Foundation, also took to the stage and spoke about how the Health and Work Accelerator programme has been expanding and focusing on working with economically inactive people, supporting them through movement, physical activity and sport.

The partnership and collaboration work that CIMPSA is currently doing was highlighted by its CEO, Tara Dillon, while Kenny Butler from ukactive focused on the priority actions that have emerged from ukactive and Active Partnerships’ work with Integrated Care Systems. Julie Russell also talked to delegates about the transformation of local leisure services into Active Wellbeing Services, and Hussain Al-Zubaidi provided a Primary Care Network case study from the Midlands.

The event also included an update from Elaine McNish and Craig Blain from Move Consulting on the project they’ve been working on with the Active Partnerships National Organisation, to look at how to embed frictionless pathways for physical activity into health systems. They also thanked delegates for their involvement in the project.

Natasha Jones from the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, also presented on why the shift from medical clearance to medical guidance is a necessity and how this will be a focus of the ongoing work to create frictionless physical activity pathways into health systems over the next few years. More details about the future plans for this work are expected to be released soon.

Sport England representatives spoke at the event too, with Suzie Gittus, alongside Emily Righini-Nisbet, speaking about Talking Therapy pilots, while Tom Burton provided an update and forward look on behalf of Sport England’s Health and Wellbeing Policy team and explained the important connection with the place expansion work that Sport England is investing in.

Tom said: “How we support our place partners and place expansion work and how we connect to this is vital, as we know that health and care systems are going to be critical to our place-based expansion and place based systemic working. We have to make sure we are supporting that work in the right way and that we are advocating for the changes that will help create the right conditions.”

Annie Holden, Strategic Health Lead for APNO, co-ordinated the event and said: “We were delighted to once again bring together people from both the physical activity and the health and care sectors, so that we could all continue our cross-sector collaboration, building on recent progress.

“This event allowed delegates to continue the conversations around building pathways for integrating physical activity, enabled national and local partners to discuss opportunities that place-based working is creating and facilitated a detailed look at reducing the barriers to accessing physical activity.”

Find out more about the Active Partnerships Network’s focus on health here.