Movement, physical activity, and sport plays a key role in health creation, it can be designed into health and care systems across Greater Manchester.
People and patients who are active are significantly more likely to have better health and wellbeing, they're less likely to require the health and care system and, if they do, they wait better and recover quicker.
To support patients to live well, we can design movement into all health pathways. There's lots of existing support out there to help you play your role.
We want to support better collaboration between the health and care system and our partners in physical activity, sport, transport, planning, the list goes on - it's all part of our whole-system approach. Learn more about our work within complex systems here.
To discover more about the how physical activity ecosystem needs to adapt and evolve to be a better part of the solution to health, wellbeing and reduced inequalities, read this blog by GM Moving's Exec Lead, Hayley Lever.
For example, the Greater Manchester Health and Care Board published their vision and objectives to guide the next stage of development of the Health and Care Partnership as they progress to a statutory Integrated Care System in line with the national expectations outlined by NHS England and the Government. Read their March 2021 paper here.
Moving more has the power to change lives, it’s why GM Moving involves a huge range of partners from a variety of different sectors - all playing their role in the GM Moving in Action strategy.
Here’s some stories of how designing physical activity into health and care pathways is already creating multiple positive health outcomes in Greater Manchester:
GM Active is made up of 12 separate leisure and community organisations, their members operate in all ten local authority areas across Greater Manchester and accounts for 99 leisure and sports facilities across the city-region.
They regularly highlight the excellent work being done by members of the GM Active collective that showcases how their services and facilities can benefit the health and social care system.
From postural stability in Wigan, to strength and balance classes in Salford, from Good Boost sessions in Manchester to support for stroke patients in Bury, you will find inspiring case studies here.
To gain a greater understanding of the progress of physical activity integration with the Greater Manchester health and care system, GM Moving commissioned Substance to investigate.
Between September 2022 and March 2023, they conducted research to support GM Moving with an insight-led approach to position and further integrate physical activity across the wider health and care system.
The findings, covering influencers (referred to as sparkplugs) and their agency/commitment, are available in the summary and the full report (see links, right).
The report produced eight practical recommendations on:
There are thousands of people and organisations working to improve health and wellbeing, from the NHS to those in the voluntary and community sector, local authorities, employers and the commercial health and wellbeing sector.
We want active lives to play their full part in prevention of health conditions and tackling health inequalities.
See our page with support, resources and toolkits for healthcare professionals here.
GM Moving are beginning investigations into how to support women in Greater Manchester feel capable, motivated, and with sufficient opportunities to incorporate strength-related physical activity into their daily life.
We hope to look into the current misconceptions around strength training, address barriers to participation, and raise awareness for the need to participate in this type of activity (as per CMO guidelines).
Further updates on this project will be published here in due course.
Existing resources and materials from national partners and colleagues are available in the sidebar on the right.
Connecting with health and wellbeing is one of Sport England's five key priorities in their national Uniting the Movement strategy, published in January 2021.
More than 150,000 healthcare professionals have received training, or accessed a training tool, to help patients feel benefits of being active as part of Sport England's Moving Healthcare Professionals programme, in partnership with OHID.
In July 2022, as part of the Active Partnership Network’s collective work around health, wellbeing and inactivity, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire colleagues hosted a sharing and learning community event.
The event looked at cross-sector collaboration, putting the patient's voice at the centre and the impact of positive case studies, read more on the day, including reflections from our CEO Hayley Lever, here.
In September 2022, the Health, Care and Inactivity sharing and learning community hosted an Open Space Event in Birmingham. Our CEO Hayley Lever hosted an open session with Active Partnership colleagues in October 2022 for those leading physical activity and health integration.
For more on our journey to integrate physical activity with health and care read Hayley Lever's blog (April 2022).
A year later (September 2023), a further reflection and sense-making session was held for colleagues from across the country working to embed movement into health and social care to further understand what success looks like across the Active Partnership Network (see video, right).
In partnership with Sport England and NHS Horizons, the event in Manchester aimed to collectively clarify what we mean by integrating physical activity into health and care systems, build relationships, and identify and share learnings around common opportunities and challenges.
Learn more about work taking place in Greater Manchester:
Next Steps in Developing an Integrated Health and Care System - read the article by Dr Jaweeda Idoo here.
Discover more about work from our colleagues outside of GM making fantastic progress aligning the health and care sector with the physical activity sector:
Podcast: A Tale of Two Counties
Since summer 2021, Active Lincolnshire has been working with Active Dorset to share learning and develop their ability to work in the Health and Care sector.
In this podcast series, Matt and Charlie share what they've learnt and experienced through working in the system to help build your confidence when embedding physical activity in health and care pathways as the new ICS structures emerge.
Video: Tackling Inequalities in Sheffield
Learn more about how Sheffield have been using social prescribing, and Beat the Streets to close the health inequalities in the city.
People and patients who are active are significantly more likely to have better health and wellbeing.
Feel good your way shows 11- to 16-year-old girls how moving and physical activity, in whatever way works for them, can support their mental wellbeing.