A tour of GM Moving in Action with Sport England

By GM Moving | 13 November 2025 | TAGS: gm moving in action, Strategy, "Sport England", communities, Inequalities, Trafford, Manchester, Place based partnerships

Local and national partners came together across Greater Manchester yesterday, to see GM Moving in Action. Together, we witnessed first-hand how collaboration across our city-region is delivering Sport England’s Uniting the Movement and driving real change in people’s lives.  

Among the delegation was Simon Hayes visiting for the first time since becoming Sport England CEO in September. He joined other Sport England colleagues and Greater Manchester partners to celebrate the progress and ambition that define Greater Manchester’s journey so far. 

Over the past decade, Greater Manchester has reshaped how we work together to transform people, places, and systems.  

Since 2015, when Sport England established its first Memorandum of Understanding with the city-region, we have worked together to test, learn, and create lasting change - from the original Blueprint for Change to being chosen in 2018 as one of Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilots.  

In 2021 more than 2,000 people helped shape the GM Moving in Action Strategy. This is our shared plan to bring Uniting the Movement to life across every community, unlocking participation, contribution, and opportunity for all. 

We have seen positive outcomes and progress across GM. Levels of physical activity across the city-region are now higher than pre-pandemic levels, in line with national trends after recovering from a more challenging position.  

What makes Greater Manchester’s progress powerful is our whole-system, place-based approach to enable active lives for all. From local authorities and health partners to community organisations and national agencies, everyone plays their part in creating the conditions for long-term change.  

Evidence locally and nationally shows that transformational change on this agenda requires a continual focusing on maturing the conditions to tackle inequalities and enable active lives. Referred to locally as our five enablers for change, we are proud to see positive change across all five of these over the last four years.  

Across the day, partners saw Greater Manchester’s movement in action. Together, we met community and strategic leaders from across all sectors. We visited facilities with financial and environmental sustainability designed in, and grassroots projects transforming lives through sport and physical activity. Supporting partners with their environmental sustainability work is a priority for Sport England, as part of the Every Move strategy, and we valued seeing what this looks like in Greater Manchester. 

As the group travelled, we heard about the work to support physical literacy, create active schools and take a whole system approach to positive experiences for children and young people. We also heard about the work to integrate physical activity with health and social care, through Active Practices and physical activity champion training.  

Together, we visited; 

• House of Sport Manchester, a collaborative workspace and meeting hub located at the heart of the Sportcity on the Etihad Campus. It brings together national governing bodies (NGBs), local organisations, and key partners from the sport, health, and physical activity sectors under one roof, fostering innovation, collaboration, and the sharing of ideas. It is designed to inspire, connect, and support organisations and individuals dedicated to shaping the future of sport in the city and beyond. 
  
  

• Partington, one of the place partnership areas in Greater Manchester. Colleagues in Trafford have been working closely with people in Partington on the regeneration of a sport and leisure space, park and bike track. Local support from Access Sport and highways has helped to make this site more accessible, while using Active design principles to support the process. Our colleagues in Trafford have secured Levelling Up, Sport England and other funding, and are working with local people to design an accessible and vibrant sport, leisure and physical activity park and surrounding facilities. Access Sport will play a key role in activation.  
  
  

• Move Altrincham, which has recently re-opened following an extensive refurbishment, supported by investment and guidance from Sport England. The facility now places a strong focus on active travel, accessibility for disabled people, and environmental sustainability. Trafford Leisure has adopted the Pivot to Active Wellbeing approach to deepen engagement with residents and the wider health system. This approach aims to transform how leisure centres, swimming pools, fitness facilities, services, and teams serve their communities. As the Move refurbishment rolls out across the borough, Trafford Leisure has introduced "move in the community", an offering that extends beyond the walls of traditional centres. Meeting the community where they are, this initiative has been demonstrated through outdoor gyms located in Broomwood, Sale West and Partington with plans to continue developing and learning from this approach.  
  
  

• Hough End, which has become more than just a ‘leisure destination’. This is a valued public asset, where people meet and communities flourish. Last year Manchester celebrated a multi-million redevelopment of Hough End Leisure Centre and Playing Fields. Hough End is the largest public playing field site in Manchester and has been a central hub for amateur sport for decades. Hough End is home to Manchester's first Football Hub venue with over 20 community clubs, leagues, schools, and groups, generating over 1000 weekly visits. Ten new football teams were established in the last football season, including three new women and girls’ teams. 
  
  

Partners in Greater Manchester are united by a shared passion and commitment for what we do, why we do it and how we do it.

This was clear when we heard from; 

Kerrie Rimmer, Max Trax Founder 

Kerrie Rimmer is the founder and driving force behind Max Trax CIC, a community-led cycle hub in Openshaw, Manchester. Inspired by the memory of her son, Max Rimmer-Chambers, Kerrie worked tirelessly with local partners and residents to create a safe, inclusive cycling facility and community space in Delamere Park, supporting young people and families to be active and connected.  

Nicole Hope, Director of Step Up Manchester 

Nicole Hope is the Director of Step Up MCR, a place-based giving charity focused on empowering communities in Manchester, particularly in Ancoats, Beswick, Clayton, and Openshaw. Nicole leads efforts to connect people, businesses, and organisations, supporting local projects through funding, resources, and expertise. She is passionate about driving social impact and supporting grassroots initiatives.  

Shammie Jan, Founder and Director of Bollyfit Active 

Shamime (‘Shammie’) Jan is the founder and director of Bollyfit Active CIC, a Manchester-based social enterprise dedicated to empowering women - especially women from ethnically diverse communities - through culturally responsive fitness and wellbeing programmes. With nearly 30 years of experience in community advocacy, Shammie creates safe, women-only spaces that use dance, music, and walking to tackle health inequalities, social isolation, and build confidence and leadership among participants.   

Javeno McLean, Founder and Owner of J7 Community Fitness, Pride of Britain Award Winner 2025 

Javeno McLean is the founder and owner of J7 Community Fitness (J7 Health Centre) in Blackley, North Manchester, and the recipient of the 2025 Pride of Britain P&O Cruises Inspiration Award. Known for his inclusive approach, Javeno provides free fitness sessions for disabled, elderly, and seriously ill people, transforming lives through exercise and positivity. His work has inspired millions globally via social media, and his gym is recognised as a welcoming, supportive space for all abilities. 

Our shared purpose

Together, these examples reflect what makes GM Moving in Action truly special - a shared passion, purpose, and commitment across every sector and every neighbourhood to help people live more active, connected, and healthy lives. The movement is growing, the impact is visible, and the message is clear: when Greater Manchester moves, we all move forward. 

After Hough End, the group travelled to Projekts MCR Skatepark. This social enterprise is located under the Mancunian Way flyover, and has transformed a disused, crime-ridden patch of land into a vibrant hub for skateboarding, creativity, and community. Projekts MCR is more than just a skatepark - it’s a co-operative, deeply embedded in the local community. The organisation runs outreach in schools and alternative provision, delivers targeted programmes for underrepresented groups, and works closely with Manchester City Council and MCRactive to promote access to urban sports. 

The final visit of the day was to meet the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham and Tom Stannard, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, and Chair of the GM Moving Partnership Board, which brings cross-sector senior leaders together to guide and support this work. They discussed the current context, priorities and opportunities in Greater Manchester in the next phase and reflected on how GM Moving has become integral to everything that Greater Manchester is doing.  

The role of movement, physical activity and sport in the Prevention Demonstrator and Live Well movement is vital. With this in mind, the group ended by reflecting on the work needed to ensure that clubs, community organisations and all key stakeholders in neighbourhoods can play their part in addressing inactivity and inequalities across the city-region. 

Reflecting on the day Hayley Lever, CEO GM Moving said: 

"For me, today was a powerful and welcome reminder of how community leaders and partners across sectors are driving real change, focussed on tackling inactivity and inequality with deep belief in the power of movement, physical activity and sport for the wide-ranging benefits an active life brings. It was a privilege to spend time in all the places and spaces, and with all the people who are making this change happen- with some very moving stories of change and impact. 

Across the day people continually reflected on the culture of leadership here and the strength of relationships and the maturing system conditions was clear. Passion, purpose and integrity are everywhere. The journey of this work, from 2015 to today, has been one of shared purpose, collective leadership and one of commitment, wisdom, tenacity, humility, and grit.  There are significant barriers to overcome and remove, and people here are committed every day to doing just that.  

As their CEO, I am immensely proud of our team in the Active Partnership, who are leading, supporting and joining the dots every day, to enable this movement with thousands of partners. I could see and hear the role they play to support partners throughout the day. 

We are all looking forward to working with Simon Hayes in his role at Sport England, and continuing our work with colleagues across his team, as they start the next phase of their work to deliver Uniting the Movement with every place across England.” 

Simon Hayes, Chief Executive, Sport England, said:  

“It’s a real privilege to visit Greater Manchester to see the impact of our partnership with GM Moving and the wider region. What’s happening here is truly inspiring – local leaders, organisations, and communities working together to make physical activity a normal part of everyday life.   The collaboration across Greater Manchester shows how powerful it can be when a whole system comes together around a shared purpose. We've seen an increase of activity levels for children and young people in Greater Manchester so they are now above the national average. Sport England is proud to be part of this journey, and we’re committed to deepening our relationship to help even more people benefit from being active."   

Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Executive Director for Place, Sport England, said:  

"It’s amazing to see the impact that GM Moving and its partners have had over more than a decade of dedicated work to get more people active. What stands out most is the collective commitment across Greater Manchester — from local authorities and health partners to community organisations and volunteers — all working together with a shared belief that physical activity can transform lives. We’re excited to continue building on this strong foundation to create even greater opportunities for everyone to move more, in ways that work for them."    

To read more of how GM Moving in Action is contributing to Uniting the Moving please take a look at our latest Story of the work.