Looking back: Physical Activity and Health Integration Learning in Action Event

By GreaterSport and Yorkshire Sport Foundation | 22 July 2022 | TAGS: health, physical activity, Research and learning

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 on the 14th July in Manchester.

The event was a hybrid event, attended by approx. 80 guests from across the Country. Active Partnership and Sport England colleagues joined the session, as well as people from Sport England's other system partners (such as Activity Alliance and the Richmond Group), health and care colleagues from Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to Primary Care and Allied Health Professionals, and people from local government, community leisure providers, social enterprises and many more.

The event was organised and delivered by GreaterSport and Yorkshire Sport Foundation, it aimed to create a space to learn, explore, and reflect on the approaches taken so far to integrate health and physical activity, and what’s needed moving forward to further embed these conversations into different work streams.

The morning session was a 2-hour hybrid session where we heard about some of the work taking place in Greater Manchester.

The speakers were:

Jan Sinclair – Jan helps people to live healthier lifestyles at Stepping Hill Hospital and in the Stockport community. She also has a role promoting good health across the country as part of the Moving Medicine work, supporting Physical Activity Champions Training. Via Zoom, Jan reflected on what she has learnt so far about how to change mindsets, beliefs, policy and practice within the health and care workforce?

Kirsty Rowlinson-Groves and Zoe Merchant – shared their learnings from the development of the GM Prehab4Cancer programme. Together they explained what they have learnt about what matters when bringing together different sectors like this to work to a common purpose.

Sheni Ravji-Smith – Sheni leads on with the Wellbeing and Inclusion system developments across Greater Manchester. She has been working closely with GreaterSport integrating and embedding active workplace culture change as part of a wider approach to wellbeing. She explained why these matter to the work she leads, how integral physical activity is and how it connects to the key priorities in the ICS approach.

Warren Heppolette has just become the Chief Officer – Strategy and Innovation for NHS GM, the Integrated Care System for Greater Manchester. He shared his reflections on the strengths in the approach that he has seen and some top tips for anyone starting their journey to develop shared purpose and integration with their ICS.

Key Learnings 

Below are some key themes taken from discussions about what’s important for making change happen:  

• Evidence and evaluation that this works 
• Cross-sector collaboration  
• Getting clinicians on board 
• Putting the patient/human voice at the centre- importance of listening 
• Data is not just numbers. Impact of storytelling/case studies 
• Awareness of/access to resources and support available  
• Clear and consistent messaging and communication  

Recordings 

If you were unable to join us or want to look back, recordings of the panel discussion and Q&A are now available to view below -  

1. GM Stories from Panel Members  

1. Q&A with Panel Members  

What next?

Hayley Lever, CEO of GreaterSport has collated her thoughts from the session and discussions into a blog post, where she welcomes thoughts and reflections. The blog can be accessed here.

An Open Space Event from the Health, Care and Inactivity sharing and learning community is planned for Thursday 29th September (9:30am – 3pm) in central Birmingham. More details will be shared shortly but in the meantime you can sign up here and hold the date in your diary.

The GM Moving Systems Leadership sessions covers supports working in the way discussed throughout the session, as it returns in September, please take a look at the sessions to see if any will help you in your work – they're all free!

Downloads

• Menti Commitments