Movement for All

There is a well-established and growing evidence base that suggests that physical activity can help us to lead healthier and happier lives. For people with long term physical and mental conditions, being physically active can help manage their conditions and chronic symptoms such as pain and fatigue as well as reduce the risk of secondary conditions. The current UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines recommend adults should be physically active for 150 minutes every week but we know that there are many people for whom being active 150 minutes a week is too daunting and aiming to be a bit more active every day is more realistic.

According to a Sport England survey which monitors the physical activity levels in England, 25.7% of the population are 'inactive', in effect going less than 30 minutes of physical activity (such as brisk walking, sport, fitness classes etc.) a week. However, this number increases to 33% of people inactive when they have a disability or long term condition. This figure jumps again to 51% for people with at least three impairments or conditions.

As a group of charities, we recognise that a lack of physical activity is not only a challenge for the people we support but also for society as a whole, having an impact on communities, productivity and putting pressure on our health and care systems. The estimated combined cost of inactivity is £7.4bn, as highlighted in this report from Public Health England.

The barriers that prevent people becoming and staying active are complicated, none more so than for people with physical and mental health conditions and disability. Together with our partners, the Richmond Group of Charities is well placed to explore how to better understand these barriers and help people overcome them. We want people to become more active in a way that suits them. Knowing what we do already, this will also involve us working with a range of other audiences, who all have a part to play in the physical activity support network. We want to improve awareness of the benefits of activity and enlist their help in reducing barriers. Therefore, we'll be working with physical activity providers and facilities; health and social care professionals; and families, friends, carers and other networks like peer support groups and volunteers.

We are seeking to achieve our goals for this programme in two ways:

• Looking at how collective assets and resources across the charities can be tailored to deliver our shared vision for increasing physical activity
• Looking at how we can build on our existing insight and test behaviour change approaches to increasing physical activity long term through a collection of partnership projects

Our work together to date has focussed on a few key areas:

1. Working in conjunction with our Taskforce on Multiple Conditions and Sport England to explore opportunities to create some simple messages which encourage physical activity, are based on what we know works and can be implemented across our information and support services
2. Promoting support offers and resources which help improve knowledge of physical activity for health and care professionals
3. Encouraging physical activity, sport and leisure providers and facilities to ensure their offer is as inclusive as possible
4. Exploring how we can help our volunteers to be more active and in turn encourage others to move more, such as through support group settings

We have been working closely with Sport England  to deliver a series of exciting projects that include undertaking research to help us understand how we can support people with long term conditions to be more active and providing physical activity opportunities and support.

So far £1.3 million of National Lottery funding has been awarded  to Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Breast Cancer Now, British Lung Foundation, Diabetes UK, MS Society, Rethink Mental Illness, and Stroke Association to deliver the projects. And we have more potential projects in the pipeline!

Age UK are currently working with older people who are not physically active at the moment to understand what would help them to change this. The insights gained from the research in 2019 will inform future communications and support.

Alzheimer’s Society have developed a Dementia Friendly Guide that provides knowledge and resources to support the physical activity, sport and leisure sector to become more ‘dementia friendly’ and enable more people living with dementia to become physically active. Please visit their website to download a copy of the guide or their leaflet highlighting key actions.

Breast Cancer Now have gathered insight by speaking to women who have had a breast cancer diagnosis, who are over 55 years old and who are not physically active. They’ve conducted this research in order to understand attitudes towards physical activity and what action we can take to support women with breast cancer to become more active.

British Lung Foundation are currently testing and evaluating a telephone health coaching service to support and empower people living with lung conditions to become and stay active.

Diabetes UK are seeking to understand the evidence related to physical activity and clinical diabetes outcomes (type 1 and type 2) and prevention of Type 2 diabetes. Their report later in 2019 will help us understand the barriers that prevent people with diabetes from being more active.

MS Society are encouraging people with MS to become more physically active and inspire long-term behaviour change by testing motivational telephone coaching and personalised text support.

Rethink Mental Illness are exploring the barriers that prevent people severely affected by mental illness from engaging in physical activity by embedding physical activity into peer-to-peer support groups.

Stroke Association is exploring the role of peer-to-peer support groups in increasing and maintaining levels of physical activity amongst stroke survivors for the improvement of well-being, better self-management and secondary stroke prevention.