At the National Academy, we are working to develop a bold vision for integrating movement and physical activity into social prescribing. As part of this journey, we’re reaching out to gather your input, insights, and ideas. Share your thoughts in the comments section!
Our goal is to explore what’s needed—beyond funding—to strengthen physical activity social prescriptions and unlock the potential of sport to address health inequalities. Together, we aim to craft a holistic vision that promotes mental and physical health, fosters social connections, and reduces the strain on healthcare systems.
What We’re Exploring
Our emerging vision is guided by three key areas:
Sustainable Lifestyle Changes: Creating accessible, inclusive opportunities for physical activity that encourage long-term health benefits.
Collaboration: Building stronger connections between healthcare providers, community organisations, and the sport and physical activity sector.
Evidence-Based Impact: Using measurable outcomes to demonstrate the transformative power of movement and sport.
Why Your Voice Matters
We believe this approach has the potential to transform lives and communities, but your input is essential to make it truly impactful. By contributing your thoughts, you’ll help shape a vision that reflects the needs and aspirations of the people and organisations involved in social prescribing.
Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear from you! Share your ideas on what’s needed, how you could contribute, and what success could look like. We’re also keen to showcase some of the work we’ve all been doing and discuss how the social prescribing landscape is evolving across England. Use the comment thread underneath this post to share your thoughts.
Would you be interested in joining a session to explore this vision further - and hear the latest from our Physical Activity National Lead? Let us know by responding to the poll below!
Would you be interested in attending a session with our National Lead for Physical Activity to discuss your thoughts and learn more about the vision?
Yes, I would like to attend!
No, not for me!
Hi,
I'm interested to contribute to this area, espeically how creative dance and mindful movement can support people to engage with an active life and enhance their wellbeing. I have mainly worked with chronic pain.
Forestry England's Feel Good in the Forest programme has a mix of more traditional physical activity sessions (eg. walking, running, cycling) and also other types of activity which weave physical activity into them without it being the focus - for example nature journaling walks, mindful photography, walking reading groups. We find these more alternative activities are a great way to encourage people who are worried about doing physical activity into the forest to try something that appeals to them. We then support them to also try more traditional physical activity sessions. I'd love to see how movement, as part of arts, nature or other creative activities, can be incorporated into this vision.
I have been developing an app, Footbus, to connect people to walk, run or cycle together (in a non-competitive environment) for more social (and safer) activity. It has functionality designed to more easily manage group activity and I hope will be a useful tool for Social Prescribers. If anyone is curious please get in touch!
I have been involved in a couple of discussion groups with the physio team from University Hospitals Leicester regarding research they are doing on ensuring that exercise is available to those who are not able to access community exercise groups. Many of my patients are housebound so they are not able to benefit from the encouragement to exercise that face to face exercise sessions provide.
Any commitment to enhancing this approach needs to be done with full collaboration between the healthcare and voluntary sectors. There is a wealth of support in the community from various organisations, and this needs to be fully utilised by medical practitioners in order to reach its full potential.
It would be great to explore and find ways to strengthen the role of nature and physical activity as a means of encouraging long term health benefits (e.g. nature walks, gardening, conservation activities)