Strategic Priority
Levelling Up Health & Wellbeing
A key objective for Active Essex this year, has been to embed physical activity across the health and social care system. With a clear drive to strengthen the support offered to communities through targeted physical activity interventions, Active Essex have championed and empowered the health system, the sector and organisations and business to support residents physical and mental wellbeing.
Active Essex have helped influence and showcase the power of physical activity as a preventative measure throughout the health system. This year has seen them gain a richer and deeper understanding of the system to ensure physical activity is on everyone’s agenda to improve residents’ health and wellbeing.
This year’s priorities for health strategic priority:
- Engaging and influencing the health system
- Hardwiring physical activity in social prescribing
- Physical activity within personalised care
- Supporting the reconditioning of Essex residents
- Improving employee wellbeing
Building a shared vision with the health system
Active Essex have been able to create the conditions for the health system and physical activity sector to build a strategy towards a shared vision. With the Essex Healthy Weight strategy released this year, it is positive to see Active Essex listed as a key partner. This hopes to ensure physical activity plays a role, with place-based approaches at the helm.
Similarly, work has been done to create a balanced system between community health care and prevention, by integrating children and young people physios into leisure centres and community activities, to infiltrate system change.
As a result of being hosted by the Essex Public Health team, Active Essex have been able to collaborate on commissioning a new Strength and Balance Service across Essex.
In partnership with the Essex County Council Care in Communities commission, Active Essex have been able to feedback on important community needs that can be offered through health and social care. Consequently, this has positively led to the Health and Wellbeing Lead to sit on the panel to help score the bids.
There’s been some progressive discussion around the strength and balance services in Essex, and how we can evolve this going forward. Emphasis has been on understanding whether Active Lives questions can be included as part of this so physical activity levels can be measured.Courtenay Patterson, Health and Wellbeing Lead
Infiltrating other strategies and priorities has seen the health and wellbeing team:
- Place physical activity and environment as priority one in the outcome for Healthy Weight in Essex
- Submit a significant response to the NHS 10-year plan
- Ensure physical activity remains a key priority with the Health and Wellbeing Board reformation
- Active Essex present on partnership working at MSE ICP as part of place working with South East Essex Alliance.
- Develop an MOU between Active Essex and the North East Essex Alliance to solidify working in partnership towards common outcomes.
The importance of social prescribing
Sport England extended the Regional Social Prescribing roles until September 2024, and there have been positive outcomes in the East Region with all Active Partnerships gaining valuable knowledge and support.
East representatives held an East of England social prescribing exploratory day with 10 Essex partners attending, and as a result, MSE ICB and NEE ICB social prescribing roles have committed to an action plan to embed physical activity into their network.
Key Learnings
It's important to take time to reflect and understand the learnings from work undertaken, in order to focus on ways to improve in the future.
Health structure
Significant changes have been made to the health structure, following the lessons learnt.
Social prescribers
Engage with communities differently when providing information on physical activity.
PCN connection
Social prescribers employed by PCNs hold a different connection with physical activity.
In addition, Active Essex are supporting Essex Public Health with their exploration of children and young people social prescribing to understand what opportunities this could bring in the future. Both teams are currently mapping where children and young people social prescribing roles are situated, and this will help provide insights into the next steps.
But work with Public Health hasn’t stopped there. This year Active Essex also successfully secured funding from Public Health to support Adult Social Prescribing programmes through the integrated neighbourhood networks, where £600k has been awarded.
Physical activity within personalised care
Throughout 2024-25 the Health and Wellbeing Strategic team have worked hard to keep raising the awareness of using physical activity as a preventative measure. A collaborative partnership between the University of Essex and Active Essex, ensured input was had on the University’s Neurotherapy pathway into community activity.
Moreover, 56 social workers were engaged during mental health awareness week through a workshop to upskill them in understanding how their patients could integrate physical activity and movement into their everyday routine.
In order to equip health and care professionals with information around physical activity and local opportunities, Active Essex created a specific landing page on the website. In the past, individuals have expressed that they have had challenges with navigating the webpage's, so after reviewing the user journey, these pages were edited to ensure information could be easily accessible.
Read more about the partnership with Richmond Group charities
Let's Move Essex
Building physical activity opportunities for residents with a long-term health condition
Reconditioning residents through partnership working
The Reconnect service is now fully mobilised Essex-wide with coverage across all health alliances. Occupational Therapists and Coaches are now establishing community partnerships to identify wider opportunities for those attending the service.
The Essex-wide availability offers insights into referral points and onward support, and more can be read in the case study below.
Formally known as Find Your Active Community Connectors, and recently rebranded as Find Your Active Place Navigators, has enabled Active Essex to strengthen their relationships with community partners such as CVS Tendring, Maldon CVS and Castle Point Leisure as new host organisations. With 9 Place Navigators recruited, and situated across 8 locally trusted organisations, covering 12 Essex districts, it is great to have seen over 200 referrals across Essex received by the navigators in just the first 3 months.
Transitioning the community connectors to Find Your Active Navigators at a place level has created learnings around being clear on a vision, but flexible on the approach. The local organisations have managed the roles differently when it comes to recruitment but have fantastic reach into their communities.
Understand the key relationships that have been formed to help the reconditioning of residents
Driving support for employee wellbeing
Building on the Find Your Active: Workplace Edition initiative, Active Essex have been working to champion physical activity, to become an integral part of Essex, Southend and Thurrock organisations and businesses’ employee wellbeing.
The Essex Activity Awards celebrated a number of these workplaces who are introducing new, innovative methods to support employee’s workplace wellbeing.
Support was provided to Essex County Council around their New Business Accreditation for Essex Anchor organisations, and the accreditation will now include looking after employee’s wellbeing with a call to action to utilise Active Essex’s Find Your Active Workplace support and embed physical activity into the overarching offer.
As part a wider reach among Essex County Council employees, and individuals signed up to the Find Your Active: Workplace Edition, Move and Stretch sessions have been delivered by Essex instructors 4 days a week for workplaces to stay active during the working day. This consists of low intensity, seated exercise and more upbeat 10-minute sessions, to appeal to lots of people.
Big Team Challenge (BTC) has also been an integral gamification method to encourage workplaces to engage in physical activity, through a simple walking competition. With multiple challenges hosted throughout the year, it provides a great stepping stone for staff to engage in low intensity exercise, whilst at work.
