October Update

Local Delivery Pilot Pathfinder Document

In October we submitted our pathfinder application to Sport England. As one of the 12 Sport England local delivery pilots across the Country, we are seeking to address physical inactivity levels through a focus on engaging the whole system and changing how it operates so physical activity is embedded within the day to day workings of a wide range of partners. The application has been in development for over a year; developing opportunities through a collaborative approach with partners from health and social care, community and voluntary sector and transport and planning.

The report will now be reviewed by Sport England, and we will provide an update as it progresses.

Community of Learning Event

In late October we attended the bi-annual Local Delivery Pilot Community of Learning event. The event brought all of the 12 Local Delivery Pilots together to share progress and learning, and take part in workshops covering topics like social movements, evaluation and more. It’s always invaluable to spend time with our LDP colleagues, forging new relationships and sharing important learning that will benefit us all.

We provided Motivational Interviewing training sessions

We know that in order to change the behaviour of an individual, it's not just about the message, but also who you hear the message from. To assist both with how the message is delivered, and by who, we have supplied some motivational interviewing training to stakeholders across the borough. Members of our health and social care sector, social prescribers, Better Living Team, and other voluntary and community organisations were in attendance for the two day course. Read more about the motivational interviewing training.

Co-production Workshops

In October 2019 the Active Calderdale team ran a number of co-production workshops with individuals from different parts of the whole system, to explore the shared purpose and value of physical activity on the outcomes from across the system.  As well as shared purpose, we explored the opportunities for how a focus on physical activity could be embedded into the day to day practices of different services and organisations including partners in health and social care, community, and transport and planning.

Working through this process has given us the opportunity to identify and highlight opportunities for collaboration across the system as well as some of the challenges we face with embedding physical activity into the working practices of other systems. You can read more about these workshops in our blog post: Setting the bar across the system - our evaluation workshops.

Embedding physical activity with our social prescribers

We know being active is important in the prevention of ill health and the treatment of poor health, that’s why we are aiming to embed physical activity in all health and social care pathways.

Through their long term plan, the NHS are investing in social prescribing as one way of taking a more preventative approach to health to reduce demand on the system.

In Calderdale we have six new social prescribing link workers covering our five primary care networks.  They will be working to create better links for individuals between primary care and the voluntary & community sector that will serve to improve their health and wellbeing. We are working with our social prescribing link workers to help them to have a good understanding of the opportunities to be physically active in Calderdale. They will then be well placed to help residents to access physical activity opportunities in the community. We will also be working with link workers to identify gaps in physical activity provision, allowing us to create new opportunities based on the needs of Calderdale residents.    

Training Future Walk Leaders

Working together with CREW, we spotted a need for new walk leaders from the community. These walk leaders would set up new walking groups for beginners from GP surgeries across the borough. We provided free training, which has created 10 new walk leaders, ready to join up with GP surgeries and get more residents moving. Read more on our blog post: Training Future Walk Leaders.

We have supported the Mixenden Marchers to March On

Following a meeting earlier this month with Mandy O’Shea from Mixenden Marchers, a successful fledgling women’s walking and talking group, efforts have been underway to support them. Working alongside Yorkshire Sport and our local Neighbourhood Co-ordinator we are exploring potential sources of funding, equipment, training and advice. This will enable the Marchers to continue walking throughout the winter and possibly develop one of their walking evenings into a Couch to 5K type group.

Ryburn United new Clubhouse Official Opening

Through support from our Sports team, Ryburn United Juniors FC were able to secure investment from a from the Premier League, The FA and Government's Football Foundation  to fund their new, state of the art pavilion. You can read more about this on the Halifax Courier.