Working Together for Better Health & Wellbeing Understanding What Works

1. Working Together for Better Health & Wellbeing
Understanding What Works
‘Healthy Communities – Physical Activity’
Dr Paul Donnelly (Sport NI) & Dr Una May (Sport Ireland)

2. OVERVIEW
1. Definition of Physical Activity (PA)
2. How Much PA Do We Need?
3. How Active Are We?
4. Useful Case Studies
5. Creating Active & Healthy
Communities
6. Questions for Consideration

3. A DEFINITION OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Any bodily movement produced by skeletal
muscles that requires energy. Regular
moderate intensity physical activity – such
as walking, cycling, or participating in sports
– has significant benefits for health

4. HOW MUCH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SHOULD WE
BE DOING?
Adults (18-16 yrs.) should be active for at least 30
minutes a day of moderate activity 5 days a week (or
150 minutes a week)
All Children (aged 2-18 yrs.) should be active at a
moderate to vigorous level, for at least 60 minutes
every day.
Adults (19-65 yrs.) should aim to be active daily. Over a
week, activity should add up to at least 150 minutes of
moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or
more – one way to approach this is to do 30 minutes on
at least 5 days a week.
All children and young (5-18 yrs.) people should
engage in moderate to vigorous intensity physical
activity for at least 60 minutes and up to several hours
every day.

5. HOW ACTIVE ARE WE?
Adults
Guidelines : “at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity
in bouts of 10 minutes or more”
North - 42.7% of population meet
the current physical activity
guidelines (SAPAS, 2011)
South – 31.3% of the population
meet current physical activity
guidelines (ISM, 2016)

6. HOW ACTIVE ARE WE?
Children & Young People
Guidelines : All children and young people should engage in moderate to
vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes and up to
North
19% of children (aged 10) meet the current
physical activity guidelines
5% of children (aged 16) meet the current
guidelines (Young People & Sport, 2015)
South
19% of primary school children meet guidelines
12% post primary school children meet the
guidelines (CSPAA, 2010)

7. PHYSICAL (IN) ACTIVITY
A global problem & opportunity!

8. 2016-21
2014-24
2009-16
2016-2020
NATIONAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PLANS
UK & Ireland

11. 11
IMPLEMENTING SPORT MATTERS
“No single individual or organisation can deliver the Vision
and a genuine partnership approach to implementation will
be essential.”
Sport Matters Monitoring
Group (SMMG)
Participation SMIG
(SNI, ETI, PHA,CLOA,
PlayBoard,, ISC, NISF,
DNSI,IFA,GAA,UBIRFU)
Performance SMIG (SNI,
UK Sport, BOA, OCI, ISC,
DSNI, NISF, ISC, scUK,
CI, NICGC)
Places SMIG
(SNI, DE, CLOA, NICVA,
CAAN, ISC, NISF, DSD,
IFA, GAA, DARD, DSNI)

12. CASE STUDY 1: ACTIVE LIVING NO:LIMITS
Disability Sport & Partnership Working
A plan to improve health and well-being for
people with a disability in Northern Ireland
through participation in sport and active
recreation.

14. Why was an action plan needed?
Sport Matters: the Northern Ireland Strategy for Sport and
Physical Recreation 2009-2019 mid-term review
• NI athletes - Impressive Paralympic success at London
2012 and Rio 2016.
• Encouraging increase in participation levels.
• People with disabilities still half as likely to participate in
sport and active recreation as non-disabled people
• Range of programmes targeting people with disabilities in
place working well but need to be on bigger scale to
narrow gap in participation.

15. What did we do?
• Online Survey (Individuals and Organisations)
 184 responses
• Results formed a series of discussion papers
• 5 Public Consultation sessions
 71 attendees, NI wide, inclusive of all ‘impairment’ groups
• Information was reviewed and collated by project board
and action plan developed
• Project Board chaired by Disability Action

16. Vision:
• That everyone with a disability has an equal opportunity
to access sport and active recreation leading to a
healthier and more active lifestyle.
3 Priority Themes emerged:
• Engage and Encourage
• Active and Inclusive
• Involved and Inspired
14 Actions

17. 5 Outcomes:
Engage and Encourage
• People with a disability are supported by a strong, well co-ordinated
disability sport sector
• People with a disability have positive experiences as a result of
changed public attitudes and a greater understanding of disability
Active and Inclusive
• People with a disability lead active lifestyles and have improved
health and well-being through involvement in sport and active
recreation
Involved and Inspired
• People with a disability have equality of choice and consistency of
accessible activities and sporting facilities
• People with a disability face No Limits in sport and active recreation

18. PROGRESS TO DATE …

19. October 2016: Action Plan launched with £600K Investment

20. 4th October 2017 - 11 Disability Sports Hubs established

21. • Range of specialist equipment to facilitate over 14
disability specific or inclusive sports

23. Other Achievements…
• Inclusive Sport Award – achieved by three Governing Bodies
• Sports Facility Design & Management Guidelines
• Stadia Design & Management Guidelines
• ISF Accreditation (Inclusive Sports Facility) – achieved by 11
facilities with 7 others working towards accreditation
• Inclusive PE Resource developed for teachers by CCEA

24. CASE STUDY 2: LOCAL SPORTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Physical Activity & Partnership Working

26. CREATING ACTIVE & HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
Considerations
POLICY PRACTICE
1. A piecemeal approach to tackling physical
inactivity is, at best, limited.
2. PA agenda needs to be at the heart of national
and government priorities.
3. A strategic approach that has cross party, multi-
sectoral support which can realign investment and
bring about change policy and practice
4. Need to get the right message out to individuals
and communities – population wide approach, but
focus on key audiences: young people, parents,
community role models, health and education
professionals
5. Need to design PA into everyday lives – towns,
cities, the workplace, schools etc
6. Need to develop standardised measures for
measuring PA and evaluating
1. Initiatives to promote PA can have increased
effectiveness when health agencies form
partnerships and coordinate efforts with several
other organisations
2. Effective public communication and informational
approaches promoting PA include community-wide
campaigns, mass media campaigns, and decision
prompts encouraging the use of stairs versus lifts
and escalators
3. Comprehensive school-based strategies
encompassing physical education, classroom
activities, after-school sports, and active transport
can increase PA in young people
4. Environmental and policy approaches can create or
enhance access to places for PA with outreach
activities and infrastructural initiatives
5. To properly support initiatives for the promotion of
PA, workforces need to be trained in physical
activity and health and methods of intersectoral
collaboration

27. Working Together for Better Health & Wellbeing
Understanding What Works
‘Healthy Communities – Physical Activity’
Dr Paul Donnelly (Sport NI) & Dr Una May (Sport Ireland)
THANKS FOR LISTENING!