2019 annual report

Activities

Since formation we have held a launch event at the SAPC annual conference and built our national and international membership base to 33 members. We have also created a Twitter handle @SAPCexerciseSIG to keep in regular contact with the members, promote the SIG and share relevant research and initiatives. We also keep in contact with the members to update them of plans and events associated with the SIG.

Future plans

We have recently organised a ‘Physical Activity Masterclass’ to take place on the 16th of January 2020. This event will be facilitated by Dr Emma Healey, Chair for the SIG and we have Dr Ross Wilkinson as guest speaker at this event who is a GP Physical Activity Champion for Public Health England (PHE). The Physical Activity Champion initiative was created to help increase the amount of physical activity in the population across England and is part of a bigger PHE and Sport England programme called ‘Moving Healthcare Professionals’. Often in clinical training there is very little focus on understanding the importance of physical activity, the benefits it can provide and also how to motivate people to go through behaviour change. The aim of the Masterclass is to explore how best to embed physical activity into routine clinical care and will provide knowledge and skills to incorporate physical activity into everyday practice.

We have been able to gain support from Stoke-on-Trent CCG and North Staffordshire CCG to deliver this event to local Health Care Professionals within their protected Learning time. The anticipated learning outcomes are:

• to improve Health care professionals’ (HCPs’) understanding of physical activity’s potential for clinical impact
• to increase HCPs’ confidence in delivering physical activity brief interventions to patients as a method of clinical care
• to promote social prescribing opportunities
• to provide a knowledge of evidence based physical activity interventions

Evidence of impact of the SIG

This is a new SIG so evidence of impact is yet to be established. We do hope though that there will be longer term benefits of the Physical Activity Masterclass, which will improve the efficiency of primary care consultations and provide potential cost savings in terms of referrals.

How affiliation with SAPC has helped the SIG

Affiliation with SAPC has helped us to identify and recruit members to the SIG who have a particular interest in the role of exercise / physical activity in primary care. I think being affiliated with SAPC provides further credentials to our Physical Activity Masterclass which has been promoted across North Staffordshire CCG and Stoke-on-Trent CCG.