One year on from our manifesto release
Activity Alliance’s work stretches across many areas to ensure disabled people feel they belong in sports and activities. It is a year since we released our government manifesto which focuses on three asks. One of these is around health and the influences healthcare professionals have on disabled people’s lives. Following the release of our health report, we are focusing on this specific ask.
The report found NHS and healthcare professionals to be ‘trusted messengers’. It explored the role of healthcare professionals in supporting disabled people into physical activity, highlighting five key features for supporting disabled people.
We know disabled adults are more likely than non-disabled adults to report their current health status as poor or very poor (46% compared with 4%). They are also most likely to prefer advice on being active from healthcare professionals, and in particular from physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and other medical professionals (50% vs 31% of non-disabled people).
Healthcare professionals can play a role in reassuring disabled people about being active with an impairment or health condition.
Our manifesto ‘Fight for fairness: Disabled people’s right to sport and physical activity’ calls for the government and the NHS to equip health and care workers to ensure that better processes are in place for health and care workers to support disabled people to use physical activity in ways which work best for them. It is evident that the Government recognises the significance of the support and changes needed. One of its five mission pillars is to “Build an NHS fit for the future”, and as part of this a dedicated Ten-Year Health Plan designed to look at how we build that change into the NHS.
In December 2024, we released our new strategy titled We All Belong. Within this our third ambition is - Address inequalities by working with others. We believe in the power of collaboration and are delighted to work with the Richmond Group in our work to ensure more people can access activity. The Richmond Group joins Activity Alliance in calling for physical activity to be embedded into healthcare. This is one of the three shifts in policy in the Richmond Group’s recent report Millions More Moving.
Emma Hutchins, Physical Activity and Health Influencing Manager, Richmond Group of Charities said:
“Our research shows the importance of health professionals as a powerful influencer in supporting people with long-term conditions to get moving and stay moving. We are pleased to work alongside Activity Alliance in calling for physical activity to be embedded into routine healthcare, maximising the role of health professionals in providing trusted advice and reassurance.”
Research from ‘We Are Undefeatable’, a campaign led by the Richmond Group of Charities, echoes these findings among people with long-term health conditions. It shows the NHS and health professionals are the most trusted sources of advice for this audience, and that when conversations happen between health professionals and people with long-term conditions, they lead to the majority taking action. However, only 41% report having spoken about physical activity with a health professional in the last month*.
Our partnership with Sport for Confidence on the Include to Improve programme also shows how leading expert organisations can influence disabled people’s activity. The two-year programme is designed to to create more opportunities for disabled people to take part, volunteer and work in sports and activities.
We need to equip health and care workers so they can give disabled children and adults, and those living with long-term conditions, the best information and accurately signpost to a wider choice of activities. To do this with greater results, health and care workers need to know about, and have wider availability of, sporting opportunities in their area and options to signpost ways to move that work for disabled people and people with long-term conditions to incorporate into daily life. This will help to improve the population’s health and wellbeing outcomes in all age groups, reduce loneliness levels and achieve priorities beyond health by having a healthy population.
Our social value report showed the impact we could have economically too, using HM Treasury endorsed methodology. The report shows that there is £6,200 social value per disabled person per year if supported to meet the official Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) guidelines of 150 plus minutes a week, whilst engaging in light activity provides a figure of £4,400. This works out three to four times’ the value of non-disabled people being active. To give a comparison of size, this figure is almost equivalent to being employed rather than unemployed, which has a social value of £7,000. When we add the figures for active with moderate and light activity for disabled people, it shows the societal cost of inequality equates to at least a £10.9 billion ‘activity gap’.
We are proud of our partnerships work with organisations like the Richmond Group of Charities and Sport for Confidence on the Include to Improve programme.
You can read the full health report here.
*DJS tracking research on behalf of We Are Undefeatable, Autumn 2022
