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Ideas to action

The words ideas to action are written on black font over a white background surrounded by black images on a green background. In 2021 we partnered with Design Council to deliver our Ideas to Action programme to find new ways to overcome the inequalities in physical activity that persisted, or worsened, through the pandemic. Innovation and digital

Tackling inactivity with digital inclusion

The fact that you are reading this blog means you have a good level of digital inclusion. You have access to a device (phone, laptop, tablet), connection to the internet and the skills and confidence to find this post.

Many people face barriers to getting online, experiencing what is known as ‘digital exclusion’.

But in a world where our smartphones can defrost the car from the comfort of our own home, a ring can track all of our health and activity data, and banks are operating solely online, digital connectivity is fundamental to how we now operate.

Not a ‘fixed state’

Digital exclusion is about not having the access, skills and/or confidence to use the internet and benefit fully from digital technology in everyday life.

This is a widespread issue, impacting millions of people across the UK and limiting the extent to which they’re able to participate in our ever-more digital society:

  • 6.8 million UK households (24%) report difficulty affording communications services
  • 1.5m of the adult population (3%) don’t have a smartphone, tablet or laptop
  • 2m young people in the UK (14%) don’t have access to a digital device for learning
  • 7.9m adults in the UK (15%) don’t have the eight foundational digital skills
  • 3.7m UK households with children (45%) don’t meet the Minimum Digital Living Standard

Interestingly, though, being digitally excluded is not a ‘fixed state’.

People may face one or more digital barriers, to different degrees, at different times and related to other vulnerabilities or life events, plus people may gain or lose access, skills and/or confidence to do things digitally. 

Digital inclusion and physical activity

As a sector we must ensure we not only keep pace with new digital developments and the exciting opportunities these provide, because we also need to ensure that no-one is left behind.

We recently commissioned Good Things Foundation to conduct some research into the topic of digital inclusion in order to better understand how digital exclusion might contribute to inequalities in people getting active.

In a world where our smartphones can defrost the car from the comfort of our own home, a ring can track all of our health and activity data, and banks are operating solely online, digital connectivity is fundamental to how we now operate.

Good Things Foundation also investigated the role that digital inclusion could play in increasing people’s activity levels and looked into the opportunities for Sport England to support digital inclusion across the sector.

The research confirmed our assumption: while many of us enjoy the convenience and connectivity of a digital world, digital exclusion disproportionately affects the audiences we most want to support to enjoy the benefits of a physically active life.

We really appreciate the great work that Good Things Foundation have done on this and we are pleased to be able to share our key findings as well as the full report.

What did we learn?

There is an extensive report from this initial desktop research, but a few valuable findings include:

  • sections of the population who are digitally excluded are very similar to those with the lowest activity levels and those facing health inequalities. This includes older adults, disabled people, people experiencing poverty and people living with long-term health conditions
  • digital access, skills and accessibility all shape people’s journeys to being physically active. Growing reliance on digital platforms for accessing leisure and sport services means it is increasingly difficult for those without digital connectivity, devices and/or skills to engage with these services  
  • we are investing in places where we need to consider digital inclusion and 84% of new Sport England's Place Expansion Partnerships are in areas where internet access is at its lowest.

Whilst digital exclusion isn’t the most influential factor in shaping people’s physical activity levels, it should still be a key consideration when designing new services to engage underserved audiences.

Otherwise, we could be inadvertently excluding people from getting active if we only use digital solutions to promote, design and provide access to sport and physical activity offers.

What next?

This is just the start of our understanding of digital inclusion and its role in tackling inequalities in sport and physical activity.

In the autumn we will be doing further research to deepen our understanding of the audiences most impacted, as well as partners’ experiences of addressing the challenge of digital exclusion in their work.

We would love to connect with a range of partners to understand how digital inclusion is being factored into their existing work as well as what the sector needs to ensure digital inclusion is considered when supporting people to get active.

So watch this space and please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved!
 

Read the full report

Find out more

Digital inclusion and physical activity

Unlocking the power of movement in the NHS

Imagine a world where physical activity behaviours are as routinely discussed within your NHS consultations as smoking, or 'prescribed' as routinely as medications.

One where your healthcare professional (HCP) helps connect you into ways of being active that work for you.

That’s the aim of the work we are doing with our health and physical activity partners, through our Uniting the Movement strategy, to strengthen the connections between sport and physical activity, and health and wellbeing.  

Through cross-sector collaboration we’re enabling the conditions for systemic change, the spread and scale of effective interventions and a coherent joined-up movement for change.

Working together for people's wellbeing

The NHS is one of the most trusted sources of physical activity advice for people with long-term health conditions and for disabled people who, according to our latest Active Lives Adult survey, are almost twice as likely to be inactive than those without health conditions or disability.

Modelling undertaken by our health team, using Active Lives data and the social value of sport and physical activity data, concluded that supporting the one in four people who say they would be more active if advised to do so by HCPs would mean 2.9 million fewer inactive adults and 550,000 fewer less-active children and young people in England, saving up to £0.9 billion from the healthcare system.

Through cross-sector collaboration we’re enabling the conditions for systemic change, the spread and scale of effective interventions and a coherent joined-up movement for change.

That is why we are so excited about the recent launch of NHS England’s four ways forward, which aim to empower and support NHS leaders, managers and HCPs to unlock the protective power of physical activity to improve patient care and deliver NHS priorities. 

Supporting the four ways forward 

Sport England, alongside the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and NHS Horizons, have supported NHS England in developing these as a route to going further and faster in integrating physical activity within and alongside routine NHS care.

This approach is built upon strong evidence and significant progress to date, blending local and national-led action to spread good practice across England.

Lots of our work with partners is already supporting the delivery of these four ways:

Empowering health and care professionals

  • We’ve supported training and education with the Physical Activity Clinical Champion Programme being accessed by over 56,000 HCPs; with 54,600 modules on physical activity completed on the British Medical Journal e-learning platform; with initiatives like This Mum Moves, which has trained 900 health and physical activity ambassadors who’ve then cascaded the training to colleagues and partners; and with the award-winning Moving Medicine platform, which has enabled over 308,000 HCPs to confidently discuss physical activity with patients.
  • Our work with partners has also facilitated change with The Active Hospital toolkit that has been developed to help NHS Hospital Trusts to integrate physical activity into secondary care pathways, and the We Are Undefeatable campaign that has been successfully changing the narrative on being active with long-term health conditions.

Integrating physical activity into clinical pathways

Supporting the NHS workforce to gain the benefits of physical activity

  • According to the latest data, 462 GP practices have received the Royal College of GPs Active Practice Charter accreditation in recognition of utilising physical activity to support staff and patient health and wellbeing.
  • Many sport and physical activity partners provide discounted membership rates to NHS colleagues, e.g. local authority leisure offers.

Supporting innovation and evaluation with partners 

This is achieved through collaboration between health and physical activity partners to influence the provision, access to and use of local assets and facilities.

  • The Sport for Confidence Prevention and Enablement model evaluation report concluded that the positive impact of their innovative approach to embedding physical activity into a whole-system approach to adult health and social care could deliver £58.72 of social value per pound invested.
  • Active Dorset are working with their integrated care system and public health partners to build physical activity into the county’s approach to integrated population health-data management.

Looking ahead

With physical activity’s brilliant infrastructure and a new NHS policy context, the publication of the NHS four ways forward enables us to accelerate cross-sector collaboration and spread good practice – particularly through place-based action between our sector (including active partnerships, local authorities, leisure providers and community sport) and integrated care boards, acute trusts, integrated neighbourhood teams, primary care networks and GP practices.

We have a prime opportunity to get this right – amplifying impact on the health and wealth of the nation and focusing support on those that would benefit the most.

Doing so will create an NHS fit for the future, empower communities and ensure physical activity is a must-have for all of us and for future generations.

Find out more

Harnessing the benefits of physical activity

Listening to young voices

“Our voices were the most important thing in the room.”

This comment – part of the feedback from one of the 16 amazing young people that took part in the Youth Voice Design Jam in August 2024 – made me smile.

The Jam was a collaborative, joyful and intense three days where young people teamed up with Sport England and a range of sector partners.

The hands of young people are seen working on some papers on a table where there's also some grapes, a bag of crisps, a pair of scissors, glasses and colour pens.

Together, we worked through a double-diamond design process to explore, co-create and present four brilliant ideas focused on embedding young voices within our own work and across the sport and physical activity sector.

This is something that’s close to my heart; an aim I’ve been living and breathing, both during my day job and as a volunteer coach in grassroots girls’ football.

It’s a goal that’s born out of the imperative to respect young people’s right to have their voices heard and acted upon in all matters affecting them, particularly when they are being active.

We know that doing this is a key enabler for creating positive experiences – one of the ‘big issues’ identified in our Uniting the Movement strategy – where our ambition is to put young people’s needs, expectations and safety first in the design and delivery of activity, particularly for those from underserved communities.

The Youth Voice Innovation Storybook

The Youth Voice Design Jam was the culmination of months of learning and co-design through our partnership with the Innovation Unit that had started in October 2023 with three key questions:

  • What is the role of youth voice within Sport England?
  • What is the role of Sport England in embedding youth voice across the sector? ​
  • What works – and doesn’t – in building the innovation skills, knowledge and confidence of Sport England colleagues?

We’re now pleased to be able to share our Youth Voice Innovation Storybook. 

This document charts our journey exploring the three questions above, plus what we learnt from our partners and how we went about delivering the Youth Voice Design Jam.

It’s a goal that’s born out of the imperative to respect young people’s right to have their voices heard and acted upon in all matters affecting them.

The storybook is packed with practical tools, activities and top tips for organisations seeking to engage young people in meaningful co-design, and it builds on the first phase of our work with Innovation Unit, which culminated in the development of Sport England’s Innovation Playbook.

This includes a set of tried-and-tested tools and eight key practices to embed innovation in our daily work.

A work for and inspired by the young

Our work on youth voice tested putting these into practice, learning from young people, colleagues and partners.

We didn’t start this process from a position of expertise. But that’s OK, because owning this and working openly has proved to be a real strength.

We were inspired by this start point and were able to learn so much from a wide range of brilliant colleagues, partners and young people, including:

  • understanding what matters most to young people when co-creating
  • understanding the biggest problems partners face when trying to embed young people's voices into their work
  • the opportunities and readiness of Sport England colleagues to embed youth voice across our work and the sector.

We’ve got so much energy from young people through this work!

I’ve been amazed, but not surprised at the speed that they’ve understood the context of our sector, and the creativity in the ideas and solutions they’ve developed.

More importantly, we know that young people have gained lots from this process, whether that’s building confidence, learning new skills or meeting with peers.

This was all summed up brilliantly by one young person when they said that being part of this process enabled them to learn so much about themselves that they felt they could now work with anyone and achieve things that before they didn’t think they could. Isn't that amazing?

What’s next

Whilst the Youth Voice Design Jam was a significant step for us, it certainly doesn’t signal the end of the road.

Instead we’re going to continue to learn and build expertise in this area, advocate for young people’s right to be heard and work with partners and young people to explore how our ideas can be progressed.

There are already lots of things happening, including a new question on youth voice as part of the Active Lives Children and Young People survey and working with colleagues to explore where youth voice sits across a range of projects and campaigns, like an exciting new Studio You partnership, the Play Their Way campaign and the work of the Positive Experiences Collective.

National Youth Strategy

Young people are also at the heart of shaping the Government’s National Youth Strategy via Deliver You.

This is a national listening exercise that’ll open to young people this spring to have their say on the services, facilities and opportunities they need to benefit their lives and futures.

We hope that you find the Youth Voice Innovation Storybook useful and we encourage you to use and share it if you’re interested in making sure that young people’s voices are the most important thing in the room.

Find out more

Youth Voice Innovation Storybook

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