Exercise by Referral Review

The Challenge

Active Derbyshire identified a timely opportunity to review and strengthen their exercise by referral offer. With growing momentum around integrated care and place-based working, they wanted to explore how the existing approach could evolve to better meet the needs of local communities - enabling them to contribute more meaningfully to health and wellbeing outcomes across the county.

To support this work, they commissioned Move Consulting to provide a strategic review, generate insight from across the system, and help shape a shared direction for the future.

Our Approach  

Our team took a collaborative and structured approach to understand the current landscape, explore ambitions for change and generate practical, insight-led recommendations.

We engaged with a wide range of partners across sectors to build a rounded understanding of the existing system, surface challenges and opportunities, and bring together different perspectives around a common goal. Alongside this, we drew on national insight and effective practice from elsewhere to inform thinking and broaden the view of what’s possible.

Through tailored engagement, analysis, and strategic facilitation, we helped Active Derbyshire and its partners explore what a more connected, sustainable and inclusive approach to physical activity for health could look like.

What was delivered

As part of this project, Move Consulting provided:

• A high-level strategic review of the current exercise referral model and its wider context
   
• Structured stakeholder engagement to build shared understanding and identify priority areas for development
   
• Clear, evidence-informed recommendations to shape future planning and system evolution
   
• A comprehensive summary report to support strategic decision-making, partnerships, and potential investment conversations
   

Project impact 

Since the delivery of this project, we’re pleased to share that Active Derbyshire has established a local system-wide collaborative group. This group is now actively developing a focused work programme to prioritise and implement the recommendations from this work.

This marks an important next step in evolving their local exercise by referral offer—strengthening it to better meet local needs and enabling more people across the districts to lead healthier, more active lives.