Physical Activity for Health Pathways

The Challenge

The Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), funded by Sport England, identified a critical opportunity to strengthen support for people living with long-term health conditions by enabling more consistent, integrated pathways into physical activity.

To achieve this, APNO needed a national Framework and Toolkit that could offer practical, adaptable guidance across different settings, audiences, and system levels. This resource had to be evidence-informed, co-produced, and applicable across local, regional, and national partners – creating a more frictionless, joined-up approach to embedding physical activity within health and care systems.

To support this work, APNO commissioned Move Consulting to co-design and deliver this framework in close collaboration with stakeholders across the system.

Our Approach  

Delivered over a 15 month period, our team led a highly collaborative, structured process to ensure the Framework was rooted in the insights and experiences of the people and systems it was designed to support.

Key elements of our approach included:

• Co-designing the process from the start, in partnership with APNO
   
• Delivering 15 Communities of Practice meetings involving 39 organisations
   
• Running 3 national online surveys to broaden reach
   
• Hosting in-depth, one-to-one conversations with system leaders, practitioners, and people with lived experience
   
• Achieving over 400 stakeholder touchpoints, ensuring a robust and representative foundation for the guidance
   

We also undertook evidence reviews with the support of project partners, Coventry University, as well as bringing in relevant national insight, system thinking, and examples of effective practice to broaden perspectives and ensure the resource was both practical and scalable.

What was delivered

As part of this project, Move Consulting provided:

• A co-produced national Framework and available tools to support physical activity integration in health and care pathways
   
• An inclusive, evidence-led engagement process across system levels and regions
   
• Insight synthesis and structured recommendations to inform both practice and policy for the future
   
• A final Guidance Framework designed to be shared with APNO’s network and wider stakeholders
   

Project impact 

The final Framework reflects the voice, experience, and ambition of a broad national movement working to embed physical activity in health and care.

It has provided APNO and its partners with:

• A credible, practical resource grounded in lived and professional experience
   
• A clear platform to support future strategic alignment, partnerships, and policy influence
   
• Added further momentum to advance systems change in this space.