Successful launch of All Together Active is a “real game-changer”

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s Population Health Board is celebrating the launch of All Together Active, the subregion’s physical activity strategy for health and social care.

The strategy, which has been published today (27^th October 2022), will support the health and social care system to meet the Board’s ambitious aim of helping 150,000 of the subregion’s most inactive residents become more physically active by 2026.

All Together Active has been underpinned by All Together Fairer, the subregion’s report into health inequalities from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, and has been developed by the two Active Partnerships in the subregion, Active Cheshire and MSP, with support from Sport England and a subgroup of partners from across Cheshire and Merseyside.

All Together Active has been developed following an intensive period of engagement with stakeholders across the health and care system, focusing on how physical activity and sport can be embedded into the health and care system throughout an individual’s life. Recommended actions include the creation of Active Workplaces, embedding physical activity into care pathways, creating brand new All Together Active roles within the system, and much more.

Professor Ian Ashworth, Director of Public Health for Cheshire West and Chester and Chair of the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Population Health Board, said:

“Thanks to All Together Fairer and now the launch of All Together Active, I am delighted to say that we have really galvanised our local system and focused minds on the impacts that inequalities can have on health, and crucially, what we can do about it. Our task now will be to ensure that our approach to physical activity supports the great work already going on in local areas.”

All Together Active was previewed at an online event hosted by the Champs Public Health Collaborative on Wednesday 12^th October, and attended by over 350 partners from Cheshire and Merseyside’s public, private and third sectors. During the event, over 200 stakeholders signed an online pledge declaring that they would support the ambitions of the strategy.

Attendees also heard from a range of speakers, including Councillor Paul Warburton, Warrington’s Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care and Chair of the Warrington Health and Wellbeing Board, who encouraged those in attendance to consider health and physical activity in all their policies and schemes, not just health.

Mike Watson, Chief Executive of Active Cheshire, said:

“It was fantastic to witness first-hand how much energy, passion and commitment we have in our local system to support our strategy. We know that a strategy to introduce physical activity and sport into people’s lives can be a real game-changer and I am looking forward to seeing how the principles of All Together Active will be translated and owned by our local places.”

Tom Douglas, Director of MSP, said:

“When we supported the development of All Together Active, we knew that we needed to take a life-course approach, that we had to make physical activity accessible to all, and that our nine local places in the subregion would be vital in making this work a reality. I am really pleased to see such a strong turnout from local partners for our launch event and how many people have signed our pledge to bring the strategy into their local schemes. We are just at the beginning of our journey but in my opinion, we couldn’t have had a stronger start!”

To learn more about All Together Active and read the strategy, visit: www.champspublichealth.com/all-together-active.