I was thrilled to be one in over 600 delegates of the ukactive National Summit: Physical Activity - A social solution and extremely proud to be partnering ukactive in the launch of the National Activity Therapy Service.
Steve Ward, ukactive CEO, kicked off the day with a call to action. An uprising of all of us in the physical activity sector. Steve certainly set the conference in motion.
Support from Westminster
As always, the team at ukactive did a great job garnering support from our Westminster colleagues, Tracey Crouch MP, Penny Mordaunt and Dr. Phillip Lee MP. It is clear that physical activity hits so many agendas and there seems to be cross party commitment to physical activity.
Baroness Tani Grey-Thompson
With pride we saw ukactive chair and renowned athlete, Tani deliver a speech that did what Westminster colleagues should have done. A call for funding for the sector and 'true' support. Without which "Politicians are signing a death warrant for many across the UK". Go Tani!
Lawrence Dallaglio OBE and Professor Greg Whyte OBE
This popular duo took to the stage. They provided a Q&A as to what drove an international rugby player and world cup holder and how that drive has meant two fantastic projects were born to raise the profile of physical activity and help young people excluded from school to re-engage with education http://www.dallagliorugbyworks.com/
Our ageing population chaired by Professor Muir Gray CBE
First breakout session, chaired by Muir Gray explored some of the projects, programmes and barrier reducing initiatives that were present to help older people engage and retain an active lifestyle.
Very pleased and proud to hear a mention of the National Activity Therapy Service that ReferAll and others are partnering with ukactive to help streamline the referral process to physical activity services.
Bumped in to old friends, Keith Smith and Robin Gargrave and as always an absolute pleasure! Robin is delivering Community Activator training via his organisation Ad-Lib(http://www.ad-libtraining.com/) which is specifically geared towards getting more people active without the need for over qualified staff.
From Iron Bars to Iron Man - John McAvoy
For anyone that ever doubted that physical activity can be life changing should hear John talk. It was one of the most real, inspiring talks I have ever heard. I wasn't the only one that thought this, as the delegation rose to their feet in ovation of John. We were then back on our feet as his prison guard Dennis made it on stage - magical! You must hear John speak at least once in your lifetime.
A tool for social change chaired by Dr. Steve Mann
Steve did a great job leading the panel to help the discussion. We heard practical examples of how integration can be achieved. A lesson we should take from this is that targeting specific groups, does not necessarily lead to integration.
Throughout the day conversations flowed and many of our customers were in attendance. I would like to thank the whole team at ukactive for delivering once again, a fantastic Summit. It is a highlight of the physical activity calendar. Here's to 2018!
Projects that we are working with ukactive on
- Exercise Referral Research - more information and to register https://secure.refer-all.net/uka
- National Activity Therapy Service - more information coming soon
Download our one page summary on referral schemes - cick on the image below.
Explore our solutions
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