Hatfield Primary Care Network (PCN) are one of 34 PCNs across the Herts & West Essex Integrated Care System, but they were the first to gain Active Practice Charter status across all their surgeries and have continue to pledge to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity to benefit the health of their patients and staff. Since achieving this milestone, Hatfield PCN are now proving to sustain and build on these methods of using physical activity for health improvement within their operations which should serve as a great showcase for other PCNs to emulate.  

For partners in healthcare, the Active Practice Charter is a fun and easy way to make some simple but impactful changes in the workplace that will demonstrate to patients and staff that physical activity can have a significant impact on the health of everyone connected to a practice. In recent months, Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) have been working closely with Hatfield PCN, via a programme of work delivered in partnership with HCC Public Health. Hatfield PCN (including: Burvill House Surgery, Lister House Surgery, Potterells Medical Centre, and Wrafton House Surgery), with support from HSP, have built on their Active Practice status which was accredited back in February 2024. Hatfield PCN have been incredibly proactive in their approach, clearly demonstrating their voice for movement as the best medicine. As a result, Hatfield PCN were recently presented with a Community Champion Award – For Outstanding Service to Community Health and Wellbeing, from High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Annie Brewster, who presented this to Hatfield at their protected time in October.  

Hatfield PCN's impact as an Active Practice 

Hatfield’s pioneering approach has already had significant impacts for both staff and patient’s health so it’s worth taking a deeper look into some of the simple actions they have taken as part of their Active Practice journey:   

To support a reduction in sedentary behaviour in staff 

Hatfield PCN implemented the use of standing desks (mainly at Potterells Medical Centre and Wrafton House Surgery) as well as encouraging their GPs to walk out to reception to greet and call patients, rather than using their intercom system. Easy and quick stretching exercises have also been displayed across the common rooms and kitchens for all staff to engage with during breaks.  

Building on this momentum, more recently HSP supported Hatfield PCN in hosting a steps challenge competition to engage staff from their four surgeries in some healthy competition whilst increase their physical activity levels. Via the Big Team Challenge, Hatfield's four surgeries competed against each other across September to battle it out for the most steps - overall, completing a huge 10,687 miles including over 25 million steps!  

Changes in staff behaviour to incorporate more walking were seen during the step challenge including:  

• Staff parking further from their surgery and walking the rest of the way  

• Hosting team walks before or during their protected learning time  

• Setting up WhatsApp groups to keep each other motivated when not at work, e.g. timing dog walks for the same time, exercising whilst watching TV etc.  

Some comments below from Hatfield PCN: 

“OMG - this turned out to be such a competition! It is going great, measuring the steps against other teams makes you think of walking more and with the device measuring your steps too. I think everyone has lots of fun doing it. I send occasional notices but really, I don’t need to put much effort into motivating anyone! Thank you and the team for giving us this opportunity – soooo good for the team morale and overall wellbeing boost”.

Anna Skiba, Hatfield PCN Project Coordinator 

“I just wanted to let you know, we are only in day 3 and the challenge is going brilliantly!! Our teams are all full, they are very competitive, and it is great to see everyone responding to the challenge – it's very funny and so good for team building. Importantly, staff are focusing on moving more and looking at how they can get their steps up in very innovative ways!”

Sarah Ellingworth, Hatfield PCN Business Manager 

"The challenge not only made us move more, but also gave us a common goal and improved the team relationships, and what’s more important made us laugh a lot. Having to check the steps daily, makes you realise how sedentary your days can be when you are sitting at work all day.  I will definitely think more about fitting physical activity into my day, and when I speak to the patients, this will be  on my agenda every time".

Staff Member of the Steps Challenge at Hatfield PCN

Everyone involved has pledged to try and keep up their new physical activity behaviours and have expressed their desires to repeat the challenge in the future.  

To support a reduction in sedentary behaviour in patients 

Hatfield PCN have used waiting room screens to promote local activity classes as well as displaying simple chair-based exercises that patients can do whilst they wait for their appointments. Their personalised care team are also trained to give advice on sedentary behaviour to all patients, as well as delivering healthy eating patients group sessions (including advice on the importance of physical activity for weight loss, mental health and general wellbeing) with a number of them currently completing physical activity social prescriber training.  

To support an increase in physical activity in staff and patients 

Hatfield PCN’s impressive steps challenge was key in increasing physical activity levels of staff, however, they have gone steps further and embedded further resources for their staff: Hatfield PCN were early adopters of the Moving More Activity Finder and the Personalised Care team have been using it to help refer patients to free, local activity schemes for the last two years. Seeing the value in this resource the PCN staff are also now actively being encouraged to sign up as a Healthcare Physical Activity Champion (HPAC) to receive details of new physical activity resources to help continue to embed activity into their practice. The PCN also signed up to a charity event called ‘March in March’, inviting their staff with families/dogs to walk 5km in Verulamium Park which ended additional refreshments and social time. The staff have also had opportunities to take part in chair yoga session at their last training afternoon.  

Partnering with a variety of local physical activity partners 

Firstly, Hatfield PCN partnered with the Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) who are continuing to support them in delivering against their status and truly embedding activity to the heart of their work. Secondly, partnering with Hertfordshire Health-walks has enabled Hatfield PCN to set up a new health-walk based near their surgeries with their staff becoming qualified walk leaders to help encourage patients to get involved. Another partnership has involved engaging with Birchwood Leisure Centre’s exercise referral scheme where patients can be referred to receive two months free access to the gym as well as some exercise classes. Similarly, they are now referring to Hatfield Leisure Centre’s Healthwise GP referral scheme, where patients can access discounted membership and 3 months of individual support. Finally, the PCN are working in collaboration with Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council in to refer patients to Shape Up - a physical activity focussed weight management service.  

How to sustain your status: 

Speaking with PCNs across Hertfordshire, HSP have found that some are able to evidence the actions already to gain actice practice status, whilst others are seeing it as an opportunity to pilot and commit to new actions. Hatfield PCN have done both; although they were the first to gain full active practice status across their area they continue to work with HSP to embed new ways to keep their staff and patients moving more with the recent steps challenge being a great example. The challenge sought to put activity at the forefront of the PCN staff's minds to in an effort to sustain their new activity levels beyond the challenge timeframe and help inspire them to consider the importance of physical activity for themselves and patients in the future.  

Partnership Involvement

Hatifeld PCN have worked alongside numerous partners to make their practices as active as they are:

• Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership & the Moving More Activity Finder
• Hertfordshire Healthwalks
• Shape Up
• Birchwood Leisure Centre
• Hatfield Leisure Centres
• The Healthy Hub at Welwyn/Hatifeld Borough Council

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When asked about their journey, Anna Skiba (Hatfield PCN Project Coordinator) commented:  

A few years ago, the UK Chief Medical Officer said 'if physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and help treat'. Development of Personalised Care in General Practice and employing more non-clinical roles, such as social prescribers or health and wellbeing coaches, helped to shift some of the priorities in general practice to health prevention and giving patients non-pharmacological 'prescriptions' such as GP referrals to exercise schemes, or referrals to a social prescribing team where patients can get support with their wider life problems which might impact their health and wellbeing. We know that education is a key to help patients changes their behaviour to promote better health. Working in partnership with HSP or Health Hub at WelHat Council gave us extra support and resources to be able to put the ideas into practice. Receiving Active Practice status across our PCN showed that we had already been doing quite a few various projects, which have a positive impact on increasing physical activity in both patients and staff. We all are looking forward to taking up the Big Step Challenge and increasing our daily steps and make it fun too.

Zoe McKeating is one of the HSP Officers supporting partners within the health system to achieve Active Practice status, she added:  

It’s been absolutely brilliant to work with Hatfield PCN and demonstrate how such a simple reflection and forward plan process can have such a big impact. Across their surgeries many of the actions were already being taken but being able to identify and build on these approaches has been the key. We would love to work with more Primary Care Networks across Hertfordshire to achieve the Active Practice status and would welcome contact from anyone interested in doing so.  

For further information on embedding physical activity into health via the Active Practice Charter, please email Zoe McKeating at z.mckeating@herts.ac.uk