Power of Movement: Transforming Healthcare Through Physical Activity

As part of the Active Connections programme, the Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) empower healthcare professionals to promote physical activity as a fundamental way to maintain health and wellbeing. A key approach to this is delivering training and facilitating physical activity partner talks during primary care Protected Learning Times (PLT); this is when practices temporarily close so that all staff, from GPs and nurses to allied health professionals and social care workers, including paid and voluntary roles, can take part in training and education.

In November 2025, HSP joined staff from Summerfield Health Centre and Maltings Surgery for Abbey Health Primary Care Network’s Protected Learning Time. Over 30 clinical and non-clinical staff spent the afternoon learning how to integrate physical activity into everyday care, championing the message that movement is the best medicine.

Staff engaged in HSP’s popular training offer, Active Medicine, enabling them to feel more confident talking about the benefits of moving more and where to appropriately signpost patients. Alongside this, we delivered an Active Practice Charter workshop, where ideas were generated as to how staff and patients could be encouraged to be more active..  Both sessions contributing to the overarching aim of positioning physical activity as a foundation for good health and encouraging lasting behaviour change across primary care.

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Connecting with Local Partners

A huge part of these events is showcasing local physical activity providers and creating new partnerships with healthcare, whether that is an offer for staff and/or for patients. Three local providers attended the PLT including:

• Everyone Active (Rhys Halladey & Delia Dorcioman): Highlighted several offers including their Exercise Referral Scheme, and the St Albans Community Timetable, which offers inclusive sessions, long-term condition appropriate activities, and a Parkinson’s programmes; including complimentary memberships for people with Parkinson’s and their carers. A low-impact activity taster was also delivered demonstrating firsthand to the healthcare staff the benefits movement.
• Hertfordshire Health Walks (HHW) (Megan Youell): Showcased the HHW toolkit for health professionals, the St Albans-area timetable of weekly walks for all ability levels, and free resources including promotional materials, digital screen graphics, volunteer support, and taster sessions.
• London Colney Parish Council (Jane Johnstone): Highlighted local exercise opportunities, hosted in prime position right next to Summerfield Health Centre. These include free classes such as Seated Exercise, Yoga, and Tai Chi to paid sessions including Tae Kwon Do, over-50s exercise, Irish dancing, and Pilates.

By hearing directly from the providers it helps build trusted relationships, making it much easier for the healthcare professionals in the room to refer their patients to local physical activity provision.

We anticipate that delivering a physical-activity-focused development session for Abbey Health Primary Care Network will have a lasting impact, helping to increase physical activity among both staff and patients. The key takeaway of the afternoon was clear: being more active supports a healthy lifestyle, helps with prevention and management of long-term conditions, and enables people to live longer, healthier lives.

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If you would like HSP to attend one of your PLT sessions or for more information on embedding physical activity into healthcare, please contact Zoe McKeating at z.mckeating@herts.ac.uk