Integrated Health and Care

People and patients who are active are significantly more likely to have better health and wellbeing, they're less likely to require the health and care system and, if they do, they wait better and recover quicker. 

To support patients to live well, we can design movement into all health pathways. There's lots of existing support out there to help you play your role.

We want to support better collaboration between the health and care system and our partners in physical activity, sport, transport, planning, the list goes on - it's all part of our whole-system approach. Learn more about our work within complex systems here.

To discover more about the how physical activity ecosystem needs to adapt and evolve to be a better part of the solution to health, wellbeing and reduced inequalities, read this blog by GM Moving's Exec Lead, Hayley Lever.

For example, the Greater Manchester Health and Care Board published their vision and objectives to guide the next stage of development of the Health and Care Partnership as they progress to a statutory Integrated Care System in line with the national expectations outlined by NHS England and the Government. Read their March 2021 paper here.

Find what you're looking for:

Any amount of movement is good for us. And more is better.

It's good for our physical, mental and social wellbeing, so however you're using movement to support positive health outcomes for your community, we'd love to hear about it.

Here's a little bit more about what GM Moving and partners are up to:

Get inspired by our stories of change

Moving more has the power to change lives, it’s why GM Moving involves a huge range of partners from a variety of different sectors - all playing their role in the GM Moving in Action strategy.

Here’s some stories of how designing physical activity into health and care pathways is already creating multiple positive health outcomes in Greater Manchester:

> Nordic Walking with ABCDiagnosis

> Fit 4 Life Gym (Bolton)

> Bury B.O.O.B.S Pram Walk (Bury)

> GM Walking Festival

> GM Active delivers active wellbeing

GM Active is made up of 12 separate leisure and community organisations, their members operate in all ten local authority areas across Greater Manchester and accounts for 99 leisure and sports facilities across the city-region.

They regularly highlight the excellent work being done by members of the GM Active collective that showcases how their services and facilities can benefit the health and social care system.

From postural stability in Wigan, to strength and balance classes in Salford, from Good Boost sessions in Manchester to support for stroke patients in Bury, you will find inspiring case studies here.

> Stories from around Greater Manchester

Strength-related physical activity

GM Moving, in partnership with Salford University, investigated how to support women in Greater Manchester feel capable, motivated, and with sufficient opportunities to incorporate strength-related physical activity into their daily life. 

We have published a report on our findings (right) as well as a series of recommendations for communications and marketing on the topic of strength-training and/or strength-related physical activity.

Further information on our #StrongEnough is available on our Marketing page. Additional resources and materials from national partners and colleagues are available in the sidebar on the right.

Our story so far

Connecting with health and wellbeing is one of Sport England's five key priorities in their national Uniting the Movement strategy, published in January 2021.

More than 150,000 healthcare professionals have received training, or accessed a training tool, to help patients feel benefits of being active as part of Sport England's Moving Healthcare Professionals programme, in partnership with OHID.

In July 2022, as part of the Active Partnership Network’s collective work around health, wellbeing and inactivity, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire colleagues hosted a sharing and learning community event.

The event looked at cross-sector collaboration, putting the patient's voice at the centre and the impact of positive case studies, read more on the day, including reflections from our CEO Hayley Lever, here.

In September 2022, the Health, Care and Inactivity sharing and learning community hosted an Open Space Event in Birmingham. Our CEO Hayley Lever hosted an open session with Active Partnership colleagues in October 2022 for those leading physical activity and health integration.

For more on our journey to integrate physical activity with health and care read Hayley Lever's blog (April 2022).​

A year later (September 2023), a further reflection and sense-making session was held for colleagues from across the country working to embed movement into health and social care to further understand what success looks like across the Active Partnership Network (see video, top right).

In partnership with Sport England and NHS Horizons, the event in Manchester aimed to collectively clarify what we mean by integrating physical activity into health and care systems, build relationships, and identify and share learnings around common opportunities and challenges.

In June 2024, GM Moving brought more than 100 health and care partners together to connect with new and developing approaches to embed movement into health systems in Greater Manchester.

The online event (available to re-watch, right) brought together colleagues from local authorities, primary care, public health, and leisure, with NHS GM, Active Partnerships, and national partners.

Need to know more?