NHS Greater Manchester commits further investment to delivery of GM Moving in Action strategy

By GM Moving | 12 July 2024 | TAGS: Health, Mental health

NHS Greater Manchester's commitment to the delivery of the Greater Manchester Moving in Action strategy has been further extended with the confirmation of a £2m investment over the next three years.  

GM Moving and GM Integrated Care Partnership have developed a strategic relationship over the past decade, working together to deliver fairer health for all and better health outcomes across Greater Manchester.  

Greater Manchester’s unique devolution arrangements has supported new and significant approaches to working with communities to improve health. This has included ensuring physical activity plays a key role in supporting better health outcomes. 

Prior to the pandemic in 2020, inactivity levels in GM were decreasing at twice the national rate and independent researchers found that devolution led to broad improvements in health outcomes (2016-20).  

Following the pandemic, GM showed signs of a faster recovery than the national average and inactivity rates have stabilised with just under a third (28%) of people engaging in less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week.  

The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership strategy has an explicit focus on risk reduction and prevention, and the importance of supporting physical activity as part of a social model for health.  

The strategy aligns with the new government’s manifesto pledge of a greater focus on prevention throughout the entire healthcare system and supporting services.  

NHS GM’s Population Health Plan commits to coordinating ongoing work to embed physical activity as a consideration across the totality of the health and care system. 

This includes reducing the risk of poor health, with a particular focus this year (2024/25) on cardiovascular disease and diabetes. 

Priorities for Greater Manchester and GM Moving include leading on the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to Live Well and a focus on mental health and wellbeing.   

Additionally, there’s a continued focus on risk reduction through work on deconditioning and falls prevention and to support the physical and mental health of the health and care workforce. 

Examples of how this investment is supporting increased activity across Greater Manchester can be found here.

Research commissioned by GM Moving last year found 8 key recommendations to support the integration of physical activity into the GM health and care systems. 

GM Moving’s Strategic Director for Health, Beth Sutcliffe, said:  

“In addition to delivering Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy locally, GM Moving has an integral role to play in delivering the vision within the GM ICP strategy. 

“Moving matters to everyone, it’s essential for people to thrive, be healthy, be happy and we need to design moving into every part of the health and care system.  

“We all have a role to play in creating the conditions for a healthier, happier city region and this movement for movement is vital.” 

GM Integrated Partnership Co-Chair and Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett added:  

“Over the past decade, GM Moving and NHS GM have built a strong mutual understanding of how we get the best out of each other and improve outcomes for local people. 

“There are significant health inequalities within the city region, and we know that ensuring everyone can be physically active is really important to helping us address these. 

“The role of physical activity cuts across the totality of what we do within health and care, we can evidence change and show a positive impact on inequalities and outcomes.  

Director of Public Health, Jane Pilkington, said:  

“There are challenges across health and care system in GM and we see population health and prevention, and physical activity within that, as one of the cornerstones to tackling them. 

“We have an exciting opportunity in GM to mobilise a wide-range of whole-system resources and to scale up our approaches to population health and prevention.  

“We are confident that by doing the right things and investing in the right way, sustainably and over time, we’ll see real change in our population and GM Moving is a great example of that.” 

Read more about GM Moving’s commitment to embedding physical activity within all elements of the health and social care system here. For more information, please contact GM Moving CEO Hayley Lever.