Get Cheshire West Moving
How will we get there?
Getting more people more active in ways in which they enjoy will take a system-wide coordinated approach. The action plan below is presented in themes and high-level actions which are underpinned by a series of deliverables which are detailed in a delivery plan.
The delivery plan will be a working document, regularly reviewed and refreshed to align with new insight and learning, enhanced partnerships and resource.
Theme 1. Active Systems
- Concerns the broader strategies, policies, and systems that influence physical activity.
- Ensures that physical activity is embedded within organisational, institutional, and policy frameworks.
Key to active systems are system-wide working, data and insight, monitoring and evaluation, learning and impact.
Coordinate the Get Cheshire West Moving Working group with Terms of Reference, governance, and resource structure to implement the strategy and delivery plan.
Work to ensure that physical activity agenda is led and driven by the Health and Wellbeing Board and physical activity/inactivity will be an integral component of the Cheshire West Place Plan and Cheshire West and Chester Borough Plan.
Carry out public consultation on Get Cheshire West Moving strategy and delivery plan.
Align physical activity efforts with broader policy frameworks (e.g., Borough Plan, Place Plan) and wider strategies (sports facility, parks and greenspaces, active travel, playing pitch, Local Transport Plan 4), ensuring that strategies complement and talk to each other.
Renew/ re-engage with stakeholders to foster a collective commitment to physical activity at all levels.
Support partner organisations to set up local leadership and processes to add physical activity to strategies, business and delivery plans.
Integrate physical activity into clinical pathways, in line with the NHS Consensus Statement “Harnessing the benefits of physical activity”.
Build cross-sector partnerships to drive physical activity, including collaborations between public-sector bodies, businesses, schools and communities.
Create a shared, borough-wide communications plan using positive, inclusive, everyday messaging.
Co-develop a stakeholder forum for sharing best practice and resources (e.g. SLACK).
Work as a system to agree on metrics for monitoring success, report annually.
Work with national and local partners to increase uptake of the Active Lives Survey and KOBOCA Survey.
Explore opportunities to work with the University of Chester to develop locally relevant research to increase physical activity across the borough.
Theme 2. Active Environments
- Focuses on the physical spaces and infrastructure that support physical activity.
- Involves development, accessibility, communication, and sustainability of spaces that are conducive to movement and physical activity.
Key to active environments are active education, active workplaces, active communities and active infrastructure
Explore opportunities to engage further with the planning system in relation to healthy planning which supports physical activity.
Ensure safe, accessible and well-lit spaces for outdoor activity, with clear signage, good surfaces, and safe entry/exit points.
Prioritise the development and maintenance of green and blue spaces in areas with high deprivation to improve accessibility and opportunities for physical activity.
Better understand the challenges faced by rural communities in accessing opportunities to be active, considering availability, transport and cost.
Create the conditions where active travel is accessible, inclusive and the first choice of transport for everyone, whether as a complete journey or as part of a journey including public transport.
Work with planning, housing, transport and other Council departments and partner organisations to position physical activity as a key component of healthy place making and design (e.g. tree planting done in a way which maintains feeling of safety). Placing greatest emphasis on areas of deprivation.
Promote and encourage green social prescribing to support residents to be active in nature.
Support and encourage early years and educational settings to integrate physical activity throughout the working day.
Support staff to explore, to understand and to overcome barriers to physical activity for key cohorts, including girls, children with SEND and disabilities and those from low-income families.
Use opportunities during higher education to understand which activities young people (16-18) enjoy taking part in, to help to inform activities offered to young adults.
Explore the potential to extend school, college, and university facilities for community out of hours activity.
Support all settings to take up supported initiatives to increase physical activity e.g. Bikeability, School Games, Smile 4 a Mile.
Support educational institutions to produce active travel plans.
Support all employers to integrate opportunities to be active into the working day and work environment, with a focus on reducing sedentary behaviour.
Embed active travel and active working practices into workplace wellbeing policies; support employers to produce active travel plans and movement-friendly policies.
Reinvigorate the Active Practice Charter for primary care settings.
Encourage those managing and delivering care in residential settings to incorporate varied opportunities for residents to be active.
Work in partnership to deliver high-quality assets and spaces to be active.
Support local sports clubs and community organisations to provide a sustainable, well-resourced physical activity offer.
Encourage Doorstep Sport throughout the local areas through the provision of accessible and affordable opportunities for young people to take part in informal sport within their local community through vibrant, varied, fun and sociable sessions.
Improve visibility, awareness and accessibility to physical activity opportunities across the borough.
Provide and commission leisure services and activities to meet a range of needs for adults, children and families.
Ensure pitches and facilities are equally accessible to all, prioritising equal and inclusive access to provision (including ancillary facilities e.g. changing rooms, toilet facilities).
Encourage teams and schools to review the kit required to participate, considering the needs and preferences of all current and potential participants (e.g. sex, ethnicity, income).
Promote workforce development that supports inclusive practices and building confidence to increase participation in physical activity.
Ensure physical activity conversations, health-focused interventions and programming considerations are integrated into workforce training, particularly for primary care, teachers, coaches, and social care workers (for example, women's health).
Normalise conversations around women’s health topics like menstruation, menopause, and physical exertion, creating a supportive environment for women and girls.
Support inclusive physical activity programmes for people with disabilities and long-term conditions. Reduce reliance on individual champions by building resilience through partnerships, succession planning, and ongoing workforce/capacity building.
Theme 3: Active People and Communities
- Focuses on individuals and community-level action to engage people in physical activity.
- Emphasise inclusion, cultural shifts, partnerships, and addressing barriers to participation, ensuring that diverse populations are engaged.
Key to active people is engagement, co-creation, safe and inclusive experiences, asset-based community development
Ensure local voices underpin all of this work (ensure diversity in voice, seek out views of hardly reached residents).
Empower and support communities to understand the physical activity challenges and needs of their population and to meet, where possible the identified needs.
Link to the Place expansion project in Ellesmere Port which has received funding from Sport England
Establish local “Active Communities Networks” to bring together diverse stakeholders such as schools, leisure providers, and charities to increase physical activity at a local level.
Establish a network of physical activity champions across health, social care, community and workplace settings to empower residents to be active.
Utilise a range of diverse positive role models to promote physical activity, movement and sport.
Support communities to help residents of all ages to overcome barriers to participation.
Understand and embrace the diversity of the population, targeting activities and support in a meaningful and appropriate way. For example, work with residents to offer culturally appropriate physical activity opportunities and those which consider and are accessible to different genders, those with a disability and people on low income.
