Impact Report: System Leadership

Ongoing research, health system need and government policy highlight the importance of a preventative approach to healthcare that creates resilience in communities. Physical activity should be a key part of efforts to shift our focus away from the treatment of ill health to the creation of good health.

A key advance for Active Norfolk is physical activity being adopted within our Integrated Care System’s (ICS) approach and policy, with it being prioritised within both the ICS Health Inequalities Framework for Action and the Health Improvement Transformation Group. This has led to the formation of the ICS Physical Activity Strategic Leadership Group (chaired by Active Norfolk) and reporting to the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). It provides strong opportunities for levering funding and embedding physical activity in the health system.

Recently CVD-R has become a local ICB priority and partners have been advocating for increased use of and access to Physical Activity through the Norfolk and Waveney ICS CVD-R working group, to which Active Norfolk is a contributor towards developing a response plan.

Norfolk and Waveney ICB recently recommissioned the talking therapies service. An Active Norfolk senior partnerships officer worked closely with the commissioning team and interested providers in building in physical activity to their proposals.

With a significant period of change on the horizon for our health system, Active Norfolk has also been a key advocate for the adoption of a more preventative approach and has contributed to consultations on MSK Services, the NHS 10-year plan and Working Well, to name a few.

• Active NoW continues to be our flagship Health programme in partnership with ICB and South Norfolk & Broadland DC. 4300 people have been referred by health professionals to physical activity programmes in their local community. 45% of these are from the most deprived areas of Norfolk (quintiles 1&2). 69% maintained an increase in physical activity after 6 months.

• Training of health practitioners to create conditions for physical activity to be routinely used in interventions and prevention. 90 professionals trained as Clinical Champions; 76 professionals attended Physical activity and Health Conference; 66 professionals trained in Level 1 Behaviour Change MECC.
• Working with our partners, we are creating places where more people with disabilities can be active. We co-ordinate several successful programmes, including Special Olympics and DRAGONs On The Move, which have engaged with14 care providers, 8 educational settings, 20 leisure providers, and 11 reviewed Green Spaces. 258 unique participants in direct delivery / review.

• Men’s Mental Health: All to Play For programme – 86 new participants for 24-25 with a total of 260 participants. 7 sessions delivered every week. 16 new support services integrated into provision. £130k of Lottery funding secured for next 3 years of delivery
• Sport Welfare: Working to change the culture of clubs to create safe and welcoming spaces and experiences for participants. 28 NGBs engaged. 18 clubs with intensive support and 85 with light touch support.

All children and young people have the right to be active, to benefit from being active in a safe and positive environment, and to have an equal chance to achieve their potential.

We work with groups and organisations who influence, support and guide young people’s lives. We use our support and resources to improve the offer, remove the barriers, and promote opportunities – helping more children and young people to lead active, happy and healthy lives.

We have pledged to support the County’s FLOURISH scheme – a shared ambition and commitment across all organisations and agencies in Norfolk to be a place where all children and young people can flourish.  We are working strategically to achieve a coordinated system response that uses physical activity as part of the approach to tackling inequalities.

• Big Norfolk Holiday Fun – over 6,700 children attended at least one session. 1,931 of these were SEND (29%) and 5,758 of them were Free School Meal eligible (86%)
• OSF – over 14,000 attendances throughout 24-25 (final year of the programme)
• Creating Active Schools – Foundations in place with 10 schools engaged in the model for the following 2 years. All schools have an IDACI rating of 1-3 putting them in the 15% most deprived schools in Norfolk
• Active Futures – 10 early years settings received training, covering 50 members of staff and over 300 children, to enable more physical activity to be blended into daily activities.
• School Games – working with all School Games Organisers to increase the work with schools and children suffering from inequalities

First and foremost, the Active Communities Team are the focal point for the distribution of nearly £3m in funding that goes to the communities and organisations, making physical activity more accessible to those suffering from inequalities. This funding comes from a range of sources such as the Holiday Activity & Food Programme, Active NoW (exercise referral), Opening Schools Facilities and a range of local funding opportunities.

Sport England’s ‘Place Expansion’ investment programme (which we refer to as ‘Place Partnerships) has led to intensive work with key partners in Place areas (Gt Yarmouth & King’s Lynn).  We have deepened understanding and relationships in those areas, moving towards shared goals and objectives. System Leadership workshops have facilitated new connections, including a productive relationship with Norfolk Constabulary in King’s Lynn.  As a result, we have used our expertise to enhance an existing community programme called RISE, which brings together a wide range of community partners to tackle crime within North Lynn and rebuild the community.  We have gained trust by building on a community consultation that had already commenced. Physical activity has had a higher profile at both Health & Wellbeing Partnerships, with regular updates being requested and discussion time allocated. Engagement with senior management team at Gt Yarmouth Borough Council, led by Assistant Director, has advocated for physical activity to be embedded in their work. The Active Communities Team are working in detail with key local partners to forge new interventions at a granular level and with significant investment to lever better physical activity outcomes in the most deprived areas.

Health & Wellbeing Partnerships – Our leadership in these groups has unlocked investment and greater engagement in physical activity in the respective areas. Our West Norfolk Active Communities Officer has been awarded an additional £15,000 to use as a small grants community pot, having successfully evidenced the impact of the original £25,000 secured in 2023-24. 3 of our Active Communities Officers (Breckland, North and GY) have contributed to designing Better Care Fund bids to include a physical activity element to address falls prevention – securing over £30k towards physical activity delivery.

Local Authorities: All local authority areas now have a shared investment in the Active Communities Team and there is a unique Framework and Action Plan in each area to help drive forward physical activity opportunities.

Greater Norwich Physical Activity & Sport Strategy. Shared and agreed outcomes and deliverables across key partners have been facilitated by this team. A shared report on impacts achieved released in March 2025.

This is a small sample of the work that this team are supporting in the Communities of Norfolk. This work encompasses all our key strategic areas:

• Working in partnership with the People from Abroad Team at Norfolk County Council to create physical activity opportunities for Asylum Seekers housed at 4 hotels across Greater Norwich.
• Supporting faith communities such as Norwich Youth for Christ in Lakenham & Soul Church to embed movement into their places and spaces.
• Supporting older adults to get active through weekly seated exercise classes. This includes partnership working with Age UK to deliver in sheltered housing in Lakenham & Mile Cross as well as collaboration with Libraries in Cromer, North Walsham & Stalham.
• Supporting Nourishing Norfolk Food Hubs create free, sustainable physical activity opportunities across Norwich’s most economically disadvantaged communities.
• Creation of an extracurricular Mum’s & Daughters gym session with Dereham Neatherd High School & NR Health & Fitness.
• Supporting Attleborough Boxing Club to start and maintain a Punching Back adapted boxing sessions for individuals with Parkinson’s, working in partnership with Parkinson’s UK to sustain the weekly sessions.
• Supported Henderson Trust by funding training for staff so they have been able run a weekly seated exercise sessions for older people in the Earlham area of Norwich
• Working with North Norfolk YAB and their Young Commissioners to develop a project which offered outdoor activities allowing children to learn about nature, be active and get creative. After successfully writing and presenting our proposal to the YC’s we were approved and created ‘Green Futures’.

In the last 12 months the focus has been on:

• Growing social media followers and engagement across platforms in use to promote programmes and partnership working
• Migration of the Every Move Activity Finder website to a new provider and platform to support the Big Norfolk Holiday Fun programme
• Refinement of the Active Norfolk website to continue to meet the changing needs of the team
• Developing better case studies and videos to demonstrate our impact.
• Supporting joint strategic marketing plans with partners across all key programmes, including Big Norfolk Holiday Fun and Active NoW.
• Ongoing production of all digital and tangible assets for supporting delivery, events and online work
• Maintaining all data compliance aspects for Active Norfolk

The insight team in 2024-25 have:

• Provided local level analysis on the Social Return On Investment (SROI) of physical activity & sport across Norfolk, based on Sport England’s national insight.
• Worked on deep level insight and understanding to support the two ‘Place Partnerships’ areas in Norfolk. This granular level work will be fundamental to planning future interventions with the investment that will land from Sport England
• Internal Reflection & Learning sessions across projects for Active Norfolk to promote good practice, shared learning and ways to improve
• Data and reports for all key programmes through the year
• Detailed dashboards for BNHF and Active NoW to gain further insights from programme delivery and facilitate reporting and onward planning
• Insight and research for all existing programmes on an ongoing basis

• Operations have ensured that the organisation continues to meet the mandatory DCMS Tier 3 Code for Sports Governance, for which ongoing full compliance was granted in 24-25.
• Improved systems to support ongoing reporting of finance, but also to support the financial aspects of the restructure
• The setting up of the Active Norfolk Foundation – a new charitable arm of Active Norfolk that seeks to secure new and diverse funding streams into physical activity in Norfolk.