PHE to recruit more clinical champions to promote physical activity

Public Health England (PHE) is recruiting more Clinical champions as part of its drive to improve the health and Wellbeing of people.

The role of a clinical champion is to recognise the potential of physical Activity and incorporate it into patient care. PHE is looking for six clinical champions - two for London (nurse and midwife) and one each for the South East, South West, East Midlands and West Midlands (GPs).

PHE launched a national physical activity framework - Everybody Active, Every Day - in October 2014. The document showed that 45% of women and 33% of men are not active enough for good health, and that 26% of women and 19% of men are physically inactive.

The clinical champions programme provides peer-to-peer training with a specialist interest in physical activity through one-off education and development sessions. Following a successful pilot, PHE is extending the scheme.

The aim of the programme is to educate clinicians around the areas of physical activity and its benefits, risks of inactivity, statistics regarding inactivity, exercise physiology in primary and secondary prevention, motivational interviewing and local provisions for physical activity.

Following training to deliver a semi-structured programme and support around teaching styles and skills, the champions will deliver face-to-face interactive sessions comprising presentation of epidemiological and biological evidence, small group work, problem solving tasks, and brief training in motivational interviewing focusing on practical application to clinical practice. They will also develop skills to act as the national coach and mentor for other professionals within their discipline as the programme gets rolled out wider, if it continues to be successful.

In July, the Royal College of GPs announced that physical activity would be given greater prominence by local GP practices – both in terms of training and the priorities of doctors – to reduce long-term pressures on the health service by focusing on prevention over cure.

Dr Zoe Williams and Dr Andrew Boyd were appointed joint clinical champions for its programme, which be being run in partnership with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care and Health Sciences, at the University of Oxford.