Move More Active Practice: embracing active travel

As Cycle September draws to a close, here is a snapshot of how and why Sheffield healthcare professionals are using active travel.

Dr Andy Douglas Dr Jo Maher Dr Jimi Osinaike & Chloe Atkinson start NHS Tour De Sheffield July 2021

Come rain or shine, day and night don’t be surprised if you spot a familiar face from your local GP surgery out and about on a bike or on foot.

There must be a meeting! Bikes parked up at Burngreave surgery

N2 Primary Care Network Social = staff from Page Hall, Pitsmoor, Wincobank & Burngreave surgeries at Steel Yard Kelham September 2021

But why are they so keen? Sheffield is so hilly, surely it’s really hard to get around by bike?

Dr Rachel Savage of Sloan Medical Centre improvises wet weather gear out on home visits!

Top of Jenkin Rd on home visits on the e-bike, a bit of welcome fresh air in the middle of the day. I didn’t ride up the Cote de Wincobank, I went around and down!

It’s not just in Sheffield either. Across the country healthcare workers want to do what they can in the climate emergency.

https://edinburghactivetravelforhealth.wordpress.com/

National data indicates fewer than 50% of journeys of 2 miles or less are done on foot. Walking or cycling on shorter journeys is one way to reduce our carbon footprint

Dr Helen Twowig & Dr Liz Callingham of Dykes Hall Surgery in Hillsborough with the practice e-cargo bike they use for home visiting.

E-cargo bikes can be rented from Different Gear social enterprise if your organisation wants to try it out

https://www.adifferentgear.com/e-cargo-bike-hire

If you work in health and social care and are finding it hard to keep active, maybe instead of going to the gym swapping a car ride for walking or cycling on the commute would be more time efficient?

Advanced Nurse Practitioner Ann Gregory of Page Hall Medical Centre completed the Sheffield 10k race ‘with no training’ but commutes to work on her push bike everyday!

Sheffield is The Outdoor City and we have amazing city parks and green spaces open to us all where we live and work.

Did you know 61% of Sheffield is greenspace?

You can find out more here-

https://www.theoutdoorcity.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/GreengroundMap

Woolley Woods April 2021 Despite having worked in Wincobank for 20 years I only discovered this amazing ancient woodland less than 1/2 a mile away from work in lockdown 2020 by going out for walks after work.

Dr Jimi Osainake & Cllr Safiya Saeed at Ellesmere Green July 2021 NHS Tour De Sheffield

I bumped into Alasdair & Dan from Beat the Street down in Upperthorpe September 2021 happy encounters naturally happen when you walk and cycle!

What do you do that might inspire other HCPs and their teams? We would love to know so we can all support each other. This is the ethos behind Move More Active Practice.

You can get the recognition you and your organisation deserve for your efforts by signing up here https://www.movemoresheffield.com/move-more-active-practice

Teams signing up to the scheme report improved staff morale, a sense of common purpose & improved wellbeing. Something we could all do with right now!

Dr Jo Maher Wincobank Medical Centre/ Move More GP

Beat The Street - End of Game Reflections

Well, that was a whirlwind of fun, adventure and excitement! Beat the Street Sheffield has now come to an end, with over 60,000 people of all ages joining us for a 450,000-mile journey by foot or wheel across the streets, parks and green spaces of the city.

We have succeeded in getting more than 10% of Sheffield residents involved in physical activity. This is a huge achievement, and I’m proud of working with my small team of engagement coordinators in dedicating our summer to the 6-week game.

Together with Move More and key partners such as Sheffield City Council, we have made a huge impact on the activity levels of the city, helping to bring people together and back outside after a turbulent and unsettling time for many, especially children and vulnerable adults.

Working on events across the city, I have been in touch with so many Beat the Street players and heard their inspiring stories. With those I spoke to, the game really hit home.

One woman I spoke to had been walking throughout the day after suffering a running injury and was regularly hitting 20,000 steps, often having to call her sister to come to pick her up as she’d walked across to the other side of Sheffield from the North of the city. A pair of women came cycling past as I was raising publicity at an event at Meadowhall, explaining how they’d discovered cycling and loved the feeling of freedom it gave them, exploring the Blue Loop of the canal linking the mall and the city.

Another older player described to me how he’d been on his feet all day every day during the game – it had given him the motivation to orienteer around the whole city, to the point where he was cycling, running and walking around 20 miles a day!

And those are just the adults! Children loved the game, and it was a pleasure to see their eyes light up as the Beat Boxes beeped and flashed with their fob swipe. The kinds of behaviour change that results from their involvement cannot be underestimated. Children bring their parents, carers grandparents, wider family and friends with them on their journeys. They inspire and motivate us to get out more, explore more of the city, play their games and see the city through their eyes. 60% of the players were under-11s, and they should be proud of their achievements not only in travelling so many miles and getting so many points for their schools, but also in motivating their families to get out there. One family I met said how they were recently undergoing some medical assessments and getting out to do Beat the Street had taken their mind off their diagnoses and put them on to some exciting activities like paddleboarding, which they had never tried before.

Thank You

Beat the Street wouldn’t have been such a success without the backing of a large cast of partners and supporters. We are so lucky to have such active partners in green spaces, sports and exercise, health and social care, and culture and communities. Our events with community partners, British Cycling, Meadowhall, the Olympic Legacy Park and Sheffield Eagles, the Canal and River Trust, Sheffield Adventure Film Festival and Cliffhanger, the Bears of Sheffield and Create Sheffield, the Peak District National Park and SCC’s Parks and Countryside Service, were amazing collaborative events and opportunities that showed off the very best of Sheffield.

Final Standings

The final Leaderboards represent the incredible efforts of all of Sheffield schools, community groups and sports and exercise clubs. It’s great to see the diversity of winners, from health and social care groups, to sports groups and voluntary organisations. It’s no surprise to see South Yorkshire Orienteers so well represented in the winners – the activities are so similar. But if you don’t see yourself in the leaderboards, you should feel a huge sense of achievement – you might not have won a trophy, but your prize is physical, social and emotional. Simply getting involved is a win! Not only are you doing something far more interesting than staying in, you met new people, explored new streets and areas, increased your health and wellbeing, and had fun while doing it.

What Next?

Now while Beat the Street has finished as a game, we have not left Sheffield. The engagement team will be around for a few more months to ensure the game leaves a positive legacy for the city. We continue to work with our partners to signpost you to new events, activities and initiatives, and set up some of our own too.

Our legacy will be outdoors, social and inclusive. We are excited to be working with local residents to help set up Play Streets to help local children play in safe, unsupervised ways on their own streets. It’s so important for children to be able to play without fear and restriction – it’s the least they deserve after our lockdowns. Similarly, we want people to be able to enjoy running in a group, so we are supporting Ingle Runners to put on beginners’ running groups. We continue to work with schools and community groups to reinforce their priorities in active travel, social and physical activity. Do look out for further details of these as they emerge on our website, on our social channels, and in our monthly newsletter.

Finally, if you filled it in, thank you for completing our exit survey. The data from the health survey, the player activity during the game, and the post-game survey will all help to guide how Intelligent Health run the game but also, more importantly, inform how the city and its partners understand its residents, their priorities, and the provision of physical activity resources that could help make Sheffield move more.

Alasdair Menmuir - Senior Engagement Coordinator, Beat The Street Sheffield.

Community Engagement Coordinator Reflections: Natalie Grinvalds

As Alasdair emphasised, Beat the Street has made an incredible impact on Sheffield. The numbers illustrate the impact but the stories really show how Beat the Street has made a difference. From encouraging people to move a little more in their daily lives, encouraging active travel modalities, getting workplaces and schools more active and incentivizing people to explore parts of Sheffield they haven’t seen before.

I have been working on coordination of prize delivery and am in the  process of meeting with winning teams individually to hear more about their involvement and the impact of the game.

GoodGym are the 1st place total and average teams winner, with 19 players, scoring a total of 91, 940 points! They deserve to be congratulating not only for their achievement, but also the good work they are doing in the community. They are a volunteer group that use running to complete tasks for community members and organisations (and if you are a community group in need of a task completed, see here https://www.goodgym.org/request-a-task 

South Yorkshire Orienteers took the top for Running and Cycling Teams  Average and Total Points, with 56 players scoring a whopping 143, 980 points! They have been holding free orienteering events for all ages and abilities (See here to get involved: https://www.southyorkshireorienteers.org.uk/)

Though I have only drawn attention to a couple of leaderboard winners, Beat The Street is about so much more that leaderboards. Beat The Street is also about the stories and legacy. It has helped to get people active, moving and exploring more, given people a chance to discover what is right on their doorstep and connect with others. I’ve heard from GPs, families, young children and community groups about the different ways that Beat The Street has helped them to move more and explore all that Sheffield has to offer in terms of greens spaces, parks and countryside.

Some of my favourite things about working as an engagement coordinator has been linking groups and people together and discovering and promoting all of the existing activities that are going on in Sheffield.

Tania Darby, mother of four, met her sister daily and walked with her children an additional 20 minutes before and after school to play Beat The Street. She even started walking the kids to swimming lessons instead of driving and plans to continue this long term. One day the family walked four hours to tap additional beat boxes.

I met Maya (6 years old) and her father at one of the Sheffield General Cemetery events. At these events with Laura Alston of National Lottery Heritage Foundation which linked green space, heritage, physical activity and nature, members of the community discovered that Sheffield’s cemeteries really aren’t so spooky and are actually outdoor museums or parks. They had been travelling all over Sheffield to play Beat The Street. Maya told me that what she liked most about Beat The Street was that it allowed her to see new parts of the city she's never seen!

Natalie Grinvalds - Community Engagement Officer, Beat The Street Sheffield

School Engagement Coordinator Reflections: Dan Neath  

Beat the Street has been a fantastic success with schools.  All 148 primary and SEND schools in Sheffield took part in the game.  Several secondary schools also set up teams, with one pupil at Forge Valley finishing in second place in the citywide individual leaderboard.

Marlcliffe Primary deserve a big mention for achieving over 500,000 points.  Lydgate Juniors and Hillsborough Primary also did very well to engage over 88% of pupils.  High engagement was a key reason for the success of the highest scoring teams.  In general, teams who had high pupil engagement, and who recruited parents and staff as well as children, scored highly.  I saw several parents out and about during the game who were just as excited about playing Beat the Street as their children!

Watercliffe Meadow, St Theresa’s RC Primary and Prince Edward Primary, did incredibly well to score highly in the Average and Total Points leaderboards, and engage a high percentage of their pupils. 

It was a privilege to closely support SEND schools and look for innovative ways to engage pupils at these schools.  I am delighted to see four SEND schools win prizes on the school leaderboards (Rowan, Woolley Wood, Sheffield Inclusion Centre and Holgate Meadows).  Bents Green also did incredibly well to recruit 200 players for their team.  Several teachers noted that pupils were able to engage with the Beat the Street activity who often did not engage with physical activity. 

During the sustain phase, I will be building on my relationships with schools to promote a wide range of physical activity partners in the city. 

Active Travel is a simple way for children to achieve the recommended minimum of 30 minutes exercise a day.  I am looking forward to promoting Modeshift STARS, Living Streets and the 10 Day Active Challenge to encourage more children and families to walk, scoot and cycle to school. 

The Daily Mile is a great way to incorporate exercise into the school day and I have seen first-hand the enjoyment this brings.  There are some innovative projects and organisations, such as the Canal and River Trust, Create Sheffield and Wild Sheffield, giving children the opportunity to connect with Sheffield’s fantastic outdoor spaces.  I hope to see more schools take up the opportunity to engage with these projects and encourage more children to enjoy the many benefits of physical activity.

Dan Neath - School Engagement Coordinator, Beat The Street

Beat The Street - Community Engagement

Hi I am Natalie and I am currently the Community Engagement Coordinator for Beat the Street Sheffield, the fun, free, physical activity, community exploration and active travel game running in Sheffield from June 16-28th for 6 weeks. 

Beat the Street has been proven to help people to become physically active long term (Harris, 2018). Not only that, but it’s also a great way to spend time with your family and friends outside in a Covid -safe way and to explore the amazing parks, green spaces and countryside that has to offer! Best part about it is that it is free for all ages, abilities, and geographical areas. It is a way of drawing attention to all that Sheffield has to offer in terms of outdoors and physical activity!

It is also never too late to join, we still have 4 weeks left of the game and any movement and time spent outdoors is good for both your physical and mental health!                   

With access to the Peak District right on our doorstep, numerous green spaces, parks and outdoor gyms, there is no city quite like Sheffield and it makes it a great place for the game. I love Beat the Street because so much it is accessible for everyone, no matter where you live, your age, abilities or background. When we think of “what makes people healthy” we often think of medicine, but it is so much more than that. Health includes social, physical, mental, financial aspects as well as having a purpose. Health includes moving our bodies and spending time with others and in nature.

Beat the Street addresses these various dimensions of health. The mission of Intelligent Health, (the creators of Beat the Street), is to “create active vibrant communities where everybody matters” is in line with the mission of the many organisations in Sheffield working to better individuals lives. It just makes sense for Beat the Street to take place here!

My role is to work with Sheffield's outstanding network of community organisations during the game and a few months after, to find out how we can best work together to get people playing the game, to collaborate on events during the 6 weeks, to promote existing community events, and to create a plan to help people sustain activity long term!

My colleague Alasdair, our Senior Engagement Coordinator been working hard with workplaces and community organisations. Dan is our schools engagement coordinator and he has been visiting schools and delivering exceptional assemblies and events to get primary school children involved.

When I came into this role, much of the hard work had already been done by Sheffield’s numerous organisations and individuals working behind the scenes for many years in Sheffield. Coming from the lens of a physical activity researcher and an American, I am not aware of any city that has such a comprehensive strategy to help people become active, no matter your ability, postcode, background, or income. In addition, the ability to travel across the city on foot or using public transport is an important facilitator of not only Beat the Street, but the health of community members. These two factors laid the groundwork to make the launch of Beat the Street a success!

It is a beautiful thing to see so many people working together to help people lead healthy, happy, and engaged lives. When I moved here in 2015, the Move More Strategy was in its early stages, and it has been beautiful to watch it develop over the years. You can read the relaunched strategy for 2021-2026 right here. Additionally, when I first moved here, the People Keeping Well (PKW) project was in its early phases, and I have seen it grow.

A main part of my role is working with these PKW organisations such as ShipShape and Manor and Castle Development Trust to gain insight into the communities they serve, how we can promote what they are already doing (through campaigns such as This Girl Can, health walks and walking football to name a few) and see how we can help them long term. There are so many community organisations working hard in Sheffield to better individuals lives and the communities they serve, and if you think we have missed some please let us know!

One thing I have learnt about the people of Sheffield is while they are a friendly and welcoming bunch, they are not afraid of a competitive challenge. I have been working closely with Tom Hughes, of Yorkshire Sport Foundation, (who in 2019 set the Guinness World Record for leading Sheffield in having the largest number of people playing hopscotch simultaneously!) who has given me insight into community engagement and Sheffield. We challenged Sheffield to help us to reach our target of 42,000 players signed up and we already have 56,288 signed up and 247,123 miles covered in active travel in Sheffield! Can we aim higher? As much as we want to get as many people signed up to play as possible, what we really want is to get people to be active long term, so after the game is over, we will work to keep people involved in activity that works for them.

Hope to see you out there tapping Beat Boxes and exploring parts of Sheffield you have not been before!

If you have not already signed up, you can sign up on our website as an individual or team (of at least 12). Please get in touch if you have any ideas, questions, comments, or suggestions let me know at natalie.grinvalds@intelligenthealth.co.uk (Please note that I am part time).

Twitter: @BTSSheffield

Instagram: @btssheffield

Facebook: @BTSSheffield

It has been a whirlwind first month as Schools Engagement Coordinator for Beat the Street.  In only 5 weeks I have met so many people and organisations, linked in with wider physical activity networks, such as Move More and the School Sports Partnerships, and connected with many of the schools who are excited to play Beat the Street this summer. 

131 schools have signed up to play so far.  Personally, I would like to see every primary school in Sheffield playing Beat the Street and go above and beyond the target of engaging 42,000 people in the city.  It is so exciting to be part of a project that engages the whole city, from Stocksbridge and High Green in the north all the way to Mosborough and Totley in the south; everyone can play! 

On 19th May we officially launched Beat the Street at the Olympic Legacy Park.  I had the pleasure of looking after 30 Y1 children from Oasis Don Valley who were excited to be the first school in Sheffield to play Beat the Street. 

I’ve also been on with creating and sharing a short film for a Schools Video Assembly which you can check out on the link! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVDyVDvNZ0&t=337s). 

We had 8 brilliant children from Porter Croft Primary school who were full of energy and enthusiasm and they bring the video to life.  It was exciting to give young people in the city the opportunity to be a part of promoting Beat the Street.  A pupil from Tapton School filmed the schools part of the assembly.  She is so talented at a young age and guided the video, choosing the backgrounds and suggesting lines for the children to say.  In addition, Sheffield is The Outdoor City so I wasn’t short of finding exciting locations to film at and speak about. 

The standout thing for me since I started is the people involved in this.  Alasdair Menmuir and Natalie Grinvalds join me as a small team of engagement coordinators.  Both of them have worked hard over the past 5 and a bit weeks to build links with partners and have organised some creative events and activities with stakeholders and community organisations.  I have been given a great platform to succeed, particularly from Adam Fuller who has been promoting Beat the Street in schools before I started the role and Tom Hughes and Anna Lowe have been so helpful in connecting us with the citywide Move More network, linking us with partners and providing advice and encouragement. 

I have had the pleasure of meeting so many fantastic partner organisations already: Create Sheffield, the Canal and River Trust and the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity to name a few.  The four School Sports Partnerships (Arches, Links, Forge and Points) are all working together to promote Beat The Street with the shared aim of seeing all children enjoy being active. 

Intelligent Health who created Beat the Street and have delivered the initiative in numerous towns and cities across the UK,  have an excellent team working behind the scenes to make the project a success. 

We have plans in place already for the ‘sustain’ phase of the game and I will be in post until the end of October to connect schools with partners and activities to produce long term benefits.  In my opinion, this part is just as exciting as the 6 week game.  I am looking forward to hearing the stories of children and families who increased their physical activity and discovered new green spaces in their area during the game and then supporting them to make these benefits long term.  

Every registered school will receive regular updates from me by email throughout the game and I have a number of exciting events lined up during the game. 

I have the opportunity to deliver in person activities with a small number of schools.  This includes assemblies and ‘Treasure Hunt’ led walks to take children around their local area in search of Beat Boxes. Do send me a message using my email address below if this is something your school would be interested in. 

Every primary and SEND school in the city will receive a fob, a card for a parent or carer, a map and additional resources for every child to play.  These schools will compete as teams in one of 7 local leaderboards with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes for teams with the highest total points and highest average points.  There a plenty of opportunities to win prizes!

If you are a secondary or independent school, you can create teams in the community leader board and invite your pupils and staff to play.  We would love to see year group challenges, inter-school competitions and staff departments challenging each other to see who can achieve the most points.  You can create a team on the Beat the Street website (https://www.beatthestreet.me/sheffield/) and collect a card for free from your nearest distribution point (https://www.beatthestreet.me/sheffield/map/).

If you haven’t already registered your school, please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas at Daniel.neath@intelligenthealth.co.uk and I will keep you up to date with the latest news, challenges and ‘Go Week’ activities.

I will look forward to seeing you in Sheffield playing Beat the Street this summer!

Dan - Schools Engagement Coordinator

New e-cargo bike delivery service in Sheffield

Sheffield businesses can rethink their delivery vehicles, says Russell Cutts, especially if they’re taking up employees’ time to drive parcels or small packages around the city. “I’d ask people to think again about ‘human powered deliveries’” he says. “Not just for health and environmental reasons, but because they save time and money.”

“There’s no petrol or van insurance, no tax, there are no parking fees or parking fines, and your deliveries are door to door,” he says. “Some organisations could quite easily convert from using a van to using a cargo bicycle.”

For example, over recent months, Russell, from the Russell’s Bicycle Shed cycling company based at the station and Neepsend, has been transporting Covid 19 PCR test swabs from a Sheffield clinic to labs in London thanks to a link with the Intercity Railfreight company, who offer same day delivery of small items via passenger trains.

Sheffield City Council say business to business deliveries by e-cargo bike are one of the final pieces in the jigsaw to help Sheffield become a city where over 20% of trips could be made by bike, and the 30 or more organisations already using e-cargo bikes are “flying a banner for the city.” Shifting some smaller deliveries to e-bike would cut congestion, improve air quality and set a great example to other organisations, they say.

The new business-to-business e-bike courier service is supported by Sheffield Council and interested organisations can make contact at: https://www.russellsbicycleshed.co.uk/deliveries or 07557 410553

Move More Month 2021 - Beat The Street

Move More Month 2021

Since 2015 the month of June in Sheffield has been Move More Month. A month where the city shines a spotlight on Physical Activity.

Over those 5 years we have seen and tried many different ways to get Sheffield moving more. We have worked with schools, developed the Move More app and delivered the workplace challenge. We have even set a Guinness World Record for the most people playing hopscotch simultaneously.

Last year in the middle of the pandemic we reached out to some our most in need communities and delivered 25,000 physical activity calendars as a prompt everyone to take care of their physical and mental health.

As we move out of lockdown (fingers crossed) we want Sheffield to get out and about! To make that happen we are delighted to be bringing Beat The Street to Sheffield!

Alasdair Menmuir who is Beat The Street Sheffield Senior Engagement Coordinator tells us a little more about how to get involved!

Alasdair Menmuir - Senior Engagement Coordinator

You may have seen the news that Beat the Street, a citywide mass participation physical activity game, is coming to Sheffield for 6 weeks from 16 June 2021. We’re very excited about this, as it represents an incredible opportunity for the city and its physical activity, sports and active travel organisations and initiatives. Not only will it bring people together in an inclusive, free, fun event, but it will enhance mutually-sustaining programmes for the health and wellbeing of the whole city as it emerges from the pandemic.

Beat the Street is a major collaborative project for Intelligent Health (founded by Dr William Bird), in Sheffield it is being delivered in partnership with Move More stakeholders including Sheffield City Council.

In the years it has been running, Beat the Street has engaged over a million participants, by encouraging them to walk, run, cycle or roll to mobile ‘beat boxes.’ We’re going to get Sheffielder’s involved in local events during the game, raise money for our nominated charity, the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity, and ultimately enable long-term behaviour change and sustainability beyond the lifetime of the game.

My role as Senior Engagement Coordinator involves working with groups, workplaces, organisations and initiatives to enhance the game, establish sustainable relationships, and to help the game run smoothly for all involved! With so many partners, this is going to be a challenging ask, but the pay-off should be a hugely rewarding experience for Sheffield. I want to engage inactive or disengaged communities and individuals and help them see that physical activity can be fun, rewarding, but most of all, accessible.

Overall, we would like to get more than 42,000 people involved in the game across the city – these are huge numbers. But if we can deliver on achieving previous targets from Beat the Street, such as a 30 point increase in mental wellbeing for previously inactive Stranraer residents, and a 10% increase in people meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s physical activity guidelines (30 minutes a day) after the game, as evidenced in previous games (Intelligent Health, 2017), then everyone will benefit.

As a city, we have unrivalled access to green spaces, and a lot to offer for active travellers, but these are not accessed equitably – Beat the Street can activate these locations for our population and increase visibility for the initiatives that work within and around them.

I am just getting started, so if you, your workplace, organisation or group would like to chat, I am here to help. Perhaps we could collaborate? We have so many opportunities to promote you at scale that this works for everyone. It would be great to have you on board! You can email me to discuss how we can work together.

Perhaps you would like to organise an event – we still have some capacity to co-create some relevant events during the 6 themed ‘Go Weeks’ of the game – get a mention in one of our regular newsletters, or can see another way we can work together? If you have a business that would like to improve physical activity levels and active travel in your workplace, if you’d like to explore Sheffield a bit more or organise some fundraising for Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity…Let’s talk!

Not only do we want to work with you, but we want you to sign up as groups and individuals and play the game! Further details can be found on our website.

We have been making headway in recruiting schools, and have already had expressions of interest from the majority of Sheffield schools, all of whom have been auto-enrolled into the game. If you haven’t heard from our Schools Coordinator Daniel about your school’s involvement, please contact us through the website or any of our social media channels. All school children will receive a fob and a card for their parent, as well as a city map, and we have plans to roll out a virtual assembly and further school-centred activities

Finally, our Community Engagement lead Natalie is working with community groups such as leisure centres, activity groups and community interest groups. Again, if you’ve not heard from her or want to get more involved, send her an email or contact us.

As a team we have only been in post a couple of weeks but with 5 weeks to go until we launch we have plenty to do, but please get in touch.

Twitter: @BTSSheffield

Instagram: @btssheffield

Facebook: @BTSSheffield

I look forward to updating you on our progress on this blog.

Tackling Inequalities Funding

Written by Kendle Hardisty Development Officer at Yorkshire Sport Foundation

What was the Tackling Inequalities Fund?

This was funding from Sport England that was designed to focus on helping reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity.

Data from the Sport England commissioned Physical Activity Attitudes and Behaviours survey during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted widening gaps in the activity levels across our existing priority audiences. COVID-19 has shone a light on the inequalities in our society and the more significant impact COVID-19 continues to have on those people of living with multiple or long-term health conditions; the increased impact of the virus on Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic communities; the increased impact on disabled people; and on people in our poorest communities living in overcrowded and/or multi-generational households.

There is also increased concern about the toll on people’s mental wellbeing, again this disproportionately affecting our most vulnerable people and communities. 

“The Sport England grant’s been really important in supporting a group of people who wouldn’t have been exercising, and who were socially isolated.

What was the approach?

As the Development Officer for Yorkshire Sport Foundation I was tasked with working with partners in the city to find appropriate organisations to work with to design proposals for this fund.

I have been working with organisations and partners in the City for the last 3 years and I have started to build a good understanding of the communities across our area of West and South Yorkshire and particularly in Sheffield. 

We all recognise that many communities across South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire experience inequality, and therefore we have identified, alongside local colleagues in our areas and with learning from local intelligence, 34 ‘Focus communities where we will focus our support.

We have been working alongside partners to support these communities and they have remained a focus for this investment. We have also used the most up to date data to identify areas which are experiencing inequalities, using that local knowledge and networks we have across Sheffield and overlaying local data on inactivity, demographic makeup and COVID-19 data to inform our decisions.

The Impact

To narrow down one specific impact that the Tackling Inequalities Fund had on the organisations and participants would be impossible.

Across Sheffield, we funded 11 projects that were all unique and targeted different communities, groups and organisations across our City. It was an opportunity to work with some organisations that were new to us and also with organisations that wouldn’t traditionally use physical activity as a way to engage local people and communities.

Projects funded included:

• SACHMA: Ran a series of outdoor sports sessions for people in the community to attend as well as sending out online resources/ packs to families to stay physically active at home.

• Stocksbridge Community Leisure Centre:  Delivered weekly socially distanced activities (chair aerobics) and promoted existing and new online initiatives such as the 10 today audio workouts.

• The Terminus Initiative: Delivered a series of nature walks for people who were socially isolated in the Lowedges area and set up and delivered a Nature Walk for a group of migrant women and their families.

• Allama Iqbal Cricket Club: Set up and delivered a new cricket session and due to the popularity of the programme have turned this session in to an Under 11’s team for boys and girls.

After speaking to all 11 of the project leads about their projects, the common theme that was discussed was that this fund would allow them to use physical activity as a tool to engage a wider audience and offer ‘something different’ where previously they didn’t have the resource to do so.

A massive reason for the funding getting to places and people that wouldn’t normally receive funding for physical activity was that the funding from Sport England was flexible and was entrusted to the local networks to identify where need was greatest. This enabled the local network in Sheffield to influence how this money was allocated and to do what is right and needed for the communities in the City.

“This is the most normal thing I have done in months”

During the last year it has become more and more evident how important it is to be physically active but we also know that lockdown and the pandemic has made it harder for some people to get out and be active.

This funding opportunity really showed the strength of the existing networks in Sheffield and we were able to work collaboratively with Voluntary Action Sheffield and Sheffield City Council to engage the wider network of partners into the initial conversations. This helped us identify where need was greatest and who to approach as part of this work

A learning we took into this project was the importance of building trust and engaging organisations as early in the conversation as possible and bringing them into the discussion.

We wanted to ensure they understood the opportunity and that I was offering ongoing support as part of this project. This created relationships that were built on trust and honesty which has resulted in some brilliant relationships and ones that we can continue to nurture over the coming weeks, months and years as we set about helping more people become physically active.

“In these challenging and truly awful times, it was good to be able to put on a safe session that our participants felt comfortable in attending”

My reflections and learning on this project

The Tackling Inequalities Project was a great project to work on but like anything had its positives and its challenges. The clear positives on working on the project was that I was supporting organisations to try and engage people that were inactive and to provide new opportunities for people in our communities is what working in this Sport and Physical Activity is all about.

It was a real shame that I was unable to go and see these projects in person and see people enjoy being physically active.

We worked with some organisations that we had an existing relationship with and to carry on that relationship was brilliant.

The major positive of this project was that I built new relationships with organisations I hadn’t engaged with before and to maintain these relationships for future collaboration is something I am excited about.

Living in Leeds and working in Sheffield for myself has never been challenge but with this project I feel I have missed out. Being in and around Sheffield has always made me feel connected with the city and when you’re face to face with a partner and you create a project there is a sense of pride and achievement.

I have got used to the world we now live in and working on online platforms and it clearly is going to be part of how we work going forward but there is nothing better than meeting people in person, collaborating on projects and seeing those projects come to life and positively impact our communities and putting smiles on faces.

“We didn’t expect the project to attract so many new faces”

If anyone would like more information on this work, the impact it has had on our groups  or would like to discuss my work in Sheffield, please feel free to drop me an email kendle.hardisty@yorkshiresport.org

#noWeartoRun - Sharewear

Sharewear is a charity committed to reducing clothing poverty.  Our campaign #noWeartorun provides suitable active wear for people experiencing clothing poverty. 

This year we have started our campaign to focus the spotlight on the close links between clothing poverty and poor mental health, as each is both a cause and effect of the other. Our #noWeartorun campaign has captured the imagination and support of all those who believe that no-one in the UK should be denied access to basic free-of-charge exercise to improve their mental health simply due to lack of basic appropriate clothing.  We are delighted to say that we are able to support Move More Sheffield across their multiple projects, like Beat The Street, to enable people in Sheffield to be active, by providing them with appropriate clothing.

Sharewear Clothing Scheme began as an ‘experiment’ back in 2014 in Nottingham after our Founder’s son had seen the desperate need for free clothing provision in his weekly volunteering session at a foodbank. The idea was to provide free clothing of all types, for people aged ‘newborn to ninety’ in an organised and dignified way using a referral system.

Fast forward seven years, and the tiny team of four volunteers in a room at the back of a church has grown to a team of over forty volunteers and three employees across three referral centres. The first of these outside of Nottinghamshire opened right here in Sheffield in January 2021, after the Nottingham based team had spent 2020 making bulk clothing deliveries to core charities in the city like Ashiana , Framework Street Outreach Team, Ben’s Centre and Baby Basics.

Following a successful crowdfunder and funding from the People’s Postcode Trust, our Sheffield centre is located on Norfolk Street and can now easily serve public, charity and voluntary sector organisations with clothing referrals for their service users, clients and patients. The referred person accesses their own clothing from Sharewear’s rails, having the same dignity of choice that we all take for granted when we go shopping for clothes, and they also choose which clothing they need for their children.

Clothing poverty remains the undisclosed and undocumented aspect of deprivation and economic insecurity for the 14 million people living in poverty in the UK today. Lack of affordability of appropriate clothing keeps people from getting a job, from attending school, from being safe and warm, from simply functioning for everything we need clothes for in life – in short, it prevents them from actually living and functioning in society. Our donated preloved clothing comes from the general public, schools and universities, churches and groups of colleagues in companies, and groups like the Soroptomists and the Rotary Clubs.

Our quality rule is that if we wouldn’t wear it ourselves or want to see a member of our family in the clothing, then it doesn’t make our rails. Absolutely everything in our centre is free, and you will find Paul Smith next to Primark and Gucci next to George. We also have partnerships with retailers like Bamboo Clothing Ltd and Lyfcycle who supply us with their pre-consumer waste and/or enable their customers around the UK to donate clothes to us. The generosity of our clothes donors has enabled us to support over 30,000 people since our inception, 3000 of those being supported form our Sheffield centre in the first three months of this year alone!

How can you help?

·         Donate good quality second-hand active wear

·         Refer anyone who experiences clothing poverty to us

·         Support our #noWeartorun campaign on social media

Follow us at:

Facebook @SharewearSheffield

Instagram: @sharewearclothingscheme

Twitter: @SharewearUK

Contact us at: sheffield@sharewearclothingscheme.org

Nabeel's 'Walk All Over Cancer' Challenge

Nabeel is a GP and clinical leader in Doncaster who walked over 300 miles in the month of March 2021 for ‘Walk all over Cancer’. He talks about his unexpected injury just before the Covid pandemic, his motivations to walk more and the challenges he faced along the way

On the 1st December 2019 I was enjoying a rare jaunt into the Peaks, walking down the famous Mam Tor hill, when I heard a sudden, painful snap in my right knee. I ended up being stretchered down by Edale Mountain Rescue Team for the last part of the walk and a week later had my newly broken kneecap surgically repaired.

Early recovery stalled between April and November 2020 (I’m sure you can guess why!) but a renewed commitment to my exercises and a drive to get back to sport at some point in 2021 had also really started to bear fruit in terms of much-needed progress by the time Walk All Over Cancer came up.

Almost a million steps takes you a long way around Doncaster (March 2021)

Walk All Over Cancer 2017

I had previously taken part in ‘Walk All Over Cancer’ in the summer of 2017 with a group from Doncaster Clinical Commissioning group, where I work 2 days per week.  I had been playing indoor football and squash at least 5 times a week back then, and most of my steps were playing sport or walking to the leisure centre. I am generally pretty laid-back but a switch flipped that month and what started out as a fun attempt to win one of the weeks, against some slightly more competitive people, escalated into getting the most steps over that month!

Coronavirus and into 2021

In the absence of any sport and the ongoing Covid restrictions, I felt a physical challenge was just what I needed and 10,000 steps a day through March seemed both a good starter and sensible test of my improving knee. I have a very sedentary, yet busy job, and from my 2017 Walk All Over Cancer experience I knew that my surgery days would be the hardest ones to hit 10,000 steps on so when the first day was a clinical day, I knew what had to be done…

This turned out to be the right call, as the 2200 steps I picked up in 20 mins was pretty much double the haul from the 10.5 hours that followed in the practice; showing just how sedentary being a GP can be. It was also easier psychologically to start the post-work walk on a decent chunk of steps rather than from scratch; on that first evening I ended up passing 16,000 steps.

Through the course of the month, I would get to the surgery earlier and earlier and started adding to laps of the local estate with more adventurous ones in my walking boots, alongside the odd lunchtime escape. I think the walks helped get me into the right mindset for the day ahead, and then more importantly, mentally and emotionally check out once the day’s work was done.

Other things to keep up my activity levels whilst working were watching webinars on the move on my phone with my headphones in, asking people if they were OK with an outdoors phone call for a 1:1 rather than a video call, and doing the occasional walking meeting if it worked for the other person as well. It’s important to pick the right spots for these meetings, both in terms of who/when and especially where, as you don’t want to be in a busy place bumping into people or being bumped into by cars!

After a week I noticed that I had managed at least 15,000 steps each day (6.75 miles for me) without having set that as a specific goal. This became my minimum target for busy days and I took advantage of more flexible days to do as many steps as I was happy with, sticking to a rule of no driving if it wasn’t a work-related journey. I have a variety of nice walks within a few miles of home so I could mix things up enough without getting in the car when a long walk was on the agenda. Wherever it was possible, I’d try and head back a different way, to keep things interesting.

I soon set my sights on beating the 567,000 steps I’d done in 2017. Storming to that target with 5 days to spare I started picking various round number milestones; on the final morning I hit 300 miles and I finished off the month paying homage to 2017 by walking to the same takeaway to round things off!

This challenge gave me a real sense of purpose and achievement and it took me to lots of areas really close to home that I’d either never been to or didn’t know that well. I don’t think I’ve ever said “hello” to quite so many strangers without introducing myself as Dr Alsindi and asking them to tell me why they’ve made an appointment today! It also definitely helped both physically and psychologically with this phase of my knee rehabilitation. The increased walking accelerated the rate that I’ve been losing weight; an additional bonus of walking a lot in the evenings is that there’s much less time to snack!

I always try to be an advocate for Doncaster, despite it’s unfashionable reputation :-( and I’m really proud that all my 716,561 steps / 311.3 miles were in the place I first called home over 20 years ago now but which I know a lot better now.

Finally, I wanted to thank those that donated over £800 to Cancer Research UK through supporting me, in total fundraisers raised a phenomenal £8.5 million through Walk All Over Cancer.

Nabeel Alsindi, April 2021

Junior Parkrun changed my life

The announcement that Junior Parkrun would restart in April in some parts of the UK https://blog.parkrun.com/uk/2021/03/19/restarting-in-england-weekly-update-2/ got me thinking back to how volunteering for this fantastic event played a significant role in my own running journey . It’s fair to say Junior Parkrun changed my life as well as being a great opportunity for my children. I would recommend any family to give it a try.

Casting my mind back to 2017, volunteering at Graves Junior Parkrun & Sheffield Schools Cross Country events was the only contact I had with Sheffield’s extensive running community as I didn’t run myself. That’s all changed- I run at least 2-3 times per week now and in 2021 I hope to complete my first half marathon! I feel fitter, I sleep better, I spend more time outdoors & I love the social aspect.

As a non-runner I thought it was a solitary pursuit- far from it! Meeting a friend for a run when there are few other in-person social activities we can do has helped me enormously over the past year. I’m looking forward to meeting a group of friends for a run soon & I feel safe knowing outdoor transmission of CV-19 is much lower than indoor can ever be.

My sons Robert & William with best mate Euan Thornton at Graves Junior Parkrun 12/3/17

Back in 2017 I had never considered running an activity I myself might enjoy or even be capable of. Why not? I’m not really sure, perhaps it was a mindset? Volunteering at Junior Parkrun gave me the confidence to think differently- and also encourage other people young and old to do so too.

There is a long list of reasons of how thinking of yourself as runner can benefit your general health. In fact I do this most days talking to my patients at work as a GP. Feeling stressed? Bad back? Headaches? Diabetes? Heart Disease? Awaiting surgery for cancer? Breathing problems? It doesn’t suit everyone, but in all these conditions a walk, jog or run outside can help.

There are many medical conditions where a little bit of exercise will do far more than any tablet I can prescribe as GP Dr Zoe Williams explains https://youtu.be/59ntVvTXJFc and if you can’t or don’t want to run yourself research has shown that volunteering improves well-being too https://blog.parkrun.com/uk/2018/04/25/the-joy-of-volunteering/ Studies show that the volunteers get a greater sense of well-being from events than the runners themselves!

Christmas Day Parkrun at Concord Park 2018

I decided I wanted to run myself. I knew about the NHS Couch to 5k app https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/get-running-with-couch-to-5k/ from recommending it to others. I had actually tried as a New Years resolution well before 2017 but didn’t manage to stick to it so I chose to restart the 9 week program while on holiday with the family in summer 2017.

Early morning beach run August 2017

In 2020 huge numbers of people also started their own running journey, with nearly 1 million downloads of the app reported https://www.england.nhs.uk/2020/07/around-one-million-downloads-of-fitness-app-during-lockdown-as-people-stay-fit/

At Concord Parkrun September 2019

In 2019 I joined my first running club, the amazing Ingle Ladies Runners. I experienced the support of a large group for the first time- wow what a difference these wonderful women have made! We can’t meet up in person at present but I love seeing what others are up to on social media & it helps me stay motivated. I’ve also made loads of new friends.

Ingle Runners Parkrun takeover September 2019, Concord park.

My GP Surgery has also become a Parkrun Practice. We took part in the Parkrun takeover in June 2019 which was a huge nationwide success https://blog.parkrun.com/uk/2019/06/05/celebrating-1200-parkrun-practices/

With nurse Caroline Walker, Dr Anne Noble & Dr Gail Coskery on Parkrun Pledge day 1st June 2019

In the past year working in Primary Care has been stressful coping with the Covid pandemic, from adapting our ways of working to setting up local vaccine hubs. Family life has had its stresses too with teenagers at home learning. On-line running challenges and when rules allow meeting with a friend for some fresh air has definitely helped me keep feeling well & I am looking forward to a lovely summer outside as much as possible.

Now the boys are older it’s been a while since I have been to a Junior Parkrun. (Not)Parkrun has been virtual since last year. Since March 2020 9,000 notparkrunners yet to complete a Parkrun event- they are going to need our support soon!

When we can walk/jog/run together in person Parkrun events will need volunteers, probably alot of them- judging by all the people who also joined the running community in 2020! If you are reading this and thinking you want to contribute to help keep your family & community well check out the website https://blog.parkrun.com/uk/tag/covid-19/ for updates & details of events local to you.

How will volunteering change your life? There’s only one way to find out & I recommend you give it a try!

Ingle Runners Red January Challenge 2021 completed!

Thanks for reading Dr Jo Maher Move More GP