Rachel Young – a physiotherapist by background – has welcomed an announcement from Sport England that it will continue funding a ground-breaking physical activity programme.
Dr Young, a principal research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, was speaking about the Physical Activity Clinical Champions (PACC) programme, which provides free training to healthcare professionals working for NHS England.
Sessions are available through open online training, pre-recorded webinars and bespoke group sessions.
A consortium led by the university’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre alongside the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine and Intelligent Health recently secured funding of £600,000 from Sport England.
Short chats can be ‘life changing’
Dr Young said: ‘We know that just a one-minute conversation with a trusted healthcare professional can influence a patient’s engagement with physical activity.’
She added: ‘This funding means we can continue to give healthcare professionals the tools they need to have those life-changing conversations with patients across the country.’
More than 15,000 healthcare professionals have been trained under the current programme, which kicked off in October 2023. A total of 65,000 clinicians have now received training since the programme’s inception. The new funding will support the programme until March 2028 and brings the overall investment since 2023 to more than £1.4 million.
With an ethos of being place-based, peer-led and evidence driven, the funding will enable the consortium to expand its innovative approach while continuing to develop national training resources.
‘This [£600,000] funding means we can continue to give healthcare professionals the tools they need to have those life-changing conversations with patients across the country’ [Rachel Young]
Successful track record
The programme has a good track record, with almost all attendees (98 per cent) saying they learned something that would change their practice. A similar figure (95 per cent) said they felt more confident, motivated and skilled in promoting physical activity to patients. Their knowledge levels increased from 52 per cent to 88 per cent following training.
The PACC programme delivers sessions both face-to-face and online, making training accessible to busy healthcare professionals. It covers evidence-based approaches to behaviour change, including motivational interviewing, alongside nine condition-specific modules focusing on areas such as mental health, oncology and musculoskeletal conditions.
‘Trusted’ voices
Suzanne Gardner, national partnership lead for health and wellbeing at Sport England, said: ‘Healthcare professionals are trusted voices, especially for people most at risk of poor health and inactivity. By giving clinicians the skills and confidence to talk about physical activity, we can help more patients get active in a way that works for them.’
She added: ‘Our investment in PACC supports our ambition to work closely with the health system to reduce inactivity and tackle inequalities.’
A key innovation has been the development of place-based PACCs, which embed training within local health systems and clinical pathways. Six partner sites are currently operating with 10 place-based PACCs, tailoring approaches to target local health priorities and tackle health inequalities.
The programme aligns with the government’s commitment to shifting healthcare from treatment to prevention and developing neighbourhood health services. By supporting healthcare professionals to understand the role of physical activity in both preventing and treating long-term health conditions, PACC is contributing to better patient outcomes and helping to address health inequalities.
The two-year extension will focus on developing and evaluating the place-based model, developing more sophisticated impact assessment methodologies to better understand patient outcomes and continuing to innovate with national partners.
Rachel Young’s career highlights
Dr Young leads the Technology Assisted Rehabilitation research theme at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, which operates in a collaborative fashion to design and evaluate technologies that promote recovery from neurological injuries. Collaborators include engineers, exercise scientists, healthcare professionals and psychologists.
Having qualified as a physiotherapist in 1995, Dr Young specialised in neurological rehabilitation in the NHS. After gaining an MSc in neurological physiotherapy in 2003, she took up an academic role at Sheffield Hallam University while continuing to engage in clinical practice.
Dr Young developed a specific interest in exercise solutions in the field of neurological rehabilitation and pioneered collaboration with the industrial sector. The goal is to co-develop adapted exercise equipment to address unmet needs for this clinical population. Her PhD study focused on exercise for people living with stroke.
Image: a Sport England-supported walking group
