To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government are taking to encourage and facilitate higher levels of physical activity by people in everyday life.
"Choosing Activity: a physical activity action plan", published on
Government implementation of Choosing Activity includes:
In December 2006, the Department, Sport England and Natural England published recommendations to support the local commissioning of physical activity interventions. These were based on the findings of the local exercise action pilots (LEAP), which demonstrated that physical activity interventions are cost-effective and can save the NHS money in the long-term by reducing ill-health. LEAP has also shown that it is possible to engage a broad range of people, and to increase physical activity levels.
The National Step-0-Meter Programme, a joint programme across the Department and Natural England, is training health professionals across the country in motivational interviewing and the use of pedometers as a motivational tool, and providing free pedometers for loan to their patients. To date 4,000 primary care health professionals, across 220 PCTs (pre-reconfiguration) have been trained in motivational behaviour change.
To support the above programmes, the Department has developed a simple tool, the general practice physical activity questionnaire (GPPAQ) for routine use in general practice to help health professionals decide when advice and interventions to increase physical activity might be appropriate to offer a patient.
A school pedometer programme, distributing 40,000 pedometers to 250 schools in deprived areas to encourage children to become more active, and enabling all schools to access resources to support increased physical activity.
It is a requirement since 2005 for all schools participating in the National Healthy Schools programme to meet criteria for physical activity.
The Department for Transport are rolling out the new national standard for cycle training, Bikeability, from spring 2007, with the aim that by 2009 half of all year six pupils in England will be trained through schemes awarding the new standard.
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