Blog by Matt Evans, Active People & Place Manager

Three of the Active Lincolnshire team visited colleagues at our fellow Active Partnership Active Dorset for a study visit in July 2022. These three blogs share some of our findings and initial reactions to what we heard, saw and felt whilst visiting. In this the second in the series I focus on work in Dorset with MSK, the Maternity pathway and their collaboration with Public Health.

Follow the links at the end to read the first and second blogs in the series.

On Par

Wednesday teed-off with discussions around MSK and an in-sight into how their system was developing to ensure the physical activity element runs throughout the pathway. Chaired by Martin (CEO, Active Dorset), the meeting brought together managers and clinicians from across the pathway. Two websites were shared; one for health care professionals to support their assessment of MSK conditions, the second for patients. Both have evidence of physical activity “nudges” within them so residents get that wrap-around messaging yet again. The bulk of the meeting revolved around staff resource and the issues surrounding waiting lists, priorities in secondary care and links to the Universities. I was particularly interested in the role that Active Dorset play in these conversations and liken their position to the Caddy in golf. They clearly won’t be making the final actions but they are there to influence and to offer a perspective.

Meetings continued and next up was Maternity Services. This time I was given the ear of Katie Davies (Health & Physical Activity Officer) who has been working on similar programmes for AD. Together, we looked for the opportunities to provide mothers and babies with a nudge towards physical activity in the period from conception to reception age. There are a wealth of programmes and initiatives out there that could benefit the Lincolnshire system but connecting the right person to the right resource, at the right time, requires a technical ability that we haven’t yet established. This shared approach to reviewing work really helped me. I have great support on a day-to-day basis but being able to speak to someone outside of the normal conversation gave me a chance to reflect deeply. You can find out more about our work in this field via this blog: Embedding Physical Activity in the pre and post-natal system - Active Lincolnshire

Later, Charlie and I joined a call with Rachel Partridge from Public Health Dorset. This is a well established and productive relationship whereby both organisations intertwine their work and messaging in order to complement the work of the other. Posts are co-funded, allowing for seamless transition between agendas and objectives. They talk about “our work” as a collective and explained to me how their JSNA developed. As stakeholders engaged with projects and programmes, shared insights were used to add gravitas to conversations. Both were keen to explore what the barriers were to activity and what key factors influenced inactivity within the county. Collaboratively, they mapped the system and the existing interventions present before presenting their collective findings to Health partners. It felt like the kind of partnership working Dr Rebecca O’Connor has been supporting us to understand. Not just “working in partnership” but actively engaging and sharing together. Charlie and I have discussed this resourcing in more detail in Episode 2 of our podcast.

Wednesday evening was all about the indoor crazy golf. Obviously, if I had a bad round I wouldn’t give it a mention so I’m pretty sure you can guess what the outcome was.

Please get in touch if you have any further interest in this article - email Communications@ActiveLincolnshire.com.

Likewise, have a look at the other blogs in this series The Right Move and Torchbearer to see other areas of inspiration from Dorset.