Many of the patients who attend a GP surgery on any given day would benefit from being more active and spending less time being sedentary.

Being active is proven to reduce the risk of premature death, reduce social isolation, improve immunity and help manage or reduce the symptoms of many long-term health conditions – the benefits of being active outweigh any risks associated with long term conditions. Even modest changes to activity levels can play an important role in improving mental and physical wellbeing.

The following resources have been designed to help staff working in primary care to advocate for physical activity.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Physical Activity and Lifestyle team have partnered with Sport England to launch the Active Practice Charter.

Sign up to the Active Practice Charter and join the national network of practices making positive changes in their surgeries to boost staff and patient wellbeing. It's free to join and there are lots of simple and creative ideas to help you meet the criteria. You just need to demonstrate that your practice has taken steps to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity in staff and patients, and partnered with a local physical activity provider.

Being an Active Practice can have a huge impact on the health of everyone connected to your practice. The initiative does not have to be led by a GP partner, or even a doctor – it may be that you have an active member of your non-clinical practice team who would be best placed to oversee the process. Medical students, a social prescriber or one of the PPG team could also be the lead for this.

We also offer free training and ongoing support for primary care networks.

If you would like any assistance in embedding physical activity messaging and behaviour change techniques into your practice please contact us and one of the team will be in touch.