A national roundtable conversation
On 14 May, we hosted an inaugural Moving Together National Roundtable in London, gathering more than 100 representatives from healthcare, physical activity, policy, academic, community and lived-experience organisations.
The event marked an important milestone in the Moving Together programme: it provided an opportunity to share progress, to test emerging thinking and to gather cross-sector perspectives on implementation in everyday practice.
Collectively we agreed priority actions across health and physical activity systems, and considered what the next phase of the programme should be.
Key themes we heard
The strongest message emerging from the event was that stakeholders are increasingly moving beyond asking whether physical activity should form part of long-term condition pathways, and are now focused on how implementation can happen consistently, safely and at scale.
One key insight from the day was that the conversation has shifted from why physical activity matters to how implementation happens in practice.
From it, four key themes emerged:
- Workforce confidence – supporting professionals to have confident conversations about physical activity, risk and behaviour change.
- Practical implementation – ensuring resources, tools and support mechanisms exist to enable adoption in real-world settings.
- System alignment – strengthening connections between healthcare, physical activity providers, community organisations and policy partners.
- Consistent messaging – ensuring individuals receive clear, evidence-based and empowering messages regardless of where they enter the system.
The discussions highlighted a strong appetite for change, alongside recognition that implementation support will be critical.
It was also clear that we don't need more evidence that physical activity works and that we now need support to implement it consistently.
What’s next?
The passion and expertise in the room at the roundtable has fuelled our thinking about what’s next.
We know we won’t improve the pathways to help people with long-term conditions to move more without all of us driving behavioural change together, so we’re hosting a 45-minute webinar 'Maintaining Momentum: A Moving Together Update' on Thursday 9 July to keep going with our collaborative approach.
This webinar marks the next step in the Moving Together journey, sharing how feedback from a wide array of stakeholders is already shaping the programme's implementation priorities and future direction.
I’m excited to be joining my fellow co-leads to share the latest update on how we intend to drive meaningful change, and we hope that people from both the health, care and physical activity sectors will join us to learn more about how they can support this important programme of work.
