Mental Health care improvement

Organisation: Sport England

Sport England has been working with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust to pilot incorporating physical activity in treatment pathways within NHS Talking Therapies services. The pilots have shown some success but before committing to further support and funding in this area, they were interested in understanding more about the current landscape and evidence.

We were commissioned to conduct a short research and insight project which aimed to explore how physical activity could be better utilised within NHS Talking Therapies to help improve mental health outcomes. The research also looked to build a picture of the national landscape to inform future activities and policies.

The impact of our work

This research report has been taken forward by Sport England supported by our team and activated considerable interest amongst national and local partners, with new plans under development to deliver activities aligned to the key recommendations. It has also opened the door for Sport England to engage directly with the National Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) team and explore opportunities around this.

Example pages from the findings and recommendations report

Example page from the findings and recommendations report - title page with logos and report title "Exploring how physical activity can be better utilised within NHS Talking Therapies services to help improve mental health outcomes"

Example page from the findings and recommendations report showing a pie chart, and the title "Majority of service users consider physical activity important"

Example page from the findings and recommendations report showing a bar chart, and the title "NHS Talking Therapies service users stated that doing physical activity with others motivated them to increase their physical activity"

Title page (select/click to expand)

The majority of service users consider physical activity important (select/click to expand)

Service users stated that doing physical activity with others motivated them to increase their physical activity (select/click to expand)

Find out more

Find more information about the findings and recommendations of the full report on our Sport and physical activity page, or on Sport England’s news article. The full report will be released in early April 2023.

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