Case Study – NE Regional Collaboration
Organisation name: DHSC (NE) on behalf of ADPH North East
Contact name: Claire Mathews
Role / job title: Health and Wellbeing Programme Lead (DHSC North East)
Partnership / collaborators involved: James Hartley, You’ve Got This – South Tees Place Partnership; Laura Shields, Public Health Team, Newcastle City Council, Lucy Chapman, ADPH NE
Synopsis:
The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) North East Healthy Weight & PA Network agreed to a sector led improvement (SLI) approach to systematically share good practice and identify areas for regional collaboration. A collaboration between regional partners – ADPH NE, DHSC, Active Partnerships and Sport England was formed. A SLI tool was developed for LAs to use with their local partners to understand strengths and areas for development 10 of the 12 LAs in the NE participated) and these informed a list of potential areas for regional collaboration. At a local level the SLI process informed the development of new/ refresh of PA strategies and informed Sport England place-based expansion bids.
The Story:
The challenge
The issue –in the North East physical activity and inactivity estimates remain worst in the country with relatively little movement in trends in the last 10 years. The ADPH NE Healthy Weight & PA Network wanted to undertake regional collaboration around PA. Following a workshop with the network it was clear that a process to identify potential areas of regional collaboration would be valuable.
What was done
We:
- Established a NorthEast Leadership Group (ADPH NE, DHSC, Active Partnerships & Sport England)
- Secured funding from DHSC, Active Partnerships, ADPH NE and LGA to support development of a tool and local completion.
- Used ISPAH 8 investments that work for PA to develop the SLI tool to understand strengths and areas for development within each LA
- Tool covered areas such as; how activity tackled health inequalities, universal or targeted provision, quality of evidence-base and data and monitoring
- LAs convened partners to complete SLI tool. Variation in delivery across LAs – online/face to face workshops, individual themed workshops around 8 areas/all in one.
Impact and outcomes
Regional:
- In total 21 online and 18 in person sessions were held with an estimated 900 stakeholders involved.
- 9 of 12 LAs used the process to develop new or refresh PA Strategies
- 4 LAs used process to support Sport England place-based expansion bids
- Produced a list of potential areas for regional collaboration.
- Learning report and SLI tool available.
- During SLI process the Sport England maturity matrix (MM) and associated resources were published. Work has taken place between ADPH NE and NE Cluster to understand how the different tools can support each other.
Examples from 2 of our LA areas – Newcastle and South Tees
Newcastle:
The SLI workshop hosted by Newcastle City Council brought partners across PA together for the first time since disbanding Active Newcastle. Need for system leadership and Strategy identified as key output from the SLI workshops and need to shift from competition to collaboration. First step in providing system leadership was developing a Physical Activity Needs Assessment. This was completed in December 2024. The Needs Assessment reiterated the known gap- Newcastle needed a Physical Activity Strategy. The connections and relationships built through the SLI workshops allowed us to create a steering group from across the system in the city. The findings from the workshops also filtered directly into the themes of the strategy, called Our Decade of Moving. One theme, Our City of Leaders, highlighted this work and the need to continue building capability and capacity in talking confidently about the inequalities in physical activity. The creation of the strategy happened in tandem with applying to become a Place Partner with Sport England.
South Tees:
A huge focus for Youve Got This (one of Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilots – LDP) is to create a culture of collaboration across South Tees, and being part of the SLI approach was a great way of cementing that approach. The SLI process brought colleagues together across all sectors, highlighting the opportunity that we all have towards supporting physical activity, and finding a ‘common purpose’.
We know that since the SLI process, connections and trust have grown between organisations and stakeholders and conversations have continued to develop outside of the room, independently of what actions have come from the SLI work; a value of physical activity and the language we use is positively shifting.
Across South Tees, the LDP is creating huge momentum when it comes to encouraging systemic change, and the SLI approach has strengthened this; especially when helping people really understand what we mean when we talk about ‘whole system approaches’.
Learning and Relevance
Why this matters
Key learning from the regional SLI process:
- Creating a movement – created a ‘movement’ locally around the SLI work that fostered collaboration, connections and trust. There were numerous workshops where connections made led to greater collaborations or agreeing to an approach, independently of the SLI work.
- Demands on local authorities – as a result of taking a more online/in-person workshop approach to the SLI work it placed demands on local authorities to co-ordinate local stakeholders, organise venues etc.
- SLI PA Tool – the shift in approach to online/in-person workshops (rather than desk top completion) had a material difference on the piloting and assessment of the SLI Tool. Whilst there is a place for the tool going forward it became evident early on that a stakeholder/relationship building phase was needed to progress this work. This in part may be down to the breadth of the physical activity system and the challenges in identifying what holds aspects of it together. It was felt that other benefits of taking the on-line/in-person approach outweighed those of sticking rigorously to using the desk-based tool.
- Single point of contact locally – the project was greatly aided by having a designated lead within local authorities. This ensured that arrangements and session planning were clear and the local context was factored into all decision making.
- The role of independent consultant – the role brought some neutrality to discussions. This helped with facilitation of sessions and ensuring stakeholder engagement across a range of partners.
Alignment with Sport England Work
- Work taken place to understand alignment between the tools. SLI – is all about ‘what’ and the Maturity Matrix about ‘how’ things happen/ don’t – different sides of coin and both needed.
Newcastle learning:
The SLI and MM process allowed us to reframe public health approaches to physical activity inequalities. We were able to emphasise with partners, that it is a population-based (rather than intervention based) approach needed. We also have a collective responsibility to work as a system with shared priorities, especially as we progress further into our Place Partnership with Sport England.
South Tees Learning:
The SLI approach has supported public health to understand physical activity more and to highlight when approaches need to be developed. It has allowed colleagues to provide the Local Delivery Pilot with ‘top cover’ when it comes to tackling inactivity in a different way and changing the ways things are done. Again, it has enabled colleagues to see where they can support physical activity and where they fit ‘within the system’.
What would you do differently next time?
Regional:
- Now have a greater understanding of the time/resources/staff capacity to co-ordinate workshops. Would plan this in next time.
- Flexible tool – so do not necessarily need to complete all 8 ISAPH areas – LA’s can do deep dives into specific themes (as per cycle below that was developed as part of the learning report)
Newcastle:
Difficulty in engaging with some partners- need to do things differently in the future to acknowledge their capacity constraints. This was also apparent during the strategy creation and possibly nods to a wider issue.
South Tees:
Where possible, I think we would try to do better at managing expectations. A lot of stakeholders and partners really engaged with the workshops and perhaps left with loads of things they could go away and ‘get on with’. When the regional recommendations came back, we got the sense that some people felt that the actions were areas of work that they still wouldn’t be able to influence as much.