National Partnership Sport England

Our role has been brought to national prominence through our work with Sport England where we are a System Partner delivering the Uniting the Movement 10-year strategy. Together, our intention is to help create sustainable opportunities for physically active lifestyles for all, engaging communities with the most unequal of health outcomes, and to have a positive impact on the health of a place, communities, and individuals.

Our remit is to work in towns, cities and at a hyper-local level, connecting partners and strengthening local systems through building capability and capacity, along with delivering evidenced behaviour change at scale. We deliver a population-level step change in physical activity by integrating activity into everyday life for adults and children to deliver evidenced behaviour change at scale.

Featured case study

Intelligent Health and the Canal & River Trust signed a two-year agreement in 2022, with the partnership building on previous Beat the Street delivery in Blaby, Leicester, Burnley, Dudley and Birmingham to encourage communities to discover the wellbeing benefits of being physically active along their local canal towpaths.

Working with place-based partners, the two organisations will coordinate the roll-out of Beat the Street games across more of the Canal & River Trust waterways with a particular focus on priority areas including communities where green space deficit is most pronounced.

In Leicester, there was a 10% increase in the percentage of people using the canal and river towpaths on a weekly basis and a significant increase in how connected residents felt to nature. Change was greatest for those who were less active before the game.

“The game has been fantastic to be part of and given the Trust the opportunity to not only engage with the local community and giving them opportunity to explore their local network but also the opportunity for the Trust to engage with partnerships and build new relationships.”