OUR STRUCTURE

We are passionate about using the power of physical activity to not only improve public health and wellbeing but also advocate its ability and role in tackling some of the wider, stubborn inequalities that exist across the North East of England.

The Adult Health and Wellbeing team aim to adopt a whole system approach and work with a range of partners and organisations from public health to housing associations, from Northumbria Police to community organisations and sports clubs. Our team create innovative ways to utilise physical activity to improve communities and the lives of people in our community.

Our approach to improving adult physical activity levels is based on building strategic bridges between different sectors and organisations and supporting policy and strategy decision making that will have long-term positive implications for the future health and well-being of residents across Northumberland and Tyne & Wear.

We want to establish new and develop existing partnerships to create innovative campaigns, interventions, and ways of using physical activity to encourage more adults to be more active more often.

Our Children and Young People’s Health and Wellbeing team are passionate about supporting children and young people to have the best start in life through leading a more active lifestyle, which is a fundamental part of childhood.

We adopt a whole system approach building collaborative relationships with system leaders and a range of key partners and organisations from pregnancy to early adulthood in both education and community settings around system change. Using research and insight to influence strategic development and policy utilising place-based working to ensure physical and mental wellbeing is embraced and embedded as part of the solution to break down barriers and the cycle of disadvantages and disengagement. The team positively advocate the benefits that physical activity, sport, and wider movement play on the overall health, wellbeing and personal and social development of children and young people, with a focus on actively tackling and reducing inequalities, which impacts on wider social, economic and educational outcomes for children and young people.

Working collaboratively to co-create new inclusive opportunities and experiences for the voice of children and young people to be heard and empowered through meaningful participation, consultation, and engagement, particularly those living in our most vulnerable communities across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland through our various educational and community programmes and funding opportunities.

As a strategic organisation tacking inactivity, we position ourselves to empower people to effect change. We strengthen connections with system leaders and take a system approach to deliver meaningful opportunities for the physical activity workforce to develop in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.

Our Empowering People team are driven to developing a more diverse workforce that is reflective of our local communities across our area. To make this happen, we will ensure that people have access to high quality learning, training and employment opportunities so that they can deliver high quality experiences and meaningful personalised activity.

We understand that excellent sport and physical activity delivery is about connecting with people, understanding their needs, motivations and barriers to participation. People can play an integral role in helping individuals to get active and stay active, supporting and influencing their behaviour change journey and with our broad reach, working across new sectors, we will identify and empower those who can influence and support people into sport and physical activity.

Our Infrastructure and Environment team advocate a coordinated and holistic approach to the design and operation of our surroundings from streets, neighbourhoods and public open spaces to the policies, standards and planning of the infrastructure. It is important to design and adapt the environment to encourage physical activity in our everyday lives, making active choice the easy choice and to ensure that active and sustainable environments and communities exist across our region.

Our team provide leadership and advocacy in relation to the role of both active travel and the built and natural environments in increasing physical activity levels and improving health across our region.

We seek to ensure that physical activity is not only on the radar but is also part of a successful solution. We share best practice as well as provide advice, guidance, and support in both areas in order to ensure that there is a better connection between physical activity and the environment in which people live and move.

Our Research, Insight and Communications team utilise research and insight to inform the work our colleagues undertake so that we are confident we are making the right decisions based on evidence, research, data and analysis. The insight we gather and research we analyse helps us to understand the profile and needs of local areas and communities, and provide an evidence base for physical activity.

Our research supports our team and our partners to understand and learn from the work they do. In turn we can learn from past experiences and be empowered to share good practice that will inform future approaches.

From this, we utilise a variety of mechanisms to deliver clear messages and promote what we do. We adapt these mechanisms to exchange information to provide a voice for physical activity, ensure our audiences are kept informed and provide the means for them to engage with us.