Physical Activity Clinical Champions

Physical Activity Clinical Champions (or PACC for short) is an evidence-based, physical activity education programme for health and care professionals.

It was developed as part of the Moving Healthcare Professionals programme, a national programme led by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in partnership with Sport England. 

Project leadership has since switched to a consortium made up of The Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (Sheffield Hallam University), the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine and Intelligent Health. 

The peer-to-peer training increases health and care professionals’ knowledge and skills so that they can incorporate physical activity within routine care. This aligns with the personalised care agenda and supports better patient outcomes.

Jan Sinclair, a senior public health nurse at Stepping Hill Hospital, leads on the delivery of PACC across the North West.

By helping connect Jan with front line workers, PACC is being delivered to teams across Greater Manchester. This includes a session with the Be Well (social prescribing) team in Manchester.

The feedback below came from that session:

Get Involved

If you connecting NHS colleagues with physical activity training opportunities and would like to organise PACC training for a NHS team in Greater Manchester:

Contact the team

Why is PACC training important?

Greater Manchester Moving are supporting health and social care professionals to access the training because everyone has a role to play in tackling the inactivity crisis with evidence suggesting 1 in 4 people would be more active if advised by a GP or nurse. 

The training gives clinicians access to evidence-based resources proven to increase knowledge and confidence around physical activity, to support clinical practice in line with guidance (e.g. NICE) and support patients to manage with 30+ long-term conditions. 

Long-term, we hope PACC training, alongside our other efforts as part of the GM Moving in Action strategy, can help reduce service demand costs. The estimate cost to the NHS of insufficient physical activity is £0.9bn.

We also know that 70-80% of GPs do not speak about the benefits of physical activity to patients, something often associated with knowledge, skills and confidence gaps across healthcare professionals.

A survey of 1,000 GPs found also found less than half (44%) are confident speaking about physical activity with patients while more than half (55%) of GPs have had no specific training on physical activity in patient care.

What impact has the PACC training had in Greater Manchester?

Jan Sinclair is a senior public health nurse who helps people to live healthier lifestyles at Stepping Hill Hospital and in the Stockport community.

She promotes good health across the country as part of the Moving Medicine work, supporting and delivering Physical Activity Clinical Champions.

Read more about her work here.