SCOTTISH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH
COUNCIL
Priorities for Council Business in
2005
This paper invites Council members to consider the
following as a work programme for their business in
2005.
The current picture
The case for physical activity was made in the Scottish
Physical Activity Strategy and Scottish Ministers have
agreed national physical activity targets. This has been
strengthened with recent global and national health
policies. We have laid the foundation for action to
address these.
We need now to be honest about the organisational and
cultural challenges that face us. Physical activity is a
relatively new health improvement policy (barely 2 years
old). It is also one that relies heavily on policies and
practice from a wide range of policy portfolios and
organisations.
From extensive external consultation, it is clear that
harnessing diverse activity towards a common goal of
getting people more active is a challenge that also faces
our community planning partners. It is our belief that
progress with implementation of the physical activity
strategy continues both to progress and to suffer from
being 'everyone's and no-one's responsibility'.
However, we cannot wait for organisational and cultural
change to happen before taking action - we must continue to
lead change through our actions. There are great examples
of changing to deliver for physical activity in the
Scottish Executive and among our partners. We must
celebrate this progress, build on this success but
recognise that there is much still to be done.
Issues for 2005 Council Work Programme
May Agenda - Workforce capacity and development
issues
The review of workforce development is uncovering
significant issues of staff availability, staff
development, professional accreditation and regulation in
the area of physical activity. Our ability to deliver more
and better appears to be threatened by a lack of capacity
across various sectors and settings. The final report from
the Workforce Development Planning project will be
available in March 2005. We believe that the Council need
to consider possible actions to address the recommendations
that will be made in this report.
July Agenda - Scotland in the context of
international progress
We believe that the Physical Activity Task Force took us
from a low base of understanding to a significant new
national strategy. Since then we have been consolidating
and laying the foundations for a solid infrastructure to
move forward. It has been acknowledged by international
partners that Scotland has been ahead of many other
countries in this policy area. More recently other
countries have progressed their thinking and commitment to
action. We believe that this is a good time to learn from
each other as well as consider potential UK and
international actions.
To support this meeting we will draft a paper
summarising key actions and approaches underway in the UK
and other countries.
October Agenda - Target setting
The Scottish Health Survey data will be published in
October 2005 and can be made available to the Council in
published and raw data formats. We believe that it will
provide a basis for the Council to review overall progress
since 1998 and to consider the possibilities for better
local data for target setting and the possible need for
health inequalities target
We will commission health department statisticians to
develop a paper for Council members to consider.
January Agenda - Communications
planning
By January 2006 we will be approaching the third phase
of the healthyliving campaign. There will be a good deal
of long-term communications tracking data that can be
analysed at this stage. We suggest that this will be a
good time for the Council to review target groups, key
message and key communications channels.