Health, Physical Activity & Sport

Partnerships & Working Groups

Kent Physical Activity & Healthy Eating Alliance

The Kent Physical Activity & Healthy Eating Alliance has come about through SEPACT, the South East Physical Activity Co-ordinating Team. This County Alliance has been established to replicate at a local level the diverse range of partners seen with SEPACT. Each Alliance had two identified leads, one from a sport setting and one from a health setting. The leads act as the Champions for a multi agency approach to delivery of physical activity within the County, representatives to SEPACT, point of contact for the County and dissemination of information.

The leads for Kent are:
SPORT – Elise Rendall, Kent Sports Development Officer, KCC Kent Sport Leisure and Olympics Service
HEALTH – Claire Martin, Public Health Specialist, East Kent Coastal PCT

SEPACT - South East Physical Activity Co-ordinating Team

SEPACT was set up in March 2004 comprising a wide range of partners interested in physical activity. This team came about following a call from the Department of Health (DH) and the Department for Cultural Media & Sport (DCMS) to mirror the National Activity Co-ordination Team that had been formed following the publication of Game Plan (link opens in new window) in December 2002.

A physical activity strategy for the region has been developed. Move It – A Framework for Action on Physical Activity in the South East was launched in December 2004. This was joined in November 2005 by Choosing Health white paper and the associated Choosing Activity Action Plan.

BLF Well Being – Kent Working Group

Following the launch of the Big Lottery Well-Being Fund, Kent put together a working group to drive forward a proposal for submission to the Government Office of the South East (GOSE) and Sport England in July 2006, to be included in an overall bid from the South East.

Developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and access to preventative health services has become more important over the last few years, especially in the wake of growing obesity levels and the increase of mental health conditions such as stress, depression and anxiety. The Well-being programme aims to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being.

The programme focuses onthree strands: Physical Activity, Healthy Eating and Mental Health. A large number of projects were submitted to the Kent Working Group prior to the July cut off date covering all these strands and a submission was made to GOSE in July.

Following the Stage 1 submission, Kent were invited to submit a more focused portfolio. This was done in January 2007. The outcome will be known later in the year.

If you would like to look at the bid for Kent, click here (Word doc)

If you would like to look at the bid for the South East (Chances 4 Change) (pdf) click here

Health Trainers Network

As part of the Kent & Medway Public Health Network Workforce Development Strategy 2005 – 2008, it was found that there is no health economy-wide strategy that exists in Kent and Medway for the workforce planning, education, training and development of the three categories of the public health workforce.

Increasing the numbers of Consultants/Specialists in Public Health in Kent and Medway is a priority. One action from this is to develop a strategy for training health trainers in Kent and Medway, in line with national guidance.

There is a Training Health Trainers Network Group that meet on a regular basis, to go through local level updates on Health Trainers, Regional updates and to work on the Action Plan for implementing the Health Trainer model.

Kent & Medway Obesity Sub-Committee

The Kent & Medway Obesity Sub-Committee comprise a number of Health Professionals and the Kent Sports Development Officer.

The committee is working towards delivering 4 priorities:
Priority One: Lifestyle and referral guidelines
Priority Two: Opportunities for children to be active
Priority Three: To sustain and develop Healthy Eating Initiatives
Priority Four: Training and Development

The latest update on each of these priorities can be found by clicking here

The work of the Obesity Sub-committee links in to the Kent Physical Activity & Healthy Eating Alliance.

Local Level Partnerships

There are various projects taking place at a more local level around the county of Kent, developing physical activity and health programmes.

A mapping exercise is currently taking place to find what projects are being developed. To find out what is going on in your area, click here (link to word document of current projects taking place)

If you would like to find out more about what is going on in each local authority in Kent, you can contact the relevant Sports Development Officer or Health Promotion Contacts.