Ideas to Action: Finding new ways to overcome inequalities in physical activity.
Written by Neil Gridley, Laura Malan and Melissa Bowden
The Ideas to Action programme, delivered by Design Council and supported by Sport England with funding from The National Lottery Community Fund
was launched to help organisations with bright ideas on how to help some of the least active people in society become more active. It aims
to find new ways to overcome inequalities in physical activity.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on activity levels throughout England, but has been most acute across disadvantaged groups
and areas of high deprivation.
Existing inequalities have widened, with some groups hit much harder
by the pandemic than others. This is the case for women, young people
aged 16–34, over 75s, disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, and those from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds. Those living in deprived areas and also those in urban
areas found it harder to be active. — Sport England Active Lives Survey, 2020–2021
These statistics have sharpened Sport England’s focus on these inequalities;
in supporting the people and communities across the country that need
it the most, and levelling up access to sport and physical activity in more
deprived communities.
Part of their approach is listening more deeply to local communities, grassroots networks, sports clubs, their volunteers, and expert partners in these areas to understand local priorities, what works best and where investment is most needed.
These ambitions to work with local communities and organisations is reflected in the ambitions for the Ideas to Action programme.
The programme is about doing things differently: working together and finding new solutions — based on what people want and need — to bring about positive and lasting change. This is vitally important. Inequalities in physical activity have existed for many years and have persisted or even worsened for certain groups during the pandemic.
- Around 12 million adults in England are in a lower income group and
a third are inactive. - A mix of practical and emotional pressures stop many women from
being as active as they would like. - People from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are the least likely to be active.
- One in five people in England have a long-standing limiting disability
or illness and are twice as likely to be physically inactive. - People with a long-term health condition are more likely to be inactive
than those without.
Design Council have always advocated for design as a strategic tool to address complex challenges through our well known Double-Diamond process and Framework for Innovation.
More recently our Systemic Design Framework has been launched and builds in the enabling activities that go ‘around’ the design process (including orientation and vision setting, looking at connections and relationships, leadership and storytelling) and positions design to play a more meaningful role in addressing the systemic challenges we are being confronted with.
Design brings methods and ways of thinking that help explore problems, discover insights, reframe challenges or define opportunities, and develop and deliver ideas whilst involving people across different disciplines and sectors. All of these are powerful additions to ways of thinking and working for teams on the programme.
We’ll be sharing a little about how we’ve used design to support these teams,
and our learnings from the programme in the following blog post.
There are two strands to the programme. As part of the Sector Innovation strand we are introducing design approaches to six organisations who are existing partners of Sport England to tackle challenges they face in being more innovative within their organisation and how to work through more complex challenges they are addressing through their work.
For the Community Innovation strand we are working with thirteen groups and organisations across the UK made up of:
- …new and existing community organisations (Empowering Health,
The Bridge, Music Makes Us Move) - …programmes, products and clubs (Metro Blind Sports, Sporting Memories Network, Move It or Lose It, Rio Ferdinand Foundation, Versus Arthritis, Hallam Barbell Weightlifting Club)
- …and community and council/local authority partnerships (Sutton Hill Community Trust, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Norfolk and Waveney CCG, Health and Nature Dorset).
Teams across the programme are focussing on one or more of the related challenges:
- Making changes with communities — Working alongside communities to design safer places and spaces in their neighbourhoods to encourage people, especially those who are less likely to be active, to become more active.
- Making social connections — Creating opportunities for people who are less likely to participate in physical activities to meet (in person or virtually) with others and become more active.
- Getting active in the digital world — Working with people who are finding it hard to be active so they feel able to access and use online resources and book online activities.
- Inclusive design — Working with people to design accessible, relevant and meaningful information, products or services that help them become more active.
Within the Community Innovation strand we’re running a series of masterclasses, workshops, and one-to-one coaching sessions for teams to learn design tools and methods. Workshops are created and hosted by the Design Council experts and contacts, encouraging teams to build links with other participants in the group.
Some of the challenges teams are focusing on or areas they’d like to explore during the programme include:
- ‘Empowering young females to build up their independence, confidence and self-awareness as individuals into leaders within their communities through weekly sports activities’
- ‘Developing and refining what a new blended form of delivery might look like for different audiences (post Covid-19)’
- ‘Exploring ways to reach underserved people living with dementia’
- ‘Creating ideas to overcome the barriers that mums face to being more active’
- ‘Supporting the development of a new leisure facility to ensure engagement of local communities’
Experts and speakers who’ve been involved in delivering programme content, in the form of Masterclasses and talks:
- Marc Leckie, Head of Harlequins Foundation
- Natasha Trotman, Design Council Expert
- Helen Stevenson, DOT Project
- Maayan Ashkenazi, Design Council Expert
- Jane Nash, Narativ London
- Alfredo Brillembourg, Urban Think Tank
- Sophia De Sousa, The Glass House
- Imogen Berman, Think.Plan.Thrive
- Sabina Dewfield, Design Council
- Olivia Strong, Run for Heroes
The programme is introducing teams to thinking and working in this way and using design methods as well as coaching them to use those methods live on their projects. A key aspect is also peer-support and peer-to-peer learning, they may be working on very different topics, with different groups or geographies, but they share many common challenges. For those who normally work alone or in pairs, being part of a cohort is really valuable.
We’re introducing them to methods and mindsets like:
- Don’t jump straight to the solution — spend time exploring the problem.
- Engage people & explore their needs — really understand their lived experience.
- Seek different perspectives — gain a rich and rounded understanding.
- Co-create — develop ideas and understanding together.
- Prototype and test your way to a solution — iterating and trying things out quickly with people.
Early reflections included the below from a few of the teams:
Whilst inequalities are complex and require long-term action, the programme aims to inspire teams and introduce methods and mindsets that live on well beyond the programme. We’ll be sharing some of the learnings from delivering the programme in the next blog post.
For more information please visit https://www.ideastoaction.design/or sign up to our mailing list.
