Physical activity case studies and best practice guidance

Physical activity case studies and best practice guidance

Facilitating active travel

Replacing short journeys with walking or cycling, or using public transport which requires more steps than using a private car; is a great way to incorporate more movement into every day life.

Exploring some of the following could help your organisation to complete more active travel journeys:

Modeshift STARS for Business

The Hampshire County Council Travel Planning Team can support organisations to embark on their active travel journey by completing and implementing a Travel Plan through the Modeshift STARS platform.

The scheme has five levels of accreditation, which can showcase your organisations commitments to active travel.

Sign up through My Journey Hampshire:

Modeshift STARS for Business (My Journey Hampshire)

See examples of how the scheme has helped other organisations: Business Case Studies (Modeshift STARS)

Cycle to Work scheme

The cycle to work scheme is a government initiative that allows employees to obtain a new bike and cycle equipment via their employer.

The scheme works as a salary sacrifice benefit, which means employees can make tax and national insurance savings on the cost of a new bike.

See further information about the Cycle to Work scheme:

Information for people who travel actively to work

Employers may wish to consider surveying staff on both their journey to/taken for work and implement a travel plan.

Staff will need to know what facilities are available at your workplace and the surrounding area. Creating a short guide that is available for staff and shared with new starters as part of their induction is a good place to start.

See guidance for writing a successful policy:

Writing a successful Cycling for Work Policy (Sustrans)

Fostering a culture that is supportive of physical activity

Creating a culture where people feel empowered to take time to be physically active can improve the health and wellbeing of the organisation.

Some suggestions that could be adopted include:

  • Flexible working hours
  • Walking meetings - providing an opportunity to be physically active while at work and have also been shown to improve creativity
  • Signage - encouraging the use of stairs instead of lifts (e.g. Take The Stairs poster)
  • Home working and activity - see ideas on Energise Me: Get active at home (Energise Me)
  • Share walking routes - to support people to take a break and complete a short walk, it may be helpful to provide a few walking routes of different distances from your organisation

Physical activity champions and leaders

Peer champions have been identified as an important way to promote healthy behaviours such as physical activity.

Resources

Resources are available to support physical activity champions in Hampshire:

The following ideas could be used internally and with service users, customers or residents to support people to move more:

  • share messages on the health benefits of physical activity with staff
  • create year-round messaging for staff and service users to promote physical activity
  • change email signatures to include ‘have you taken an active moment in the last hour?’