Moving Matters Programme 2026-27
Movement Matters is a national development programme, funded by Sport England and delivered by the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), supporting primary care to embed movement into everyday health and care.
Why Movement Matters
Primary care is under increasing pressure. More people are living with long-term conditions, inactivity and health inequalities, and clinical interventions on their own are not enough.
There is a growing need for non-clinical, personalised support that helps people build movement into their daily lives in ways that are meaningful and sustainable.
Movement Matters responds to this challenge by strengthening social prescribing and connecting healthcare with community-based movement opportunities.
What the programme does
Movement Matters works at a neighbourhood and system level to:
- Integrate physical activity into primary care pathways
- Strengthen social prescribing ecosystems
- Support community-led, group-based approaches
- Reach priority populations at scale.
The aim of the programme is simply to help people move more, improve health and wellbeing and reduce pressure on GP services.
How it works
Movement Matters is a rolling national development programme, designed to strengthen the capability, confidence and influence of Active Partnerships (APs) in integrating physical activity into primary care.
Movement Matters positions APs to work more closely with primary care at a neighbourhood level, using place-based insight, group-based and community-led approaches that reach priority populations at scale through proactive social prescribing.
The programme focuses on providing APs with support to influence primary care to take a 'movement matters' approach, and increase the prioritisation of physical activity in patient pathways, informed by place-based insights. Movement Matters operates as a flexible programme to address the variations in maturity that exist across different APs. It allows each AP to engage in a way that is suited to their local context, maturity, capacity and existing relationships, rather than a one-size fits all approach.
Each AP develops a strategic and concise System Influence Plan (SIP), which is a locally tailored, practical plan that sets out how they will:
- Influence primary care
- Strengthen social prescribing pathways
- Embed movement into patient care.
Support includes:
- Micro-learning and practical resources
- Expert clinics and peer learning
- Tools for business cases, data and impact
- Ongoing relationship-building with practices.
APs and PCNs will have tailored resource packs aligned to their needs, with some crossover so scope for PCNs to access selected resources directly where appropriate.
To create their SIP, Movement Matters will provide APs with:
- Core learning and a Movement Matters pack with practical tools and guidance.
- Templates and support to demonstrate value to primary care (e.g. business cases, data).
- Tailored advice through Movement Matters Clinics.
- Peer learning and support to navigate challenges and complex systems.
Supporting primary care
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and practices are supported to take a "movement matters" approach with patients, use social prescribing proactively and access simple, practical tools to embed movement into care.
This is designed to be low burden and high impact, fitting the reallities of busy primary care settings.
A national Community of Practice
A 6-weekly national Community of Practice provides a shared learning space for APs. Link Workers, PCN staff and community partners to embed movement matters approaches, including shaping SIPs, refining movement pathways, sharing system insights and co-producing practical interventions.
What Makes Movement Matters different
The Movement Matters programme as well as being flexible and adaptable to each AP, is place-based, tailored to local needs, and not a one-size fits all approach. It is led by relationships, building trusted connections between health and communities, whilst being practical and action-focused with clear tools and outputs.
Above all else, it takes a whole-system approach aligning partners across different sectors.
Programme delivery
Through the Movement Matters Programme, areas will develop a SIP to embed movement into primary care, strengthen social prescribing pathways, generate evidence and case studies of what works and support more people to move more, in ways that work for them.
APs can join the programme up until five months before it ends and complete onboarding and initial learning. NASP will support APs to develop their SIP and also support them with engaging practices in creating and implementing their SIP.
Why it matters
Movement is one of the most effective ways to improve physical and mental health and yet it remains underused in healthcare.
Movement Matters helps make movement a routine part of care.
