A report on the Department of Health ‘Walking Cities’ initiative in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds and Bradford, Norwich and Manchester

Overview This report on the five ‘Walking Cities’ was commissioned by Beelin Baxter, Senior Physical Activity Policy Officer at the Department of Health (DH). The aim was to synthesise the findings from the reports submitted to DH, highlight innovative practice and to enable learning for the future. This report was written by Sarah Hanson, Research Associate and Professor Andy Jones, both from the Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia. Executive summary and recommendations The Department of Health funded five ‘Walking Cities’ in 2013 – 2015 to develop walking initiatives. There was great variety in the projects and evidence of much activity. The aim was also to target the particularly inactive and those who were less well socially situated. Whilst there are useful transferable lessons to be learned from this project, the poor reporting did not allow the assessment of how well aims were achieved. Where baseline measurements were recorded it appeared that participants were already physically active. Where interventions were particularly successful, they built on ‘grass-roots’ community assets already in existence which took them to the heart of a community. The use of community based assets was particularly important in accessing those who are harder to reach and hence the learnings from this programme support assessing and utilising the assets in a community. There were attempts to work with health professionals with direct referrals into the walking interventions. This met with very limited success and continues to represent a major missed opportunity in reaching those who are the most inactive and in poorest health. Due to the poor project reporting the mandated and full use of the Standard Evaluation Framework for Physical Activity is recommended for the future. There was limited outcomes reporting and this limited our evaluation of how successful the programme was at increasing physical activity. We would make the following two recommendations. Firstly, that the Standard Evaluation Framework for Physical Activity is mandated for future work and that practitioners are trained in how to use it. Secondly, we would recommend that we need to understand the missed opportunity of direct referrals from health professionals; why this is the case and why health professionals do not refer to walking interventions, such as group walks

Positioning Children’s Voice in Clinical Trials Research: A New Model for Planning, Collaboration, and Reflection

Following the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, there has been considerable growth in research with children about health and services that affect them. Creative methods to engage with children have also been developed. One area where progress has been slower is the inclusion of children’s perspectives in qualitative research in the context of clinical trials or feasibility studies. Addressing this gap, this article discusses experiences of, and reflections on, the process of researching children’s views as part of a clinical feasibility study. The article considers what worked well and highlights remaining dilemmas. A new continuum of children’s engagement in research is presented, designed to assist researchers to make explicit the contingent demands on their research, and to suggest a range of techniques from within the broader fields of health, childhood studies, and education research that could be used to forward qualitative research in clinical contexts

Electronic Health Records and Support For Primary Care Teamwork

This study examined primary care practices' experiences using electronic health records (EHRs) as they strive to function as teams in patientcentered medical homes (PCMHs). We identify how EHRs facilitate and pose challenges to teamwork and how practices overcame such challenges. We describe solutions and identify opportunities to improve care processes as well as EHR functionalities and policies, to support teamwork

Achievement for all: leadership matters

Purpose: "The focus of this document is on leadership - the impact that effective leaders have on their schools and their pupils; and the impact that the project has had upon the leadership styles and strategies within participating schools. It aims to: provide an overview of the key strands of the AfA project and give evidence of the impact it has had; identify characteristics of effective leadership that best support the achievement for all children and young people; share key learning from the project and provide illustrations of successful practice from participating schools; encourage other leaders to reflect on their own practice and to adopt AfA as a strategy for improving pupils' attainment and progress in their schools Throughout this document questions are suggested for schools to use to prompt discussion with the leadership group, staff, governors, parents and pupils, where appropriate." - Page 3