Una O’Brien and Jonathan Stephens, Permanent Secretaries at the Department of Health and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, have agreed to lead a Civil Service wide Physical Activity Challenge inspired by the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Sir Gus O’Donnell announced the Challenge at Civil Service Live on 7th July and Una and Jonathan have written to all government departments urging them to sign up.
The Physical Activity Challenge is an opportunity for all civil service organisations to show their commitment to a fitter and healthier workforce by encouraging staff to ‘get physical’. This includes Departments, their arms length bodies, agencies and local offices around the country. Specifically, the challenge is for each organisation to motivate its staff to be more active in accordance with new Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines published on 11th July. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games provide the backdrop and the inspiration for the Challenge, which will encompass all kinds of physical activity from walking to work through to competitive sport. The Challenge starts now and Departments have 12 months to build up to a week of physical activity in September 2012.
Evidence tells us that the least active have the most to gain and that activity should be fun. The ‘how’ is down to each organisation, which can be as creative and innovative as it wishes. The Challenge will run until the end of September 2012, but we hope that a new culture of activity and ongoing support will help us all to get active and stay active.
CSSC Sports and Leisure will be a key partner but other organisations promoting/delivering physical activity and sport will also have an important role to play.
It will be up to each organisation to demonstrate the progress they have made and outstanding achievement will be ‘named and acclaimed’. The aim is that civil service organisations will submit how well they are doing in the autumn of 2012, but there will also be an opportunity to recognise the success of those fastest out of the blocks through the 2012 Civil Service Awards.
Sir Gus will announce gold, silver and bronze awards in November 2012 for the top three active civil service organisations (according to the percentage of your staff who meet the Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines).
How can we benefit?
Sport and wider physical activity bring many health benefits including reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, certain types of cancer and diabetes. Mental health benefits can be immediate, including improved wellbeing and social engagement. As well as the benefits for individuals, this means a more resilient workforce, reduced sickness absence and greater productivity.
What support is available?
The Civil Service has a proud history of competitive sport and recreational activity, provided through the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) and its member associations. The CSSC has volunteered its network to support and promote this Challenge, with offers for members and non-members alike. Civil service organisations can also draw upon a range of existing initiatives to help meet the Challenge, such as the Cycle to Work scheme and Sport England’s own Gold Challenge, which encourages adults to try out a range of sports and raise money for charity at the same time.
Resources
How can we sign up?
Signing up to the Challenge couldn’t be simpler. We simply require a written notification on behalf of your Permanent Secretary or Chief Executive confirming the name of your organisation, a contact and agreement for your organisation to be listed below as having accepted the Civil Service Physical Activity Challenge.
We encourage all civil service organisations to join the challenge. Ideally you would be able to sign up to the challenge on behalf of all of your executive agencies/arms length bodies. If you are unable to do so then please encourage them to contact us direct to commit to the Challenge or for further information.
How will the Challenge be measured?
There are three ways for your organisation to demonstrate achievement:
- By measuring the percentage of staff who accumulated 150 minutes or more of at least moderate intensity physical activity (i.e. meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ new physical activity guidelines) over the period of a week.
- By putting in a nomination for the 2012 or 2013 Civil Service Awards
- By submitting case studies at any stage for publication on these web pages
The Civil Service Physical Activity Challenge runs from 7th July 2011 until 18th September 2012. We are urging organisations to ask staff about their levels of physical activity over either of the following sample periods:
- 5th – 11th September 2012 or
- 12th – 18th September 2012
We have prepared a simple question to capture this, which you may wish to include in your own, wider health and wellbeing survey. We will not expect you to report the change over the year, unless you wish to do so. Please submit your results for the percentage of staff achieving the 150 minutes guideline to the Civil Service Challenge mailbox by 30th September 2012, in order to appear in the League Table of Most Active Civil Service Organisations to be published in October 2012.
Physical Activity Survey Question
The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend that adults should aim to be active daily. Over a week activity should add up to at least 150 mins (2 1/2hrs) of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more.
In the past week, how many minutes of physical activity have you accumulated, which was enough to raise your breathing rate?
This may include sport, exercise, and brisk walking or cycling for recreation or to get to and from places, but should not include housework or physical activity that may be part of your job.
Please tick
0 | 30-59 | 60-89 | 90-119 | 120-149 | 150+
The Civil Service Awards
It is up to organisations to demonstrate the progress they have made. We will ‘name and acclaim’ outstanding achievement through the Civil Service Awards in 2012 and 2013.
Civil Service Awards have created a separate ‘Active Workplace’ category for 2012 and 2013. We anticipate that nominations will open from June 2012 until the end of July for the 2012 Award.
This means that organisations quickest to get up and running will be judged on their innovation and progress towards meeting the Challenge in 2012, ahead of the outcomes they have been able to achieve following the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The 2013 Award will place a greater emphasis upon the demonstration of benefits and sustainability of the measures you have put in place to deliver the Challenge
Organisations that have signed up
The following civil service organisations have signed up to the Civil Service Physical Activity Challenge, listed in alphabetical order:
- Cabinet Office
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport
- Department of Health
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Ministry of Justice
Case Studies
COAST-TO-COAST CHALLENGE – DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
This challenge involved a virtual trek from coast-to-coast following Wainwright’s fabulous walking route from St Bees on the Cumbrian west coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the east coast. Teams were asked to compete to do as much of the walk as possible – by walking, jogging, running, cycling or climbing stairs. One member of the team kept a record of weekly progress in the template provided and reported via email each week to the Departmental Health & Wellbeing Champion.
Teams were encouraged with photos to show where they would have reached with the same distance on the actual route. Given that most participants did not have pedometers, mileage was estimated by reference to, for example, average walking or running speed. The Department provided links to useful websites to help with this.
The Coast-to-Coast challenge was a great success, attracting 17 teams from across DH and raising over £100 for children’s charities through contributions to Comic Relief. All 17 teams managed to complete the full 314 miles from St. Bees on theIrish Seacoast to Robin Hood’s Bay on theNorth Seacoast.
The Coast to Coast challenge is one of several health and well-being challenges that took place at the Department of Health this year, with the aim to be an exemplar of best practice in supporting staff to be as fit and healthy as possible.
The Home Office Gold Challenge
This programme has been specifically designed for a workforce that is distributed across the country and contains options for employees who are less active or who wish to minimise costs. It is a tailored challenge and teams have the option to walk, run, horse-ride, swim, row or canoe 2012 kilometres before the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Teams take on one or more mini challenges for their charity and can choose their own endurance distance and type of activity. This allows employees to choose a distance and discipline that best suits them.
Home Office Sports & Social Association and key employees from various departments have created a working group to help promote the Gold Challenge internally.
Managers and employee champions are encouraged to sign up and recruit a team for one of the challenges. Registration can be done via a specific corporate webpage or filling out the Gold Challenge pdf.
Gold Challenge Support:
For more information please contact James Douglas, Corporate Partnerships Manager. Tel: 07739316240. Email: james@goldchallenge.org.
Resources
- The NHS Choices website contains a range of articles and videos on how to get into the Olympic spirit and kick start an active lifestyle through sport and exercise. Visit the dedicated section on the Olympics on the NHS Choices website (opens new window)
- NHS Choices provides a tool you can use to measure your fitness level against the latest UK guidelines for physical activity. How fit are you? (opens new window)
- Find out which sport you are best suited to with a short psychological and aptitude test, developed with an expert team of sport psychologists at Loughborough University. Find the sport that’s right for you (opens new window)
Contact us
We have created a dedicated mailbox CivilServiceChallenge@dh.gsi.gov.uk. Please write to us at this address to sign up to the Challenge or to contact us for further information.