ABOUT

The National Centre for Sport & Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) is a collaboration between universities, healthcare trusts, local authorities and private and voluntary sector organisations, bringing together research, education and clinical services. There are 3 NCSEM centres in England in London, East Midlands and Sheffield.

The Challenge

One of the biggest pressures faced by our health and social care system today is the increase in long-term conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, arthritis, cancer and depression. 

Inactivity due to ill health costs the UK economy £15 billion a year. And existing inequalities mean that people living in disadvantaged areas are more likely to become ill.

We know that helping people maintain an active lifestyle leads to better health, particularly among those with long-term conditions. But the failure of successive NHS strategies has proved that getting people to move more is harder than it sounds.

Check out how our pioneering new healthcare model is helping people stay active.

WHAT WE DO

Through world-class research, the 3 NCSEM sites are focused on developing a better understanding of human movement. This basic science underpins everything we do from small scale pilot trials through to implementing change at a population level. This allows us to fully assess the health, wellbeing and economic benefits of physical activity, sport and exercise.

We translate this research to the health and social care, and public health professions, equipping them with the tools they need to promote physical activity effectively.  Through the re-design of clinical services we are embedding physical activity as a core treatment in an attempt to improve patient outcomes and deliver a sustainable NHS.

The 3 NCSEM sites also work closely with elite sports people and leading sporting organisations, providing research discoveries that drive enhanced performance and developing improvements in clinical practice that support athlete health.

NCSEM Sheffield is focused on the design, implementation and evaluation of whole-system approaches to increasing physical activity across the population.

NCSEM Sheffield

At the heart of the project is Move More, an evidence-based, city-wide public health programme, which aims to re-engineer physical activity back into daily life through meaningful changes to the physical and social environment of a city, including communities, schools, workplaces and transport infrastructure.

In Sheffield, we have a focus on physical activity and population health. NCSEM Sheffield is a partnership between:

NCSEM-Sheffield provides a platform for many physical activity projects across Sheffield; we work closely with partners to ensure that work is aligned across the city.  We have 3 key, inter-related areas of activity;

1.    Move More Sheffield

The NCSEM Sheffield provides the platform and the governance for Move More Sheffield; our whole systems approach to increasing physical activity.

2.    Research

We work with local, regional and national partners to explore and understand 'what works' to increase physical activity.

3.    Co-location of NHS services in community sport venues

An innovative hub and spoke capital model co-locates patients, researchers, clinicians and sport & exercise medicine specialists.  Graves Health and Sports Centre, Thorncliffe Health and Leisure Centre and Concord Sports Centre all co-locate NHS services in this way; we have research underway to understand the impact of this new way of working.