Food & Health Alliance

Background

A recommendation from the Five-year review of ‘Let’s Make Scotland More Active’ was: ‘a coalition of organisations independent of the Scottish Government who could mobilise, motivate and advocate for physical activity would assist in ensuring the profile of physical activity remained high and would facilitate better delivery and coordination.’

A number of interested parties came together to discuss the formation of a national coalition of organisations. This group included representation from: Association of Physical Education; British Heart Foundation Scotland; Forestry Commission Scotland; NHS Health Scotland; Paths for All; Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow; Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils; Scottish Natural Heritage; Scottish Sports Association; and Sustrans Scotland.

The working group, who named themselves as the Scottish Physical Activity Advocacy Coalition working group, saw this recommendation as an opportunity to enhance the existing national physical activity infrastructure in Scotland by providing a unified voice, leadership and coordination for national and local organisations endeavouring to create a more active Scotland.

In 2010, the Toronto Charter for Physical Activity was launched. The working group saw this as an opportunity to translate this global call for action into a Scottish context and to use its framework as a basis for progress towards a national coalition. The Scottish charter for physical activity was prepared in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and is now in a final draft, which was shared more broadly with the physical activity and health alliance at the PAHA conference on 14 June 2011.

**DRAFT paper attached below**

It is thought that this document will act as a catalyst to bring the coalition together, and to encourage a wider range of organisations that have a potential role in advocating physical activity to engage.  This Scottish version of the global charter has been developed to support existing policy around physical activity and to progress policy into action. The next step is to encourage organisations to sign up to support the content of the charter to register their interest in being involved in a coalition to work to increase physical activity levels in Scotland.

Invitation to comment on final draft of Scottish charter for physical activity

If your organisation wishes to submit any comments on the final draft charter, they should be sent to Sharon Allison (sharon.allison1@nhs.net) by Friday 15 July 2011.

Invitation to take part in the coalition committee

The initial working group has worked as a group of volunteers and now wishes to make an open invitation and actively recruit membership across all sectors that can contribute to physical activity. If your organisation wishes to take part, a note of interest should be sent to Sharon Allison (sharon.allison1@nhs.net) by Friday 15 July 2011.