Durham University: Getting Active Through Moving Social Work

Academics from our Department of Sports and Exercise Sciences have been working in collaboration with Sport England through Get Yourself Active (GYA), in order to launch the Moving Social Work programme.

Collaboration
Moving Social Work aims to create resources and co-produce strategies for the education of the social workers of the future and has been launched especially in time for Disability History Month.

The programme will progress through four stages: scoping, content production, effectiveness testing and final production. With knowledge learned at each stage, and with resources tested, the team will then work towards a national rollout.

Programme leaders have worked together with various people to co-produce the work of the project, meaning everyone has a say in what the programme does – including social workers, social worker lecturers, social work students and disabled people.

Removing barriers
Prior to the pandemic, disabled people faced many more barriers to being active compared to non-disabled people; these inequalities have been exacerbated. It is hoped that through upskilling social workers to promote physical activity, more disabled people will have the opportunity to benefit from getting active in a way that is right for them.

This is the first research of its kind and researchers believe that training social workers in promoting physical activity promotion is an untapped yet vital move to supporting the health and wellbeing of disabled people.