Prescribing active travel for better health in Leeds

A whole systems approach to health improvement

Social prescribing – sometimes referred to as community referral – is a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other health and care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services. Active travel social prescribing – focuses on referrals to individual or group walking, wheeling or cycling.

Recognising that people’s health and wellbeing are determined mostly by a range of social, economic and environmental factors, social prescribing seeks to address people’s needs in a holistic way and supports individuals and households to take greater control of their own health. The focus of the localised social prescribing approach is to bring the physical activity opportunities to residents’ front doors.

We aim to change the context within the area to enable people to create new habits and behaviours.

An active travel masterplan

The masterplan - with input from a range of stakeholders – will support changes to the urban realm and transport infrastructure in Burmantofts, Harehills and Richmond Hill. It will aim to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday local trips, as well as trips to Leeds City Centre to connect in with the rapidly evolving active travel infrastructure around the city’s business and retail district. 

The masterplan will build in recommendations for lighting, seating and wayfinding amongst other complementary measures to make active travel more inclusive, accessible and attractive.

Co-creating urban trails

Often mapped on apps, urban trails are signed routes within an urban area that offer an additional layer of interest or playfulness,  including monuments to pass, QR codes to scan and themed information boards to read.

Behavioural-change organisation, Magpie, are also involved in the pilot, primarily supporting co-design in a complex landscape of a multitude of languages, ages and needs of the local communities. All recommendations for active travel infrastructure improvements, urban trails, group activities and social prescribing need to be mindful of the diverse communities within the study area – with over 70 languages being spoken locally.

Shaping an active community

Another focus of the pilot is taking a family-based approach. We are involving families in urban trails around parts of the city to improve the walking environment. These are supported by local walking initiatives and ‘learn-to-ride’ sessions and group activities that have been extended to adults as well as children, alongside cycle hubs focused around schools. 

Within the relatively small study area, there are 17 schools scattered across the PCN, which will also have benefits for parents, who are a priority group for the pilot.

We are also seeking to build the evidence base for what works, and what can be adapted elsewhere. There have been some smaller-scale social prescribing projects across the country which have hinted at positive outcomes and return on investment but sustained long-term pilots with extensive monitoring and evaluation will be able to strengthen the case for holistic, community-based interventions.