The Active Essex LDP is part of a much bigger ‘whole system change’ story in Essex. Essex Partners, made up of over 600 organisations and leaders, are fully committed to changing systems to achieve important economic and social outcomes. Both Essex Partners and the Active Essex LDP view whole system change as a shared outcome, a dynamic collaborative infrastructure, and shared operating principles and behaviours.
One of the main aims of the Active Essex Local Delivery Pilot is to tackle whole system change in the complex system in Essex, which is made up of:
- A County Council
- 12 district local authorities
- 2 district unitary authorities
- 7 Clinical Commissioning Groups
- 14 CVSs
- Many other networks and organisations.
At the time of our bid to Sport England, the leader of Essex County Council said:
“Each of us must step out of our silos and see how the things we work on every day can contribute to the bigger picture.”
In Essex, whole system change comes about through nine building blocks. All of the building blocks work together, and system change happens when the weaker building blocks become stronger. The diagram below shows the strengths and weaknesses of the Essex system:
Seven systems have been identified that can have a significant impact on physical activity levels across Essex. The challenge is to hardwire physical activity into all of these systems, and good progress has been made since 2018. The whole system change work is underpinned by cross-cutting work such as data and insight, and communications.
For more information about our work and whole system change, click the link below.
