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Exercise Referral Toolkit

There is increasing recognition, both globally and in the UK, of the need to promote healthier lifestyles and improve physical activity levels. Primary care has been recognised as a potentially important setting for the promotion of physical activity.

One of the most popular approaches to promoting physical activity in the primary care setting has been through exercise referral schemes. These schemes are widespread in the UK and form an important part of the interface between healthcare practitioners, health promotion specialists and exercise professionals.

Aim of the Toolkit

This exercise referral toolkit aims to provide an easy-to-read, practical guide for all those professionals involved in exercise referral schemes. It has been developed in consultation with a range of professionals and key national stakeholders.

The toolkit is not designed as a 'blueprint' for how exercise referral schemes must be designed, implemented and evaluated; it offers some best practice principles for all those involved in delivery, management and commissioning. It is for individual schemes to consider whether the implementation of these principles will improve the design, delivery and effectiveness of their scheme, given the capacity and resources available.

It draws upon Government policy for the design and delivery of quality assured exercise referral schemes; it is not a replacement for such national policy. Furthermore it should not be used in isolation from the National Quality Assurance Framework for exercise referral schemes (NQAF). It is a tool to aid the design, delivery and evaluation of exercise referral schemes, but is not policy. It uses the evidence base and local scheme practice to support schemes in meeting the guidelines set out within the National Quality Assurance Framework and to raise standards within schemes.