Increasing active living

This page includes links to evidence-based guidance to assist partners in the implementation of actions to increase active living across a range of settings.

• Actions in early childhood settings and schools

  By using a whole-of-organisation approach that includes staff, students, families and the wider community, early childhood services and schools are ideally placed to improve health behaviours which can help prevent chronic disease, support better learning outcomes and set children and adults up with healthy habits for life. Early childhood services and schools are also workplaces and have a valuable opportunity to positively influence healthy behaviour of the people who spend time there (refer to guidance for workplaces).

  The Achievement Program provides guidance and support for education settings to become healthier places for their communities. The program is a free initiative that identifies evidence-based actions to create healthier places, provides links to best-practice resources and case studies, and provides Victorian government recognition once applicable standards have been met.

  Evidence-based actions that early childhood services or schools can take to encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and become a healthier place include:

  Encourage Victorian children and young people to use active modes of travel to and from school

  Supporting children and young people to actively travel to and from school builds healthy habits early in life. Children and young people who actively travel engage in more physical activity than those who do not.

  • Support active travel to and from the early childhood service or school, by providing appropriate change facilities and safe storage for bikes, scooters and helmets.
  • Consider opportunities to work with local government to create marked routes to school that are safe for walking, cycling or scooting.

  Resources on this topic include:

  • Strategies to encourage active travel to schools, VicHealth Walk to school
  • Walk-to-school program, VicHealth Walk to school
  • Case studies, VicHealth Walk to school
  • Ride-to-school program, Bicycle Network
  • Toolbox, Bicycle Network
  • Road Safety Education Victoria, VicRoads

  Integrate formal and informal opportunities to increase physical activity and reduce sitting time within the school day

  The provision of high-quality physical education and sport within the school curriculum is important for building a range of fundamental skills in young people including physical literacy skills. In addition to the formal curriculum, embedding opportunities for movement within the school day, such as unstructured play during recess and lunch, and movement integrated within academic classes, provides additional opportunities for activity.

  • Consider how movement could be incorporated into learning times, such as introducing regular 'stand and stretch' breaks during desk-based tasks, chair alternatives for certain activities, for example, bean bags, exercise balls, or incorporating movement into learning tasks such as walking to measure distance.

  Resources on this topic include:

  • Health and Physical Education, Victorian Curriculum
  • Active Kids, Department of Education
  • Transform Us!, Deakin University
  • Sporting Schools, Sport Australia
  • The Australian Physical Literacy Framework, Sport Australia
  • Draft School Physical Literacy Framework, Sport Australia
  • Addressing the decline in sport participation in secondary schools, Sport Australia
  • Learning in Nature, Parks Victoria

  Enable environments in schools and early learning facilities that promote an active life

  Providing places to play in any weather and equipment that caters to diverse interests and abilities, for example sport, circus or dance equipment, can support increased activity. School environments also provide valuable community spaces that may present opportunities for local activity outside of school hours.

  • Provide suitable spaces for active play during all types of weather, such as indoor activities and games for children to participate in during wet weather and/or extreme heat and have suitable play and sports equipment available for use during breaks.
  • Consider the diversity and cultural practices of your community when planning physical activity opportunities to cater to their varied needs, interests and abilities.
  • Use physical activity to provide opportunities to develop leadership skills through coaching or umpiring team sports.
  • Offer opportunities for families to participate in activities, such as walking with children on local excursions or walkathons, including a parent's event at school sports competitions.
  • Encourage families to make time for physical activity during the week and on the weekend, such as going for a walk or using public transport to travel.
  • Consider making your schools facilities available for local families, sporting club training sessions and/or club games outside of school hours.

  Resources on this topic include:

  • Active for Life - School resource, VicHealth
  • Playground safety information sheet, Kidsafe
  • This Girl Can, VicHealth

• Actions in local government

  Local government is ideally placed to develop, lead and implement local policies to influence many determinants of health. These policies include actions in areas such as transport, roads, parks, waste, land use, housing and urban planning, recreation and cultural activities, and creating safe public places. Local government is also a workplace (refer to guidance for workplaces).

  Under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, councils are required to protect, improve and promote public health and wellbeing within their municipality and prepare a Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (MPHWP) every four years. They have a broad role in health promotion, the provision of health services such as immunisation, early childhood services, services for older people and other services such as libraries.

  Evidence-based actions that local government can take to encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and become a healthier place include:

  Plan and develop neighbourhoods to support active lifestyles

  The built environment can enable, or be a barrier to, living an active life. Neighbourhoods that are walkable to a range of local services such as schools, sport and recreation facilities, public transport and destinations near people's homes, can encourage higher levels of physical activity. Changes to the built environment to encourage active living can occur at the macro-level, such as provision of quality open space and public transport; and micro-level, for example improved lighting, planting trees to make walking routes appealing, traffic calming measures to increase pedestrian and cyclist's safety, or provision of amenities within parks that encourage active living. Resources to support this include:

  • Active-by-Design, Heart Foundation
  • 20 minute neighbourhood - case studies, Plan Melbourne 2050
  • Design for everyone guide, Sport and Recreation Victoria
  • REVAMP - Innovative park refurbishments, Deakin University
  • Victoria Walks – For professionals – information toolkit, Victoria Walks
  • Developing a walking strategy: A guide for councils, Victoria Walks
  • Evidence informed research papers (the economic case for walking, young people and walking, seniors and walking), Victoria Walks
  • Queensland Walking Strategy 2019–2029, Queensland Government
  • Living Melbourne, Resilient Melbourne
  • Community Road Safety Grants, VicRoads
  • Bicycle infrastructure design, VicRoads

  Provide a range of local options that cater to the diverse needs of different groups and whole-of-community initiatives to support people to be physically active, particularly focusing on engaging those least likely to participate

  The greatest gains in health are made through supporting inactive people to become active. Adapting and contextualising traditional physical activity offerings so they are appealing, welcoming and responsive to local needs and diverse groups is critical. Consider opportunities for whole-of-community initiatives that can bring together new partners and stakeholders and encourage collaborative effort towards a shared priority of active living in the municipality.

  • Inclusive sport and recreation, Sport and Recreation Victoria
  • Welcome Walks, Parks Victoria
  • Together More Active, Sport and Recreation Victoria
  • Healthy Heart for the Loddon Campaspe, Regional Development Victoria
  • Parkrun Australia, Parkrun
  • This Girl Can, VicHealth
  • Doing sport differently, VicHealth
  • Heart Foundation Walking, Heart Foundation
  • Medibank - Free and Active, Medibank
  • Information about becoming a Living Longer Living Stronger provider (for local councils), Council on the Ageing
  • Avoiding Falls, National Aging Research Institute

• Actions in health and human services

  Health and human services are key players in the Victorian prevention system. The healthcare system encompasses many skilled professionals who are uniquely positioned to encourage and support Victorians to adopt healthy behaviours. Health and human services are also major employers in many communities (refer to guidance for workplaces).

  Evidence-based actions that a health or human service can take to encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and become a healthier place include:

  Develop the healthcare workforce capacity to promote physical activity within health services

  Evidence suggests that advice provided by healthcare professionals, particularly medical professionals, is highly valued and may support behaviour change efforts. Professionals in health and human services can encourage and support Victorians to be more physically active.

  • Life! program, Diabetes Victoria
  • HEALing Matters, Monash University for residential workers and carers supporting young people in out-of-home care
  • Red Book - Guidelines for Preventative Activities in Healthcare - 7.5 Physical Activity, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  • Exercise for falls prevention, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  • Physical Activity (PA) Prescription in General Practice, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  • How to treat exercise as medicine, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  • Exercise is Medicine: Enhancing Patient Outcomes through Lifestyle Interventions, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  • Healthcare professional online training, Exercise is Medicine
  • Falls and Balance, National Aging Research Institute (NARI)

  Embed policies and initiatives within health services that enable cultures and systems that support activity

  To integrate activity within health care services, physical activity must be prioritised, valued and supported by organisations and be responsive to existing system demands.

  • Implementation and scale up of population physical activity interventions for clinical and community settings: the PRACTIS guide, Koorts H, et al (2018)
  • A Pragmatic Application of the RE-AIM Framework for Evaluating the Implementation of Physical Activity as a Standard of Care in Health Systems, Stoutenberg M, et al. (2018)

• Actions in workplaces

  Workplaces offer unique opportunities to promote health and wellbeing and create healthy working environments for staff in the places they spend the most of their time. Creating a healthy workplace helps staff make healthier choices and improves the culture of the organisation overall. Creating a healthy workplace can be complex but there are areas where a few vital behaviour changes can have a major impact and help staff participate, be well, be more productive, and contribute to the community.

  The Healthy Workplaces Achievement Program provides guidance and support for workplaces to become healthier places for their community. The program is a free initiative that identifies evidence-based actions to create healthier places, provides links to best-practice resources and case studies, and provides Victorian government recognition once applicable standards have been met.

  Evidence-based actions that a workplace can take to encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and become a healthier place include:

  Support workers to actively commute to and from work and actively travel through-out the workday when the opportunity presents

  Melbourne public transport users achieve more than 40 minutes of incidental physical activity a day, compared with car users who achieve less than 10 minutes (Bus Association of Victoria 2010). Workplaces can also help to normalise active travel as the preferred option for short trips taken during the work day.

  • Support active travel to and from the workplace, by providing appropriate change facilities and safe storage for bikes and helmets.
  • Promote public transport options, walking and cycling routes near the workplace.
  • Encourage workplace teams to participate in community initiatives that encourage physical activity, such as Active April.

  Active-by-Design, Heart Foundation

  Introduce initiatives that encourage increased movement and reduced sitting time throughout the work day

  Workplaces have become increasingly sedentary with many people spending long periods of time sitting at work. Workplaces can introduce policies and initiatives that encourage people to move more and reduce sitting time while at work.

  • Encourage employees to reduce sitting periods where possible by providing sit-stand desks, holding stand up or walking meetings, promoting the use of stairs, and office layout that encourages employees to walk to printers and rubbish bins.
  • Offer on-site exercise facilities, groups or classes or establish a regular walking group or explore opportunities to integrate walking within normal organisational business, such as walking meetings where appropriate.

  Workplace wellness - resources for your workplace, Heart Foundation