The Health and Social Care Select Committee has launched a
new inquiry into the
role of physical activity in improving the health and wellbeing
of older people.
While the Chief Medical Officer called for a focus on
“maximising independence and minimising the time spent in ill
health between reaching older age and the end of life” in his
annual report in
2023,progress on improving healthy life expectancy in England
has stalled and people are spending longer living with ill health
in their older years.
Physical activity can play an important role in preventing ill
health, however activity levels in England are decreasing and are
lowest among older people. This inquiry will explore how physical
activity can minimise and delay ill health as people begin to
age, and how it can be used throughout older age to reduce the
impacts of ill health and prevent the development of multiple
long-term health conditions and frailty.
The Committee will consider what progress has been made since the
2019 NHS England Long-Term Plan set out its ambitions to support
people to age well, and progress on the early detection and
intervention of frailty and other undiagnosed
conditions.
The inquiry will also examine how health services can work with
social care, the third sector, businesses and local government to
support older people to be more physically active, and will
explore the potential of broadening access to social prescribing
and supporting people to manage their own health through
prevention schemes and personalised care.
The Acting Chair of the Health and Social Care Select
Committee, MP, said:
“People are living longer but with a higher incidence of ill
health in later life. Physical activity can be a valuable tool in
preventing ill health and the onset of frailty and multiple
long-term health conditions.
“This inquiry will be an opportunity for us to investigate in
depth how the power of physical activity can be harnessed to
improve the health of older people.
“Our Committee will look at what barriers there are to older
people increasing their physical activity, and how health
services can work with other agencies to support activity in
older age.
“We will also seek to understand what interventions would have
the most impact in reducing variations in healthy life expectancy
between the most and least deprived regions.”
Call for evidence
The Committee has today launched a call for evidence and welcomes
written submissions responding to the following questions by
Thursday 7 August 2025.
- What are the opportunities in
public health to promote physical activity to prevent physical
and mental ill health at a population-level as people begin to
age and help them remain healthy into older age? How can this be
delivered?
- What are the opportunities for
health services to promote physical activity to reduce the
impacts of ill health and reduce the development of
multimorbidity and/or frailty in older people who already have a
long-term health condition? How can this be delivered?
- What interventions would have the most impact in reducing the
gap in healthy life expectancy between older people living in the
most and least deprived regions?
- What are the key barriers to older
people increasing their physical activity and how can they be
encouraged and supported to do more?
- How can health services work with
social care, the third sector, businesses and local government to
support older people to be more physically active and address
existing health inequalities?
- What progress has been made since
the 2019 NHS England Long-Term Plan set out its ambitions to
support people to age well and how could it be improved in
relation to physical activity? In particular, what progress has
been made on:
- Early detection and intervention of
frailty and other undiagnosed conditions and falls prevention
schemes.
- Widening, diversifying and
expanding access nationally to social prescribing.
- Supporting people to manage their
own health through prevention schemes and personalised
care.
- What should the Government
prioritise in funding allocations for delivering services to
support older people to become more active?
- What could the Government learn
from examples of best practice that exist in local authorities,
the third sector, NHS Trusts, or internationally?
- What needs to happen to scale up the adoption of these
examples across the country?
Submissions to the above call for evidence can be made on
the Committee's
website, until 11.59pm on Thursday 7 August 2025.
