Exercise referral schemes

• Policy makers and commissioners should not fund exercise referral schemes for people who are sedentary or inactive but otherwise apparently healthy.​

• Policy makers and commissioners should only fund exercise referral schemes for people who are sedentary or inactive and have existing health conditions or other factors that put them at increased risk of ill health if the scheme:
  Incorporates the core techniques outlined in designing and providing interventions and programmes and helping people maintain change in the longer term in the NICE pathway on behaviour change.

• Collects data in line with the 'essential criteria' outlined in the Standard Evaluation Framework for physical activity interventions. Specifically: programme details, evaluation details, demographics of individual participants, baseline data, follow-up data (impact evaluation) and process evaluation.​

• Makes the data collected available for analysis, monitoring and research to inform future practice.
  
  

Pedometers and walking and cycling schemes

• See providing individual support and community-wide walking programmes in the walking and cycling pathway.