Matthew Davies, Deputy Director in the Cabinet Office, will be one of thousands taking on the nudge to budge and participating in CSSC’s annual wellbeing campaign, Active Wellbeing, this winter.
Davies, who has been a civil servant for 25 years, is part of the Government People Group and is responsible for formulating employee policy and specialist HR services, will be rallying his colleagues to join in on the Around-the-World challenge.
“Active Wellbeing is an initiative to help people think about making decisions about what they’re doing to get active. We form habits over time and, in my case, make excuses as to why I can’t get movement in. I find myself missing out on the shorter opportunities to be more active, so I think this challenge will help me rethink my approach to activity and wellbeing moving forward,” Davies said.
Active Wellbeing, the UK’s largest physical activity campaign, aims to remove barriers and inspire members of the civil service and public sector to move more and be more active in a bid to improve their overall wellbeing.
“I often wonder what are the barriers I put up myself and what the actual barriers are. You form habits a lot quicker than you think, so to me, it’s being able to do a bit more, 15 minutes of activity over an hour in the gym. I’m interested in what people are doing from home and could do more of.
“There are also several mental and wellbeing benefits to exercise, and it’s important to get out and about in ways you haven’t done before. Small achievements will have a positive knock-on effect on your wellbeing.
“Organisationally, I think it’s important that we are seen to be doing more and making sure employee wellbeing is a priority when there’s an opportunity to take part in these kinds of campaigns. In return, organisations will have a healthier workforce, so it is beneficial for everyone to get involved.”
For the second year in a row, participants will take part in the Around-the-World challenge where teams will work together to go around the world as quickly as possible, with every activity counting towards their team’s total.
CSSC is looking to build on the success of the 2024 campaign, which saw 70% of participants getting active more than five times a week, with 94% feeling it motivated them to be more active and value their wellbeing.
This is not the first time Davies has taken part in CSSC’s Active Wellbeing campaign, however, he will be reframing his approach for the challenge to align with his personal goals he’ll set for himself ahead of the campaign.
“I think it’s one thing to increase my step count for a challenge, but I wonder what would be different in a year from now if I really applied myself beyond the month of February and set myself fitness goals over a year. Next January, I hope I will be congratulating myself for things I’ve done differently. If I can make that mindset shift, that will be really positive for me.”
In 2024, over 13,000 people participated in the month-long campaign designed to remove everyday barriers to exercise, and this year CSSC are hoping to encourage more public sector workers and civil servants to find new ways of getting active for their physical and mental wellbeing.
Every step taken or activity logged will count towards a team total; all participants need to do is sync their smart device to record their activity or manually add it to the website throughout the campaign.
You can sign up here and create or join a team before 31 January.