Motion uses technology to deliver person-centred wellbeing activities in care homes, supporting over 2,500 older adults in over 60 care homes across the UK. From dementia friendly activities to chair-based exercise to music therapy to armchair travel, the Sheffield-based social enterprise helps tackle inactivity and social isolation amongst older adults.

In this civic blog post Motion founder and CEO, Zeezy Qureshi outlines how Sheffield Hallam’s support has been invaluable for the development of the organisation.

When I was studying at the University of Sheffield, I joined an extra-curricular programme called ‘Enactus’. At this point I’d never heard of ‘social enterprise’, but I was intrigued by, and a bit sceptical of, the idea that you could use business to create a positive social impact. But soon after joining I was sold. Having worked in the health and wellbeing sector and witnessing first-hand the positive impact physical activity can have on people's lives, I felt passionately about making it more accessible and tackling the health inequalities that exist across society.

With over 12 million older adults in the UK spending 60% of their time sedentary (Sport England) and 1.4 million being socially isolated (AgeUK), at Motion we wanted to address this and did so by co-designing exercise sessions alongside care homes, which were loved by many older people across Sheffield. These are huge numbers and we’re driven to change this for the individuals at the heart of Motion.  

When the pandemic hit we moved the Motion sessions online. To be honest we didn’t think it would work that well, there was probably a bit of unconscious bias at play (in regard to older adults and technology), but the residents and care homes loved them. And it meant we could deliver more sessions, further afield at a time when care homes were experiencing strict lockdowns.

We were lucky to then get a place on the Advanced Wellbeing Accelerator run by Sheffield Hallam’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), where we were able to meet leading academics, receive business support and other founders – who supported us to develop Motion. Working with the Centre has opened up a lot of opportunities and developed our understanding of how we can robustly measure and evidence our impact.

"The team at the AWRC really takes time to get to know you and your business and that means they're well placed to provide the best possible support." Zeezy Qureshi, CEO Motion

As we continued to work with care homes, we recognised a greater need to support the staff in care homes and provide a broader range of meaningful wellbeing activities to meet residents’ diverse needs and interests. That’s how Motion Wellbeing, our digital wellbeing platform, came about.

It was really important that Motion Wellbeing was co-designed with care homes, so the AWRC team introduced us to colleagues from the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP), who helped us to develop and analyse a human-centred co-design process.

Care homes can use the platform to plan, deliver and evidence a growing library of activities from chair-based exercise to music therapy to armchair travel. We worked with Sheffield-based tech experts REYT, which presented another fantastic opportunity to learn about user-centred design. At present Motion Wellbeing is being used by 60 care homes across the UK and we’ve delivered activities to over 2,500 older adults, with care homes reporting improvements in mood, mobility and appetite. We're looking forward to scaling our impact and working with the AWRC in the future to evidence the impact our innovation is having on quality of life.

“I love Motion. It takes me back to school and makes me feel young again” Edith, Motion participant

We’re only at the very start of an exciting journey with Motion and are about to embark on our first round of investment which will be used to scale impact nationally. But as we grow, putting inspirational people like Edith (pictured top photo) at the heart of our innovations will never change.

If you’d like to learn more about Motion please contact zeezy@motionexercise.co.uk.