Physiotherapists are not only health care practitioners, they are also health advocates. When we understand that the wellbeing of people and the planet are closely connected, we can see the importance of embedding sustainability into physiotherapy education and the aim of ensuring new graduates are equipped to lead change.
If we can build an understanding of the links between climate change, environmental sustainability and health care impacts we will enable physiotherapists to better support patients, influence greener healthcare systems and contribute to healthier communities. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s (CSP) role in accrediting and enhancing all pre-registration education in the UK seeks to support programme teams in meeting this goal.
Following the development of guidance from the Council of Deans of Health (2023), many more university physiotherapy programmes in the UK have begun devising approaches to embed learning to address the environmental agenda and better prepare graduates for practice. However, whilst there has been progress, there is a need to share these approaches more widely and support each other along the way.
With an aim of raising the profile of the environmental agenda and support university education programmes in addressing this issue, The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) organised a webinar in June 2025 to support innovations in education, showcasing how programme teams have embedded the green agenda within physiotherapy education. This sharing of best practice included contributions from:
Sundeep Watkins
Education Adviser at The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Sundeep is an Education Adviser at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and is involved in the quality assurance and accreditation of physiotherapy education within the UK. Her experience in physiotherapy education includes programme development, delivery and exploring innovative ways to involve learners in their professional development.
Emad Al-Yahya Associate professor at the University of Nottingham (UK) who shared the work being done at University of Nottingham to embed sustainability in the curriculum as part the development of a core competency for graduates.
Jill Morgan Reader in Physiotherapy Education at Cardiff University (UK) showcased where the understanding of environmental impact and influence of physiotherapy can be introduced for learners.
Danielle Munford Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Plymouth (UK) shared reflections of the process and impact of weaving in multiple aspects of theory and practice of environmental sustainability into their programme
Dr Shiv Shanmugam Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University shared experiences of reframing health promotion in the community through sustainable practice in their pre-registration education programme.
The learning shared in this webinar demonstrates that sustainability can be embedded into pre-registration education in multiple ways to ensure that the physiotherapy profession contributes meaningfully to both patient wellbeing, improving healthcare practices and planetary health.
References
Header image by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash
Council of Deans of Health (2023) Education for sustainable healthcare within UK pre-registration curricula for allied health professions. https://www.councilofdeans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ES-curricula-guidance-CoDH-version_SM-final-no-links.pdf