MK PEP – About The Work
MK Place Expansion Partnership (MK PEP) is a collaborative, community‑led effort to reduce inactivity and improve wellbeing in Milton Keynes. While the work is supported by Sport England’s place‑based investment, it is fundamentally about people, partnerships and systems coming together to create long‑term change.
Sport England has awarded an initial £273,000 to support a 15‑month development, or “discovery”, phase across 11 estates in Milton Keynes. This phase focuses on deep community engagement, listening, testing and learning with local residents to understand what helps and what gets in the way of being active. The learning gathered will shape a full application for expansion investment to activate what communities say matters most.
This approach is grounded in Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy, which targets resources towards places with the highest need. Where inactivity, deprivation and health inequalities intersect. These areas were identified using data from the Active Lives Survey and wider social indicators such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation and community need.
But MK PEP is about much more than investment. It is about building a whole‑system approach where residents, local organisations, community leaders and system partners work collectively.
Partners share power, strengthen leadership, test new ways of working, grow local capacity and create supportive environments that help people to move more in everyday life. This aligns with Sport England’s wider national commitment to place partnerships which are long‑term collaborations designed to address deep‑rooted inequalities in physical activity.
No single organisation can solve this alone. Systemic change requires shared ownership and action. This is not single issue or single stakeholder based.
MK PEP Board
The MK Place Expansion Programme Board brings together leaders from key local organisations to guide work in two Milton Keynes neighbourhoods.
It oversees Sport England’s development‑phase investment and ensures partners work together to understand local needs and reduce barriers to being active.
The Board provides strategic leadership, supports joint planning, and makes sure learning is used to shape future decisions and investment
Board Membership
The MK PEP Board is made up of the following organisations
- Wolverton & Greenley’s Town Council
- Woughton Community Council
- Campbell Park Community Council
- Stony Stratford Town Council
- MK City Council
- MK Community Foundation
- Street Games
- BLMK ICB (Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board)
- Leap (Active Partnership for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes)
- Community Action MK
Rhiannon plays a central role in bringing the whole programme to life.Working closely with partners, residents and the MK Place Expansion Programme Board, she keeps the work moving forward by aligning efforts, supporting collaboration, and helping to turn insights from each estate into a joined‑up, approach that reflects the realities of local people.
Charlotte is the Community Officer for Stacey Bushes, Fullers Slade, Greenleys, Hodge Lea and Kiln Farm works closely with locally trusted organisations and community leaders across these five estates.
As one of two community officers, she focuses on building relationships, supporting local initiatives and ensuring what’s happening within each neighbourhood connects into the wider MK PEP programme.
A local resident herself, Charlotte brings in depth knowledge of the local areas as well as being a strong advocate of early intervention and prevention support in mental health services and is Founder of You Mental CIC.
Portia is the MK PEP Community Officer for Eaglestone, Fishermead, Springfield, Coffee Hall, Bean Hill and Netherfield.
She works closely with locally trusted organisations and community leaders across these six estates.
As one of two community officers, Portia help build relationships, support grassroots initiatives and connect what’s happening on the ground into the wider programme.
Portia has many years of community engagement and activity delivery experience and is founder of both the MK Women’s Walking and MK Smashers Pickleball Club
Rhiannon plays a central role in bringing the whole programme to life.Working closely with partners, residents and the MK Place Expansion Programme Board, she keeps the work moving forward by aligning efforts, supporting collaboration, and helping to turn insights from each estate into a joined‑up, approach that reflects the realities of local people.
Charlotte is the Community Officer for Stacey Bushes, Fullers Slade, Greenleys, Hodge Lea and Kiln Farm works closely with locally trusted organisations and community leaders across these five estates.
As one of two community officers, she focuses on building relationships, supporting local initiatives and ensuring what’s happening within each neighbourhood connects into the wider MK PEP programme.
A local resident herself, Charlotte brings in depth knowledge of the local areas as well as being a strong advocate of early intervention and prevention support in mental health services and is Founder of You Mental CIC.
Portia is the MK PEP Community Officer for Eaglestone, Fishermead, Springfield, Coffee Hall, Bean Hill and Netherfield.
She works closely with locally trusted organisations and community leaders across these six estates.
As one of two community officers, Portia help build relationships, support grassroots initiatives and connect what’s happening on the ground into the wider programme.
Portia has many years of community engagement and activity delivery experience and is founder of both the MK Women’s Walking and MK Smashers Pickleball Club
Now and Next
As we move through the discovery phase, several themes are beginning to surface across conversations, workshops and early project learning.
Partners are exploring how to strengthen inclusivity and resident voice, ensuring engagement feels more accessible and rooted in local experience. There’s also interest in improving how we communicate the programme, clarifying what MK PEP is, raising awareness and using channels key audiences already trust and use.
We’re seeing themes around gathering and sharing learning more effectively, including mapping local networks and making insights easier to use across the partnership. Conversations are also pointing to the importance of supportive leadership behaviours and consistent ways of working that build trust and shared ownership.
Finally, partners are beginning to think about how ideas could translate into locally led action in the future, and how we stay aligned around a shared purpose as the work evolves. These are emerging patterns, not commitments, reflecting what people are noticing as we continue to listen and learn.
These emerging themes are being considered alongside a robust baseline evaluation of the conditions already in place, helping us understand the foundations we’re starting from as the work develops.
The MK PEP Board will bring this insight together with learning from the local leaders’ event to shape Sport England’s expansion application, which will be submitted by 1 June.
About The Places
Find out more about the 11 estates of focus, how they were chosen, where they are and what we know about them so far.
MoreThe Story and Learning So Far
The MK Place Expansion Partnership (MK PEP) journey is still in its early stages, but already we’re seeing just how much potential there is when people, partners and communities come together around a shared purpose. Click here to find out more.
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