Minister for Children and Social Care visits UHL to find out more about award-winning animation
5 June 2025
Colleagues in Podiatry welcomed a special visitor to University Hospital Llandough in May.
Dawn Bowden, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Children and Social Care, spent the morning at the Children’s Centre to learn more about an award-winning animation known as QuickChange.
Developed by podiatrists in collaboration with the Local Public Health Team, QuickChange aims to engage young children in daily physical activity to aid healthy development of their foot and posture.
The fun interactive video, led by a range of colourful characters, gets children performing a series of strengthening and stretching exercises without the need for additional equipment or a change of clothes.
The animation has been successfully trialled in several primary schools in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, with teachers reporting improved mood and energy levels among their pupils.
A new version of QuickChange has now been adapted to suit pre-school children and has been launched in some nurseries across the Health Board region.
Podiatrist Stephen Coombs, who played a key part in the creation of QuickChange, said: “It was fantastic to welcome Dawn Bowden to the Children’s Centre and highlight the potential impact of QuickChange on our young population”.
Stephen, who has spent over 30 years in Podiatry, noticed that children attending his clinics were becoming less fit, more overweight and had poorer core stability than other generations. This inspired him to act.
He added: “Childhood obesity is becoming more common in Wales and without intervention, will result in an increase in the prevalence of a wide range of chronic conditions in adulthood such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal conditions.
“We hope QuickChange can be a useful aid, encouraging more physical activity to help improve foot and ankle strength as well as balance among school and pre-school children.”
Dawn Bowden was greeted at the Children’s Centre on May 22 by Stephen, as well as Cardiff and Vale UHB vice chair Ceri Phillips, acting Head of Podiatry Vannesa Goulding and Royal College of Podiatry Policy and Public Affairs Officer Tess Saunders. Dawn was then given a tour of the facilities before being shown the QuickChange animation via a presentation from Stephen.
Stephen added: “Foot pain is the most common musculoskeletal issue in children aged 10 to 13, and one in four children experience musculoskeletal pain. As paediatric podiatrists, we often commonly see children with growing pains, walking difficulties and sports-related overuse pain.
“But we also treat children with more complex health issues like childhood arthritis, prematurity, or neurodevelopmental challenges - all of which can make them less active than others their age. The trouble is that foot problems can start in childhood and persist into adulthood. That’s why early intervention and detection is so important, so we aim to prevent this from happening.”
QuickChange was first set up in 2019 after Stephen established the idea of promoting exercises - which were based on those used in a clinical setting - to school children to improve their general foot/ankle strength and posture.
Lauren Idowu of Cardiff and Vale UHB’s Local Public Health Team worked closely with Steve at the start of the project. Podiatrist Jo Wrigley with Public Health Practitioner Martha-Jane Powell worked to further develop the project, once funding was established, and helped introduce it to schools, with Nia Jones reviewing the research brief.
Newer members to join the team include podiatrist Charlotte Holley and physiotherapists Sharon Hortop and Laura Morgan, who have helped develop new exercises for pre-school children to ensure the project is continually evolving - and this version was launched in March 2025.