• Highlighted in the updated NHS England clinical guidance on knee arthroscopy for patients with osteoarthritis in their Evidence-Based Interventions. This was published in 2019 and reviewed in 2024. The guidance states that exercise programmes like ESCAPE-pain are more effective treatments for patients with osteoarthritis than arthroscopic knee washouts.
• Recommended by NHS Staff Health & Wellbeing: Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) as a low intensity therapy for their supplementary guidance (May 2018).

• Referenced in the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) (formerly Public Health England) published guidance on musculoskeletal health – ‘Musculoskeletal Health: applying All Our Health’ (January 2019).
• Recommended by UKHSA (formerly Public Health England) as a preferred intervention for musculoskeletal management. Their report titled, ‘Return on Investment Interventions for the Prevention and Treatment of Musculoskeletal Conditions’ shows the programme has a positive financial ROI of £5.20 for every £1 spent (October 2017).
• Featured as a case study by UKHSA (formerly Public Health England): ‘ESCAPE-pain programme in Cheltenham'(December 2017).
• Identified as one of the top 5 case studies in a RAND Europe report commissioned by UKHSA (formerly Public Health England to review the current landscape of health and wellbeing interventions available to employers.

• Featured in the NIHR Dissemination Centre’s themed review of musculoskeletal recommendations. ‘Moving Forward’ highlights the importance of physiotherapy in improving and reducing the negative effects associated with musculoskeletal conditions. ESCAPE-pain has been commended for its improvement of patient-care and its encouragement of self-care (July 2018).

• ESCAPE-pain is referenced in resources to support people self-managing their musculoskeletal conditions. These resources are supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement as part of the MSK leadership group which also includes the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), the CSP, Versus Arthritis and the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA)(April 2020).​

• ESCAPE-pain has been included as a case study in the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) report ‘Understanding how and why the NHS adopts innovation’ (November 2018).
• Professor Mike Hurley and his innovations, ESCAPE-Pain and Joint Pain Advice, were supported by the NIA from 2017-2020.
• York Health Economics Consortium conducted an economic evaluation of ESCAPE-pain on behalf of the NIA and produced this case study (July 2019).

• Highlighted as a Tier 3 intervention in Arthritis Research UK’s ‘Providing physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal conditions’ report (March 2017).

• Featured within the NHS RightCare Commissioning for Value: Long term conditions pack (December 2016).

• ESCAPE-pain case study ‘Supporting people with chronic joint pain: Virtual delivery of ESCAPE-pain classes’, included on the AHSN website to illustrate how AHSNs are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting our NHS and social care partners (December 2020).
• Featured in the Health Innovation Network impact report 2018/19 (June 2019).
• Endorsed by the Health Innovation Network.  Identified as one of seven programmes developed regionally and selected for national adoption and spread across the network during 2018-2020 (March 2018).

• Included in a respositary of interventions, Online Osteoarthritis Management Programmes, identified by the Joint Effort Initiative Implementation Group (endorsed by Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI)) as a response to the Covid-19 situation. The repository provides stakeholders and organisations with access to online, evidence based, international OA management programmes (OAMPs). The repository provides solutions for healthcare professionals seeking to access and signpost patients with OA to remote, high-quality programmes that do not require face to face contact. It also provides healthcare practitioner resources for online training in delivering OA management programmes (August 2020).

• Self Care Forum:

ESCAPE-pain programme awarded the 2021 ‘Self Care Innovation Award‘ by the Self Care Forum (November 2021).

• ​Health Service Journal (HSJ):

ESCAPE-pain programme awarded ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year‘ at the HSJ Value Awards 2020. Read more about it on our website (September 2020).

• Active Training Awards:

The ESCAPE-pain Facilitator Training Programme won the ‘Specialist Training Programme of the Year 2019’ award at the Active Training Awards & Conference held in Birmingham in November 2018 (November 2018).

Clinical Director, Professor Mike Hurley, was shortlisted for a UK Active award for ‘Outstanding Individual of the Year’ (November 2018).

• NHS Innovation Accelerator:

Clinical Director, Professor Mike Hurley, was awarded a Fellowship joining the prestigious 2017 NHS Innovation Accelerator to increase national spread of the ESCAPE-pain programme. The fellowship will last one year and is supported by a host of industry and healthcare professionals (December 2017).

• Sport England:

Awarded a Sport England grant to tackle inactivity in inactive people over 55 during 2018-2020 (2017).

• British Society for Rheumatology:

Best Practice Award in Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Disorders from the British Society for Rheumatology (2016).

• AbbVie Sustainable Healthcare:

Finalist for the AbbVie Sustainable Healthcare: Patients as Partners Award (2016).

• Harvard Business School:

Semi-Finalist Harvard Business School Acceleration Challenge (2016).

• Royal Society of Public Health:

Health and Wellbeing Award (2015).