In 2006 KKP was commissioned by Sport England and the FA to evaluate football participation rates in five local authority areas of the North West:

• Blackburn with Darwen
• Burnley
• Fylde
• Ribble Valley
• Rochdale

The FA, working closely with its county associations has developed a robust system to accurately measure levels of affiliated participation across the country. This ‘CAS' (County Administration System) produced its first set of data for the season 05/06.

Data, including participation levels, number of teams and % of population playing affiliated football, has been collected for:

• Adult 11 a side
• Small sided
• Youth 11 a side
• Mini soccer

KKP took the figures and evaluated the key factors that affect local participation in the sport. A number of key issues were identified:

• Blackburn with Darwen has been very successful at making the sport accessible to ethnic minority groups. Other areas could benefit from its legacy of targeted programmes and support.
• The need to recruit and train more coaches from BME communities to provide role models.
• Closer partnerships are required between the FA and private facility operators such as JJB Soccerdome.
• The need for a federated league structure to facilitate progression in some areas.
• The need to develop innovative programmes to address the shortage of volunteers.
• Lack of a common approach to the structure of football development.
• The limitations of FITC schemes in the context of achieving wider participation aims.

These findings have enhanced local and national understanding of the drivers and barriers that influence the widely varying levels of participation in different forms of the game.

KKP has been retained to conduct more indepth analysis for each of the local authorities (plus two additional boroughs) and to develop local area football plans to address the issues identified.

These plans will form the basis of how the National Strategy for Football will be delivered locally. This strategy for the period (2007-2012) will be launched in March 2007.