The PRO-ACTIVE North London partnership has appointed Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) to repeat the strata survey (first run in the London Borough of Enfield in 2003) of all young people in years 6 and 9 in all schools in the London boroughs of Enfield, Haringey, Barnet and Waltham Forest.

The KKP strata survey clearly identifies current levels of sporting participation, facility awareness and usage and attitudes to sporting provision. Intelligence generated provides a picture of the key issues surrounding sport and is used to inform and influence future policy and practice. Since 2001, KKP has conducted these surveys for more than 80 local authorities and it now holds data about participation levels and habits of more than 150,000 young people. This provides significant benchmarking opportunities for individual local authorities.

The 2003 survey identified the relatively strong levels of participation in Enfield, providing a baseline for its local public service agreement (LPSA). Potential areas for further development in this borough included the opportunity to optimise the frequency of participation of the very high proportion of young people, including girls that visit leisure centres in the Borough. The results also demonstrated the need for future work to be targeted at specific groups and areas to reduce gaps in participation.

Since the 2003 survey (that captured data about over 3,000 young people in the Borough), LB-Enfield has used the findings to inform and underpin its sports development work. The repeat exercise will test the success of recent initiatives to tackle barriers to participation. Results will be available in January 2007. Commenting on its effectiveness, Adrian Ledbury, PRO-ACTIVE North London Director, said, "the Enfield survey showed us areas of strength and identified areas for further development. It really helped the Borough to make best use of its resources. Carrying out the survey in all four partnership boroughs will allow other authorities to benefit from the data and provide a baseline to assess the impact of the work of the partnership".

Since 2001, KKP has continuously developed its systems to enhance and improve the processes and outcomes; refining questions, investing in the latest software and hardware and GIS mapping and its facility to offer clients the option to complete the survey on-line. Enfield is not alone in commissioning a repeat. Partnerships and local authorities that benefit from the ongoing intelligence that implementing it on a regular basis produce include Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Lisburn, Bridgend and Plymouth.

For further details, please contact:

Peter Millward

Principal Consultant

Tel: 0161 764 7040