Two county sport partnerships in the North West have again commissioned the services of Knight Kavanagh & Page to conduct strata surveys with up to 40,000 year 9 pupils across Greater Manchester and Lancashire.  The surveys, previously conducted in 2001 and 2004, quantify the participation rates of young people in sport, the arts and creative activities as well as gathering data on health and lifestyle. Intelligence generated provides a picture of the key issues affecting participation in sport and the arts and is used to assess performance, and inform and influence future policy and practice. 

The work will further build upon what is already one of the most comprehensive datasets in the country. In recent years KKP has conducted similar surveys for over 100 local authorities and LEAs and now has access to data incorporating the responses of over 150,000 young people. This provides significant benchmarking for individual local authorities (LAs), local education authorities (LEAs) and primary care trusts (PCTs). 

GreaterSport and Lancashire Sport are hoping that the data from this year's survey will help to ascertain the success of recent initiatives aimed at increasing participation.  Adrian Leather from Lancashire Sport is delighted that funding for the survey (a proportion coming from North Lancashire PCT) has been approved. He said, "Previous surveys have identified areas of strength and opportunities for further development. It has really helped the county and partner districts to allocate resources, plan existing services and bid for additional resources at a local and regional level.  The key focus for this latest survey is to understand changes over time."

Across the regions a number of sport and art related initiatives have benefited from the intelligence gathered.  For example, in 2006, Bolton, Bury and Salford councils in partnership with GreaterSport and the Greater Manchester Passenger Executive piloted ‘Ticket 2 Sport' providing free transport to and information about sporting activities to targeted groups of young people in response to survey findings that indicated that limited access to a car reduces the likelihood of young people taking part in sport.

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. 

Many other local authorities also commission strata surveys on a regular basis.  KKP is nearing completion of a second survey of the young people in years 6 and 9 in all schools in the North London Partnership (comprising the London boroughs of Enfield, Haringey, Barnet and Waltham Forest).  Other partnerships and local authorities that benefit from the ongoing intelligence that implementing it on a regular basis produce include Cheshire, Cornwall, Lisburn, Bridgend and Plymouth.

For further details, please contact:

Peter Millward

Principal Consultant

Tel: 0161 764 7040