Since 2003, Knight Kavanagh & Page has conducted regular market research surveys to assess the impact of Cornwall Sports Partnership's Healthy Active Lifestyles Project (HALP).

HALP is Cornwall County Councils LPSA target 11. It has three main component parts, one of which was to achieve an increase in the extracurricular physical activity participation rate among 11-16 year olds via informal, localised and non-competitive provision of street and beach games.

The 2003 survey established a baseline of participation levels. Once interventions were complete, the 2006 survey measured performance against this baseline and the previously agreed improvement target. The third survey was commissioned in 2008 to collate longitudinal data to help identify trends and changes over time.

Methodology

Data was collected during September 2008 via:

• A questionnaire was completed by young people from one class in each year group (years 7-11) at eleven secondary schools in Cornwall. (All schools were stratified according to size, location and whether located in an urban or rural area). Schools were selected randomly within their stratification). In common with the 2003 and 2006 surveys, a good response rate was secured, thereby guaranteeing high quality data. 
• Questionnaires were also sent to all young people in years 7-11 at all of the County's out-of-school centres, all young people in years 7-11 at the four special schools in the county and to all children in the County who are educated at home.

Key findings

Participation rates for young people in sport and physical activity were high, respondents were positive about enjoyment of sporting activity, use of leisure centres, participation by other family members and encouragement of young people to take part in sport and physical activities.

Results are being used to underpin ongoing review of achievement of Cornwall's targets and progress on delivery of its objective of continuous improvement and increasing participation.

Set against this overall positive backdrop, a number of factors must be addressed if patterns of non-participation among particular groups are to be successfully tackled. The importance of these is highlighted by comparative research with pupils from Year 9 which indicated a downward trend in enjoyment and participation over the intervening period.

This was particularly significant for girls, children from households where parents and siblings are not involved in sport and for those who are not positively encouraged to participate by parents and guardians. This picture is, of course, by no means peculiar to the County. Cornwall, however, has the research-based intelligence to justify development and adoption of policies and actions to address such issues and to monitor the success of interventions applied.

The survey identified some interesting findings about participation levels in sport, usage of local leisure facilities and also health and lifestyle information. It also highlighted some key issues:

• Importance of a positive environment - almost three quarters (74.3%) of young people came from households where at least one family member regularly takes part in sports and physical activity. A high proportion (86.5%) of young people were encouraged by parents/ guardians to take part in sports and physical activities. 
• Decline in participation with age - comparison of data across Years 7 to 11 illustrated the very significant change that occurs over this time period. This is consistent with KKP's widely reported national patterns of a fall in activity, confidence and liking of sports often by age and most clearly by a combination of gender and age.
• Change over time - there was a general upwards trend in the numbers considering themselves to be fit or very fit, rising from 46.2% in 2003 to 51.2% by 2008. Similarly the upward trend in those expressing the view that they will continue to be involved in sport had risen from 61.4% in 2003 to 68.8% in 2008.

The survey also covered attitudinal issues. For example, the majority of young people (82.2%) reported that they like taking part in sport and physical activity. However, boys (71.1%) are substantially more likely than girls (48.9%) to emphasise the strength of their interest.

Questions on health were also incorporated. 95.1% of young people agreed strongly or slightly that a healthy diet is important; a slight increase from the previous survey in 2006 (94.4%), and considerably higher than the 2003 baseline figure (89.5%). A healthy diet was seen to be important by around three quarters of young people in Key Stage 3. However by Year 11 only 59.4% of young people strongly agreed about the importance of a healthy diet; a reduction of 19 percentage points between the highest point in Year 8 and the lowest in Year 11. Given the Government's emphasis on this in Change4life, overall findings were encouraging.

As a result of these surveys, the Cornwall Sports Partnership has been able to demonstrate improved performance enabling it to secure a three quarters of a million pound reward grant for local authority led partnerships and, as a result, to run more sports and physical activity projects for children aged 11-16.

Jake Leat, Performance & Project Officer at the Partnership said,

"We were very impressed with these surveys and pleased with the results. We are extremely grateful for all the work that KKP has put in to this and feel that it is without question the most powerful data that the county has had. We are extremely keen to ensure that it is used to influence decision-making, deployment of resources and our Local Area Agreement refresh."