In January 2009, Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) was commissioned by the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) to review currently available data on women's and girls' participation in sport and physical activity in the North West region.

In England, 11.74m women, aged 16 and over, do not take part in any sport or physical activity (Active People - 2005/06). The number makes stark reading and is even worse for the Northwest, with its below average participation and around 1.65m women who never take part in sport or physical activity.

The purpose of the study was to deliver information that:

• Accurately reflects the women and girls agenda and assists regional partners to (re)shape their working practices.
• Helps to raise the profile of issues surrounding women's participation in sport and physical activity.
• Can support the improvement of existing and development of new facilities tailored to and/or designed to reflect specific female needs.
• Is flexible and easy to draw upon for a wide range of purposes: policy development, resource allocation, bids, lobbying etc.
• Establishes a benchmark against which to measure future progress.

The study explored various data sources thematically, by geographic area and for different segments of the population to identify a robust evidence base for use to compare areas, lobby effectively and target resources. KKP reviewed key data from a variety of sources such as Sport England (e.g. Active People and Market Segmentation), Government documents (e.g. Healthy Weight Healthy Lives, Be Active Be Healthy) and, where appropriate, incorporated national/regional comparators and or comparisons with men's participation habits and trends.

The key headlines from the review were:

• Unearthing key statistics - with its relatively high levels of women's participation, Cheshire is the only region in the North West that is above the national trend for women who never take part in moderate exercise for 30 minutes or longer. 
• Ascertaining strengths and opportunities - Women's participation rates are not lower than men's for every sport, notable exceptions include aquatic sports, keep fit and gymnastics.

For the particular segments, KKP was able to ascertain from its Year 9 Strata Survey dataset, that for girls:

• The impact of gender on participation is emphatic, even by the age of 13 years. This sets a platform for reduced levels of participation that often continue into later life. While national strategies refer to a drop off in participation at the age of 16 years, this research and KKP's other studies and surveys consistently show decline in interest and participation to start much earlier.
• Ethnic origin and limiting long term illness are also influential factors. For example, only 25% of Asian girls spend an hour or more on PE, games, sports and exercise three times a week or more, compared to an overall average of 35%. 
• They often select something that may not be offered at school, such as dance. Records show that 4,440 girls from the region are involved in dance at a club away from school. Furthermore, two thirds of girls report that they would like to do more dance in lessons - there is, thus, a clear demand and a significant participation base in the region.

Comparatively, for women, it was found that:

• Although in overall terms women's participation rates are lower than those of men, this is not the case for all activities. Rates are higher for aquatic sports, keep fit and gymnastics. The nature of such activities is often participative, lacking direct competition and the picture is, thus, consistent with the findings of reports such as the recent WSFF ‘Its Time' study.
• As might be anticipated, participation shows quite different patterns by age. Activities such as keep fit and aquatic sports appeal to all age groups, while the ‘drop off by age' is far more significant for activities such as racquet and team games.
• Macclesfield is the best performing local authority in the Northwest for women's participation while Blackburn with Darwen has the lowest levels.

In what was a very well-received final report, KKP makes a series of recommendations about how to develop a foundation for a robust information structure delivering consistent, reliable data. One key recommendation is to address the gap in data provision on young people; something that could, for example, be addressed via use of a simplified version of KKP's strata survey, conducted across all year groups (from Year 6 onwards).