In 2009, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council appointed KKP to deliver market research and develop a baseline position for the Authority on young people's participation in sport, arts and dance activity, along with information on health, diet and lifestyle.

The survey of over 1400 young people in Year 6 and 9 covered a wide range of subjects associated with active and passive participation and includes, for example:

• Involvement in (and views about) PE and school sport; 
• Involvement in extracurricular sport and arts activities 
• Participation 'away from school' & club membership.

It was supplemented by questions about involvement in individual sports, participation frequency and duration plus awareness of and attendance at facilities and events. It also assessed lifestyle issues such as smoking, diet, internet access and time spent on computer games.

The survey of Year 6 and 9 pupils is effective for measuring changes over time via a snapshot approach which enables data to be compared in a given survey year. This allows investigation of the drop off in participation between the end of Year 6 - in primary school and the end of Key Stage 3 (Year 9). When repeated on (say) a 3 year cycle, it also facilitates comparison of changes over time via a cohort approach, where the same group of children are reviewed as they get older.

Drop off in participation

KKP has found as part of its many comparative age group studies that positive action to retain young people in participation is needed early, well before Year 9, when the decline in participation has often become an established behaviour pattern.

KKP's research in Blaenau Gwent confirmed this trend. In Year 6, more than a quarter (27.9%) of pupils participate in sports activities every day, however, by Year 9 this reduces to only 14.3% - a reduction of almost 50%.

Enjoyment (or lack of enjoyment) in sports participation

Decline in enjoyment of team games between Year 6 and Year 9

Corresponding to the decline in participation levels, there is a decline in the proportion of young people who report enjoying taking part in sporting activity; at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, this is clearly a primary indicator of why sports participation falls during this stage of an individual's lifecycle.

For example, only 9.6% of young people in Year 6 reported not enjoying taking part in team games, by Year 9 the proportion doubles to 19.6%.

Self perceptions of health

Young people are more likely to consider themselves to be either unhealthy or very unhealthy as they get older. The Blaenau Gwent research found that only 6.9% of young people consider themselves to be unhealthy in Year 6, however, by Year 9 this has increased to 28.5%. This is an increase of over 300%.

In its final report analysing survey findings, KKP made a series of recommendations to assist the Council to make best use of the intelligent information: these include:

• Promote participation - with a focus on initiatives aimed at girls, those from inactive households and those not encouraged to participate by parents.
• Enhance the research programme - by introducing a rolling programme of quantitative research to compare pupils in current age groups and assess changes over time.
• Develop complementary data sources - these include monitoring usage of the Life Card to provide a wider picture of activity and geographic trends in participation.

This study was managed by Liz Dutton, Market Research Consultant at KKP. She has managed numerous similar KKP strata surveys and has amassed in-depth knowledge on trends in participation. She said,

"Through our strata surveys we have consistently found a range of key drivers, which influence participation. We are now driving hard to ensure that local authorities and other agencies take these results and create interventions that can make a positive difference; and then continue to measure those impacts over time!"

Anthony Hughes, Community Development Manager at Blaenau Gwent CBC commissioned the research. He said,

"This study will lay the foundations for the improvements to children's and young people's services that we wish to drive. We have a key role to play in encouraging healthy lifestyles but to be truly effective we must target resource in the right places - this research will help us to do this."