Camden & IslingtonChildren & Young People’sSport & Physical Activity

Needs Assessment

outline

1. Overview of approach

2. Physical activity levels of young people

3. Young people’s attitudes and feelings towards physical activity

4. The role of others in supporting young people to be active

5. The provision required to support young people to be active

6. Strategic planning to support an increase in physical activity

Introduction• In 2013, Pro-Active Camden and Pro-Active Islington (the borough level

Community Sport and Physical Activity Networks) commissioned Press Red to undertake an innovative Children and Young People’s Sport and Physical Activity needs assessment.

• The aim was to provide a sound evidence base to help the borough partnerships to implement actions that lead to increases in sport and physical activity and make best use of available resources

• The information presented here provides a summary of the project methodology and findings.

• It is hoped the information provides the reader with:– Insights into the sport and physical activity needs of young people – particularly

those from deprived communities. – Information as to how the sport and physical activity needs of young people might be

collected and evidenced. – Ideas to support the development of interventions to enable more young people to

be more physically active.

The approachTo identify the young people’s sport and physical activity needs, the research:• Assessed the physical activity levels of young people in the

two boroughs• Identified the things that motivate young people to be active

together with the things that hinder or prevent them• Identified the activities young people want to participate in• Assessed the quantity and quality of the sport and physical

activity opportunities within defined areas• Built an understanding of the the environmental and policy

conditions that may impact on young people’s activity levels.

Overview of methodology

• An online survey was undertaken with 1700 young people through primary and secondary schools

Children & young people survey

• Interviews were carried out with council staff (inc. public health, sport & leisure, children's services), youth workers, teachers, early years practitioners etc.

Stakeholder interviews

• An online survey was conducted with schools, sports clubs, community centres and other youth organisations that provide sport and physical activity opportunities

Provider online survey

• Focus groups were conducted with different cohorts including young disabled people, parents of under 5s, young people not in mainstream education, females in year 9

Focus groups

• Young people were empowered to assess the sport and physical activity opportunities within their communities (see next slide)CHESS

Community Health Environment Scan Survey (CHESS)

• Tool for the systematic assessment of built environment related health behaviors: – Physical activity, Tobacco, Nutrition

• Identified 6 areas using youth clubs as a hub (based on Active People, obesity levels, child poverty index, LA insight)

• Worked with local young people to assess their communities in terms of the propensity of the environment to support them being physically active– Walked their communities– Used tablets to capture data– Analysed and combined with other data

sources

Findings: Existing Physical activity levels

Primary school Secondary school0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2940

38

39

18

12

13 7

Blank7 days4-6 days1-3 days0 days

Number of Days over 60 mins activity

% o

f tot

al C

YP

The graph shows how many days young people reported being physically active for over 60 minutes or more during the last week. Whilst not detailed here, reported physical activity levels:• Decreased with age• For females were

significantly lower than males

• Were lower for disabled young people NB: 60 minutes of physical activity per day was identified as the

benchmark as the current Chief Medical Officer’s Physical Activity Guidelines recommend all 5-18 year olds should engage in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes and up to several hours every day.

Attitudes and feelings towards physical activity

Barriers

Young people perceive that they have a lack of time for sport & physical activity

Some young people are apathetic towards sport & physical activity

Lack of a developed physical activity habit is an issue

Lack of confidence is a particular issue for teenage girls; they do not believe they are good enough. This is compounded by issues related to self-consciousness and body image

Motivating forces

For some, to improve body image can be a motivating force

Young people understand that physical activity offers health benefits

Competition is important for some young people but needs to be tailored to their needs

Learning & achievement can be a motivating force

Young people’s feeling and attitudes towards sport and physical activity are complex and are specific to each individual. However, some broad themes are presented below:

Activities young people most want to do

1. Football

2. Dodgeball

3. Tennis

4. Bowling

5. Trampolining

6. Horse Riding

7. Table Tennis

8. Boxing

9. Archery10. Swimming (Club/Lessons)

The table shows, in rank order the activities the young people reported they would most

like to do.

The role of others in supporting young people to be active

Young People

Parents

FriendsActivity leadersTeachersYouth workers

Children Centre staff

Role Models

The research identified friends, adults and key workers as either having a positive or negative influence on young people’s participation in sport and

physical activity. Consideration needs to be give to how these people can be supported to enable more young people to access and enjoy sport and

physical activity

The provision required to support young people to be active

Social, safe & fun•Emphasis needs to be placed on safe, fun focused provision that provides opportunities for young people to socialise

Affordable•The cost of physical activity can be prohibitive, especially as young people get older

Suitability & choice•Findings suggest the offer is not in place to meet the broad range of needs across all young people

The provision required to support young people to be active

Awareness•Young people can find it hard to know what activities are available to them

Appropriate & accessible facilities•A number of physical activity assets were are not accessible to young people.

More structured provision•To enable more young people to meet the physical activity guidelines, more structured provision is required

Broader considerations Strategic planning to support increasing physical activity

• Positive policy context but challenging environmental context in which to increase physical activity levels

• Capacity building providers is important:

– Alignment of motivations

– Helping them meet demand

– Access more volunteers / staff and facilities

• There is a need to evidence impact on physical activity levels and for the pooling of information on physical activity behaviour to support an informed planning approach

• The young person’s ‘user journey’ is not clear if they are not ‘sporty’. To improve this user experience requires coordination of provision across services and organisations

Recommendation 1: Establish a physical activity pathway to help all young people become more physically active.• Advocate young people’s physical

activity needs• Broaden the reach of Pro-Active

Camden

• Establish the pathway in a small pilot area

• Involve local organisations delivering physical activity

Recommendation 2: Utilise the National Obesity Observatory’s standard evaluation framework for physical activity.• May need to incentivise and build capacity in providers to implement

effectively

Recommendation 3: Collate and integrate data across services on young people’s participation in physical activity.

• Utilise implementation of recommendation 2 to drive the parameters of this recommendation

• Needs to include all sites and outreach programmes

Recommendation 4: Raise awareness of the recommended levels of physical activity for young people to be healthy.

• Needs to reach all those that work with young people• Engage and use young people as peer role models

Recommendation 5: Significant improvements to be made to the promotion and communication of physical activity provision.• Focus on getting the messaging right to different cohorts• Keep developing that single source of information• Implement positive signage at sites where young people can be active

Recommendation 6: Improve the quality, range and appropriateness of physical activity facilities. • Influence refurbishment and place shaping plans, linking into broader

funding opportunities• Make more indoor space available to young people– schools and other

providers

Recommendation 7: Ensure young people have more access to all community assets. • Address issues of access identified through CHESS• Engage the local community e.g. in controlling lighting or key• Incentivise schools to open up their facilities outside of school hours

Recommendation 8: Make more activities more affordable. • Expand discount progammes such as the C-OOL card• Expand low cost and free provision• Work with leisure contractors on areas such as family pricing

Recommendation 9: Create more, and a greater choice of, physical activity opportunities. • Structured provision on outdoor assets for those aged 10+• Increase the range of provision offered outside of school hours• Join up funding programmes available within the borough

Recommendation 10: Improve the appropriateness of physical activity opportunities for all young people. • Expand the amount of safe, fun and social provision• Co-produce more opportunities with young people and involve them in

the commissioning process

Recommendation 11: Encourage all young people to form a physically active lifestyle. • Explore with children’s centres and schools their role in helping to form

the active lifestyle in young people and parents• Deliver multi-skills courses to reintroduce fundamental movement skills

to those that have ‘dropped out’ of physical activity

Recommendation 12: Effect change to increase levels of physical activity among girls. • Undertake a targeted campaign aimed at increasing girl’s activity levels• Increase age-appropriate provision for girls• Increase the number of visible and appropriate female role models

Recommendation 13: Effect change to increase levels of physical activity among disabled people.• Facilitate discussions between SEN schools, disabled people

organisations and physical activity providers

• Provide specialist training on working with disabled young people with differing needs for the physical activity workforce

Recommendation 14: Improve the skills of the physical activity workforce. • Undertake a workforce skills assessment and establish a workforce

development plan

• Implement measures to improve the standard of coaching provision, placing emphasis on young people’s needs rather than sporting performance