Active England Final Report

Active England
Final report
March 2009
Active England
Client: Sport England
Table of contents
Executive summary 1
The Active England Programme 1
Participation exceeded targets set by projects 2
Effective ways of working 3
Key lessons that will influence future programmes 4
1 Introduction 7
1.1 Background 7
1.2 Monitoring and evaluation objectives 11
1.3 Method 14
2 What was funded? 17
2.1 Capital and revenue split 17
2.2 Partnership funding 17
2.3 Organisation type 19
2.4 Focus of project 19
2.5 Target groups 23
2.6 KPIs collected 24
2.7 Regional differences 24
2.8 Key findings 25
3 What the programme has achieved 26
3.1 Meeting programme objectives 26
3.2 Programme outputs 26
3.3 What Active England Investment delivers 33
3.4 Factors that influence programme outputs 33
3.5 Increasing participation in sport and physical activity 36
3.6 Reaching target groups 38
3.7 Sustainability 44
3.8 Key findings 47
4 Effective ways of working 49
4.1 Innovation across the programme 49
4.2 The importance of people 51
4.3 Finding clues and tactics 52
4.4 The Active England Legacy Reports 54
4.5 Successful approaches 54
4.6 Key findings 55
5 Findings, conclusions and learning 57
5.1 Did the Active England Programme meet its aims? 57
5.2 Creating innovative multiactivity environments in areas of deprivation 58
5.3 Increasing participation in sport and physical activity 60
5.4 Ensuring the sports sector adopts effective ways of working 62
Contact details 65
Active England
Executive summary
The Active England Programme

Active England was a programme jointly funded by Sport England and the Big
Lottery Fund that awarded a total of £94.8 million. The aim of the programme was to
improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities as a whole,
through actively promoting sport and other forms of healthy exercise.
The Government strategy for delivering its sport and physical activity objectives,
Game Plan, drawn up in 2002, set a target of 70% of the population in England
being reasonably active (30 minutes of moderate exercise five times per week)
active by 2020. In addition, Game Plan suggested, “an innovation fund should be
established to support local ideas”. Active England began the step-change required
in physical activity and sports participation levels by supporting a number of
innovative projects that demonstrated their ability to work towards this vision.
Active England’s three main objectives were to:
Create sustainable, innovative multiactivity

environments in areas of sport, social and
health deprivation;
Increase participation in sport and physical
activity among all the sections of society but
particularly those sections of society under-
represented in sport and physical activity
participation; and
Ensure the sports sector and key partners adopt
new ways of working.
How was the programme delivered?
The Active England programme funded 241 projects across England. Sport England
identified 16 projects already under development seeking funding and meeting the
aims of the programme to provide an early start and quick wins. The remaining
projects were selected to fit with programme goals and regional strategies. Some
regions targeted outreach projects or health at work initiatives. Some regions such
as London had a few high-cost capital projects while other regions such as the
South East had a larger number of smaller revenue projects. Others involved mixed
capital and revenue funding.
The main recipients of funding were Local Authorities, other public sector
organisations and voluntary organisations. Active England also funded some
projects that focused on building organisational capacity and individual skills as well
as several projects that would not traditionally have met Sport England criteria.
Active England was successful in securing substantial partnership funding, and has
more than doubled the value of the programme through this. Some of this can be
credited to existing, large capital programmes where Active England provided more
support.
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Active England
Participation exceeded targets set by projects

Overall the evaluation findings show Active England has largely met its original aims
around increasing participation in target areas and for specific target groups.
However it has only partially met the objective of creating innovative approaches.
Across the wide range of projects supported, there has been progress and a
gathering momentum. So far Active England projects have engaged 1.4 million
participants of which 12% had been inactive in the previous 12 months and at least
60% were from one or more target groups. This comfortably exceeds the projects’
own targets. The headline outputs are:
1.4 million participants

Enabling around 803,000 people to benefit from coaching; and
Supporting 6,600 volunteers to help increase participation.
The number of participants will continue to grow as capital projects

continue to bring in new people in the coming years.
Each £10,000 of Active England funding has delivered:
165 participants;
1,055 visits to a project;
13 active members;
2.1 coaches; and
1.8 volunteers.
Comparing the success of projects
The success of projects varied significantly across the programme. Some of the key
features are:
Smaller revenue projects achieved the greatest numbers of participants for each
£10,000 of funding;
Outdoor and outreach projects were most effective at generating large numbers
of participants;
Solicited projects have not performed as well as projects applying to the
programme but some of these are large capital projects which will see high
returns over the coming years; and
Larger centre-based projects have delivered smaller numbers of participants to
date (because of longer lead-in times) but will continue to deliver over a longer
timescale.
Targeted support increased overall participation…
Increasing the overall rate of participation was a key objective for the programme
and, as well as increasing overall figures:
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Active England
173,000 participants had been inactive over the previous 12 months - however
with the more recent definition of ‘new to sport’ (inactive in the previous 4 weeks)
this figure would at least double;
Capital and outdoor-focused projects were more effective at attracting those who
had previously been inactive; and
Sports clubs attracted the lowest proportion of new
participants.
…And in under-represented groups
The programme aimed to reach under-represented

groups in particular and around half of the projects
targeted specific groups. Highlights include:
The programme reached a higher proportion of

BME groups than in the population at large (just over 15%);
Projects targeting women and those in disadvantaged communities attracted
more participants for each £10,000 of costs;
Projects have engaged some 24,000 young people at risk;
Projects that have a particular focus on BME groups and People with Disabilities
produce lower numbers of participants for each £10,000; they work more
intensively with a smaller number of participants; and
Projects targeting those with disabilities attract a high number of volunteers for
each £10,000 invested.
Active England has shown what works when targeting under-represented groups,
including good communication, providing suitable activities and understanding the
motivations for people to attend.
Effective ways of working

There are ten ‘Legacy Reports’ that accompany this report, drawing from lessons
about effective practice. These will be useful for future projects, planning future
programmes and for policy-making. In developing these we have concluded that:
Radical innovation has not been prevalent in

the Active England programme;
Most projects are run by ‘expert’ types
whereas ‘enterprising’ types are most likely to
innovate;
If innovation is desirable future projects must
be helped to model the ‘boundary busters’,
that is those who are more successful at
making connections and links;
Organisations running projects should take
account of the drivers to innovation and take steps to remove the identified
barriers;
People make projects and there are three distinct phases to a successful project
requiring three distinct sets of proficiencies;
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Active England
Active England projects have made good progress in finding clues and tactics to
widen participation; and
Active England has shared learning across regions and projects through
engagement activity such as themed workshops as well as the Legacy Reports.
Some of the overall lessons from these are summarised in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1 lessons from Active England

1. Projects with strong ownership drive people to innovate and
find solutions where others might give up.
2. Projects should develop an outward looking attitude rather
than looking inward at their programme.
Being
3. Understand the values and beliefs of the target group.
innovative
4. Use risk assessments productively, if they are unfavourable
look at new creative ways of working.
5. Enable managers to decide quickly and ring-fence project
budgets.
6. Good people with the right skills at specific times are critical to
a projects success. Modelling behaviours based on pushing
back boundaries and looking at new ways of working can
increase a project’s success.
7. Provide activities that people want – not what you assume
Increasing people need.
participation
8. Understand the barriers people face and help people
overcome them.
9. Use the “Trojan Horse” principle to attract the “hard to reach”.
Package activities so they do not appear like sport and
physical activity.
10. Make sustainability an important agenda item from day one.
11. Create an irresistible proposition for funders, give them
something they will want to fund.
Sustainability 12. Understand the challenges with securing mainstream funding.

Look at building a taper of support over the lifetime of the
funding.
13. Be enterprising. Look at many different sources and many
different approaches to achieving success.
Key lessons that will influence future programmes

One of the lessons from the Active England programme is that simply providing
activities and a logical argument about why it is a good thing is not enough. It is
encouraging that many projects have tried to go beyond this simple premise in an
attempt to uncover some clues and develop tactics to engage more people.
Visits to projects across England gave a look behind and beyond the data,
uncovering some of the less tangible reasons behind the success of some projects.
Projects also benefited from networking and learning of approaches that worked
elsewhere.
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Active England
Effective targeting
Around 60% of projects funded by Active England had a specific focus on under-
represented groups. Successful targeting of these groups
involves:
Matching supply and demand by assessing needs and

aspirations;
Packaging activities so they appear less like sport and
more like fun;
Doing whatever it takes to improve accessibility;
Communicating well and using outreach;
Considering social and psychological motivations and
barriers;
Choosing good staff; and
Using great, even iconic design, wherever possible.
Embedding a culture of self-evaluation
Sport England was keen to move sports organisations, clubs and projects to monitor
and self-evaluate. Much of our work involved embedding an understanding of the
value of using management information and monitoring mechanisms. From this we
can identify several steps funders can take to get the most from monitoring:
Be clear from the outset on the requirements for monitoring and the mechanisms
for doing so – do not change them once the project is up and running;
Carefully consider outcomes and targets and keep staff motivated about reaching
them;
Recognise there will be significant staff turnover in short-term funded projects, so
provide an ongoing programme of training and support in monitoring and
evaluation;
Ensure that projects put reporting arrangements in place before starting a project
or make it a priority for the first month; and
Make reporting on outputs and outcomes compulsory, and ideally link financial
payments to compliance with reporting.
There remain challenges when working with sports and physical activity projects to
measure changes to regular participation. All projects struggled with this
requirement. This is an area that needs further exploration. The early signs are that
SMS text messaging is effective in getting responses from participants. But projects
need to embed this approach from the start to make it effective as a tool for
measuring long-term change.
Keeping up the momentum in the longer term
Sustaining successful activity was one of the objectives of the programme. We

found that:
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Active England
Most Active England projects are likely to continue beyond the end of their
programme funding and one in six is actively looking for funding;
They will be funded through various different sources including self-funding,
“mainstreaming”, for example into local authority provision, and other sources;
Over 90% of projects have an exit strategy and more successful projects have
taken steps to ensure sustainability;
The funding has been successful in building, creating and supporting sustainable
innovative multiactivity environments;
There is evidence of lasting changes to participants’ behaviour.
Planning for sustainability
Active England has shown there are some important lessons for projects in
achieving sustainability. Applying for funding is challenging and increasingly
competitive. But by creating an irresistible proposition it puts projects in a position to
meet their own and funders’ needs. Projects need to:
Address the key concerns of funders;

Show evidence of doing this;
Show value for money;
Offset some of the costs with money from elsewhere; and
Provide intangible benefits such as good PR and marketing stories.
Mainstreaming for many projects is the hoped-for solution to long-term sustainability

but it is challenging to achieve. It needs good understanding of the budgets and
local priorities of any given area.
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Active England
1 Introduction
Active England was a community investment programme jointly funded by Sport
England and the Big Lottery Fund that awarded a total of £94.8 million. Launched in
2005, it was a national grant programme for England aiming to increase participation
in sports and physical activity. It followed the publication of the Government’s
‘Game Plan’ strategy document. Research into the participation levels in England
had shown that these were substantially lower (32%) than the most active countries
(such as Finland with 70%). However, a lack of robust evaluative evidence meant
that reviews had been unable to show what worked to increase participation.
Active England’s three main objectives were to:
Create sustainable, innovative multi-activity environments in areas of sport, social

and health deprivation;
Increase participation in sport and physical activity among all sections of society
but particularly those that are least likely to take part in sport and physical activity;
and
Ensure the sports sector and key partners are aware of and adopt new ways of
working.
Hall Aitken and Bearhunt have worked with Sport England since 2004 evaluating the
programme. This report contains the key findings from the four-year programme. It
explores and captures data on what works to increase participation and how
successful Active England has been in embedding a culture of monitoring and self-
evaluation across projects, regions and within Sport England.
1.1 Background
Active England developed after several important policy commitments in response to
growing evidence of the need for greater targeting and coordination of work to
improve participation in sport.
Programme development
In 2002 the UK Government published Game Plan: A strategy for delivering

Government’s sport and physical activity objectives 1 . The overall aim was:
“To increase significantly levels of sport and physical activity, particularly among
disadvantaged groups, and to achieve continued levels of success in international
competition.”
Some of the overarching priorities of Game Plan were:
To begin raising mass participation for young people and adults, especially
women and the elderly;
To improve the delivery of sport and physical activity by central government;
1
DCMS and Strategy Unit (2002) Game Plan: a strategy for delivering government’s sport and
physical activity objectives
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Active England
To reduce bureaucracy and increase funding direct to the sports user, Sport
England and UK Sport;
To improve the delivery of sport and physical activity by non-governmental
bodies; and
To improve the delivery of sport and physical activity by local government and the
NHS.
In response to Game Plan, Sport England developed the Framework for Sport in
England 2 (March 2004). This document identified:
Key reasons that influence participation (drivers);

Places where people take part in sport (settings);
Areas that needed addressing to help increase participation (policy areas); and
The impacts that an increase in participation in sport can have in England
(outcomes of change).
The early justification for the Active England programme stemmed from work by the
Henley Centre in 2003. 3 This identified seven key drivers for change:
Ageing populations;
Time pressures;
Well-being and obesity;
Levels of investment;
Using education;
Variations in access; and
Volunteers and professionals.
The report suggested that approaches to funding sports activity should change to
encourage new people to take up sport and physical activity. It also highlighted that
funds did not impact sufficiently upon historically harder to reach client groups such
as Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people, disabled people, women or young
people from areas of disadvantage. The report recommended there should be an
innovation fund to test new ideas and approaches.
From 2003 onwards there was a stronger emphasis on Planning Authorities to carry
out proper needs assessments and set robust standards for sports facilities as set
out in PPG17 4 . Each region has its own plan, setting out its priorities based on local
circumstances, discussed in greater detail in the next section.
Active England’s contribution to other policies and strategies
Although Active England has clear objectives around sport and physical activity, it
also supports several other long-standing and emerging Government strategies. So
2
Sport England (March 2004) Framework for Sport in England
3
Henley Centre (The) 2003 Strategic Framework for community sport in England. Meeting the
challenge of Game Plan: emerging insights on the future of participation in sport in England. London,
Sport England
4
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2002) Planning Policy Guidance 17: Planning for Open space,
Sport and Recreation.
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Active England
its contribution to increasing participation will help Sport England and the
Government achieve against several strategic outcomes. These are discussed
below.
Health and physical activity
Following a consultation, the Government published its White Paper on Health 5 in

November 2004. It sets out a strategy for action based on the principles of informed
choice, personalised services and collaboration between government, the NHS,
industry and wider society.
Following this, the Department of Health produced an action plan, Choosing activity:
a physical activity action plan, which sets out to promote increased participation in
physical activity across England 6 . It brings together actions that will contribute to
increasing levels of physical activity. These include school PE and sport and local
action to encourage activity through sport, transport plans, the use of green spaces
and providing advice to individuals on increasing activity by using pedometers.
Local Exercise Action Pilots (LEAP) aimed to test and evaluate new ways of
encouraging people to take up more physical activity. The Department of Health,
the Countryside Agency and Sport England ran them.
Education and sport
With the DCMS, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) produced the
National Strategy for PE, school sport and club links (PESSCL) 7 . It was delivered
through eight programmes such as Leadership and Volunteering. The original aim
was to increase the percentage of schoolchildren (up to age 16) who spend a
minimum of two hours each week on high-quality PE and school sport within and
beyond the curriculum to 75 per cent by 2006. The target was met and the strategy
and target were subsequently updated. They were succeeded in January 2008 by
the PE & Sport Strategy for Young People, which has an added focus on 16-19 year
olds. 8
Social inclusion through sport
The Positive Futures programme, launched in 2000, is a national sports-based

social inclusion programme aimed at marginalised 10 to 19-year olds in the most
deprived neighbourhoods. Its objective is to create opportunities to address the
multiple issues associated with problematic substance misuse.
In the Active England programme there were 107 projects set up in areas that are
among the most deprived 20% in England and Wales. Their activity and the results
they achieved help to integrate many people, especially young people, more
successfully into the community.
5
Department of Health (2004), Choosing Health – the Government’s White Paper on improving public
health in England,
6
Department of Health (2005), choosing activity: a physical activity action plan.
7
Department for Education and Skills(2003), Learning through PE and sport: a guide to the physical
education, school sport and club links strategy,
8
Department for Children Schools and Families (2008), PE & Sport Strategy for Young People.
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Active England
Community development through sport
The Community Club Development Programme (CCDP), launched in December

2002, focused on areas of sporting and social deprivation. It aimed to increase
participation in sport among the same under-represented groups that Active England
targets. Initially 16 (and then 19) eligible National Governing Bodies (NGBs) worked
in partnership with community sports clubs. The programme aimed to:
Help in creating a sustainable and financially viable sports club infrastructure in

England that links with schools, provides suitable support and pathways for
identifying and developing talented individuals and meets the needs of the local
community;
Increase club membership levels among young people and to support quality
assured “junior” sections of clubs; and
Increase club membership among women, black and other ethnic minority groups
and people with disabilities.
There were several initiatives which highlight community development through sport.
One example is the 49 County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) that Sport England put in
place across nine regions. Each CSP is locally determined and aims to lead the way
in coordinated delivery locally. Further, the CSPs play an important role in improving
the capacity of those delivering sport.
Sport England set up 12 Sport Action Zones (SAZs) in January 2000 as part of the
Sport England Lottery Strategy. Each had the aim of creating an effective and
sustainable sporting infrastructure in areas of high social and economic deprivation
to combat low levels of participation in sport. They engaged local communities in
identifying needs and in the planning process and had a planned lifespan of 5 years.
Research carried out during and towards the end of this period found many positive
results and yielded valuable learning. (Sport England Research 2006:
Understanding the success factors in Sport Action Zones.)
Set up in 2003 by Sport England, the Community Sports Coach Scheme (CSCS),
aimed to:
Provide a step change in setting up a career structure for coaches;

Increase the number of qualified coaches working locally;
Implement quality standards for the recruitment, employment, use, management
and development of coaches;
Provide managed, quality, continuous professional development for employed
coaches; and
Provide high-quality coaching with a focus on young people.
CSCS had a significant impact on community sport. By April 2008, the scheme had
placed some 3,063 coaches, exceeding the original target of 3,000.
Sport and equal opportunities
The first UK Equality Standard for Sport was launched in November 2004. It
involved collaboration by the four home country Sports Councils and UK Sport. It
aimed to aid organisations in developing structures and processes, assessing
performance and ensuring continuous improvement in equality.
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Active England
Changing priorities
Since Active England began many other initiatives have been funded and the overall
priorities for Sport England have changed, with a significant shift in focus and
direction. In particular Sport England’s Strategy 2008-2011 concentrates on sport
rather than general physical activity, aiming to create a world leading community
sports system.
Active England’s original challenges remain relevant. The Active People survey
showed in 2005/06 that just 21% of adults took part in 30 minutes of moderate sport
and active recreation three times a week. And the learning from Active England is
relevant, not just to Sport England and the Big Lottery Fund, but also for others.
The Government’s 2012 Legacy Action Plan, announced in June 2008, included the
commitment to get 2 million people more active by 2012: one million doing more
sport through Sport England’s new strategy and one million people more physically
active through coordinated action across government departments 9 . On Tuesday
10 June 2008 Sport England published this strategy to get more people playing and
enjoying sport and to help those with talent get to the top. The new approach aims
to capitalise on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented by the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to use its power to inspire more people to take
part in and succeed in sport. In addition to the one million people doing more sport,
the strategy commits Sport England to deliver on a series of other demanding
targets by 2012/13:
A 25% reduction in the number of 16-18 year olds who drop out of five key sports;
Improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports;
A measurable increase in people’s satisfaction with their experience of sport – the
first time the organisation has set such a qualitative measure; and
A major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports offer for children and
young people.
Sport England will work with the national governing bodies of sport and other
partners to deliver the new strategy.
The other one million participants will be through programmes coordinated by the
Department of Health and other departments. They will work to increase physical
activity and reduce obesity or offering young people wider opportunities for example
through the myplace programme (funded by the Department for Children, Schools
and Families).
1.2 Monitoring and evaluation objectives

Over the lifetime of the funding our role was to:
Provide expert support and advice to projects to help them meet their goals;
Give projects help with practical monitoring and self-evaluation;
Develop and use innovative approaches in the evaluation; and
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Grow Sustain Excel: Sport England Strategy 2008-11
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Active England
Identify and spread good practice in effective approaches that would help meet
Game Plan targets.
This report considers whether these aims have been achieved. It also considers
how effective the Active England programme has been in meeting its aims and how
partners can embed the lessons from Active England into future funding
programmes. This includes those delivered by Sport England, Government
departments including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department
of Health, the Department of Transport, the Department for Children Schools and
Families as well as The Big Lottery Fund. There are also lessons for voluntary
organisations, charities and local authorities. Specifically we have sought to identify:
What outputs has the programme achieved?

How do different projects compare around outputs and what factors contribute to
this?
What impact has Active England had on participation in physical activity?
How does resourcing match need?
What does each output cost and how does this compare with other programmes?
What differences in achievements are there between capital and revenue
projects?
How well has the programme met the needs of target groups?
Whether successful approaches can be sustained?
Whether the programme produced innovative approaches?
Whether good practice has been disseminated and adopted elsewhere?
Whether any learning about successes and failures will continue and grow?
Key performance indicators
The main tool for measuring whether Active England has met its objectives is the
data from 17 Key Performance Indicators, shown in Figure 1-1. These KPIs were
chosen to reflect the scope of the programme and we supported and encouraged
projects to select a suite of indicators that reflect what outcomes the project was
hoping to achieve.
During the lifetime of Active England, Sport England introduced some consistency
across all programmes. All projects were to report against five core KPIs highlighted
in Figure 1-1. Reflecting the Sport England focus on these core KPIs this report
concentrates its analysis on these findings.
Figure 1-1 - Active England Key Performance Indicators

Key
Performance
Indicator Definition
Core
KPI 1 The total number of individuals taking part in the project activity.
Participants
KPI 2 The total number of participants in each activity or session totalled
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Active England
Key
Performance
Throughput for the month.
KPI 3 Active This is a count of the total number of active members of the club.
Members
KPI 5 Coaches This is the number of coaches or leaders or instructors or teachers

involved in the project who have coached at least once in the past
year.
KPI 8 The number of volunteers involved in the project who have been
Volunteers active in the project at least once in the past year. Volunteers are
the people who have a role beyond playing or coaching.
Additional
KPI 4 Accreditation of the project to a nationally recognised Quality

Organisation Management system. Can include Investors in People (IiP),
Accreditation QUEST, Club Mark and national governing body accreditations.
KPI 6 Regular This is the number of coaches who provide at least one hour of
Coaching coaching to the project each week, on average over the year.
KPI 7 Sports The number of people gaining sports related qualifications.

Qualifications
KPI 9 Regular The number of individuals volunteering for at least one hour each
Volunteering week on average over the year.
KPI 10 Health The number of individual referrals from a health professional to the
referrals project who take part until the end of the prescribed course.
KPI 11 Regular The number of adults who do 30 minutes of moderate intensity

Adult physical exercise in a day – and the number of days in a week they
Participation do this.
KPI 12 Regular Number of young people (under 16) who do 60 minutes of moderate
Youth intensity physical exercise in a day – and the number of days in a
Participation week they do this.
KPI 13 Young The number of young people aged under 25 who are ‘at risk’, who
people at risk take part in structured physical activity sessions lasting over 6
weeks or more.
KPI 14 Non- Number of individuals gaining non-sports qualifications through

sports involvement in the project. This includes any nationally recognised
qualifications NVQ, GCSE, or specialist qualification that is not a sports
qualification.
KPI 15 Jobs The number of individuals taking part in the project, who move on to
and training other education opportunities or employment.
KPI 16 Sports The number of full-time equivalent permanent (12 months or more)
Jobs jobs created or safeguarded in the project or organisation by the
Active England project.
KPI 17 Funding Further investment that the project has secured for sport and
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Active England
Key
Performance
physical activity after it started.
As we explore in more detail in later sections, the projects funded by Active England
are diverse. To allow for analysis we present most of our findings based on
achievements for each £10K of the total project costs.
1.3 Method
Our method is reported in more detail within the Appendices to this report, together
with results of project surveys about effectiveness of delivery. In this section we
highlight some of the key features of our approach. The focus was on developing
and supporting a culture of self-evaluation across projects to collect a suite of data
and other evidence to demonstrate the impact of their activities. Put simply the
responsibility for data collection rested with the individual projects, rather than
external evaluators. We also carried out further primary research which we
analysed alongside self-evaluation data collated from projects. This included a
series of project surveys, project visits, qualitative research through developing case
studies and sharing learning findings through learning exchange events and the
Active England Learning Zone (www.aelz.org).
Developing and supporting a self-evaluation culture
We developed a wide variety of guidance and tools to help projects adopt and
sustain a culture of self-evaluation. These are all included in the Technical Appendix
accompanying this report. They included a monitoring guide, advice on designing
surveys and a suite of tools for capturing softer outcomes. Projects could also
access external training courses if these were needed.
We provided continuing support in using this guidance through a programme of

individual project visits (264), workshops (47), regional meetings and clinics,
mentoring visits (160) seminars and by managing a dedicated helpline. The Active
England Learning Zone provided a portal for this information and a forum for projects
to share experiences, challenges and solutions.
Real-time data collection, collation and analysis
We developed Value Mapping™, a web-based data reporting, collation and analysis

tool. This allowed data collection from projects in real-time, driven by their individual
monitoring frameworks. Collation of the data and headline analysis was possible in
‘real-time’ allowing analysis and findings to be readily available throughout the
programme delivery, rather than just at key milestones.
Sharing learning
We developed a web-based learning zone (www.aelz.org) to serve as both an

information portal and forum to share learning. This contained documents and tools
that we developed to support projects and discussion forums allowing projects to
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Active England
share ideas. However, as with other similar projects, the discussion forum was not
widely used. The website also included ideas and contacts for projects developing
innovative approaches; regular commentary on findings emerging from our analysis;
regular news on programme progress; and a database of case studies.
The programme of annual conferences and themed seminars also promoted

learning exchange.
Active England monitoring and evaluation has evolved over the lifetime of the
funding. This has seen our role shift from one of embedding and supporting
monitoring to collecting information and stories to one of sharing best practice. We
sought to leave a legacy across sports and physical activity projects to deliver better
services and projects in the future.
Success and challenges
In the appendices we provide more detail about the various elements of our method
which proved to be most successful, and those where we experienced challenges.
In this section we highlight some of the headlines.
We provided all projects with the opportunity to provide monitoring data regularly.
They could do this through a web-enabled management information tool called
ValueMapping. After support through workshops, visits and telephone support a
majority (87%) of Active England projects collected and reported some data and
evidence about their project. The most common reasons for not using
ValueMapping were technical difficulties (such as organisational or network limits);
staff changes; and, for some, no regular access to a computer.
This return of data by most projects provides a (theoretically) robust set of data from
which to draw conclusions. But awareness and interest tailed off over time across
the programme and was affected by significant levels of staff turnover at projects
(over 50%).
Often project staff with capacity and skills to self-evaluate left and there was no
legacy of these skills and responsibility among remaining staff. Subsequently
significant effort went into working with new project staff to build capacity in self-
evaluation, and repeat earlier training and awareness-raising. Staff changes within
Sport England were also an issue.
There were also challenges in collecting trend data. The use of Value Mapping
theoretically enabled us to track outputs across the whole programme life cycle and
identify trends in participation, and peaks and troughs in performance across the
KPIs. But the accuracy and completeness of the dataset was dependent on projects
using the tool consistently and regularly. In many cases the projects entered large
quantities of data retrospectively rather than at regular intervals. Because of this we
were unable to collect robust data on trends over time.
Projects found regular physical activity participation data challenging to collect. This
was in part because of the information needed (frequency, intensity and type of
participation) and traditional issues with self-reporting. We were able to collect some
data for the KPIs around regular participation, but overall the dataset is limited
across the programme.
15
Active England
Through our evaluation we also developed a tailored sport and physical activity
version of the Rickter Scale tool that measures soft outcomes. We organised
training and accreditation of staff from 30 projects and Sport England staff.
Unfortunately these projects did not carry through with this. They reported that they
did not have the time or the resources to continue tracking people over time. There
was therefore less data on soft outcomes than we had expected.
16
Active England
2 What was funded?

In this chapter we set out how the Active England funding was used, providing a
context for the evaluation. Funding from Active England reached a diverse range of
organisations and project types. This chapter sets out the numbers and types of
projects that received funding. It considers the different approaches taken by the
regions exploring how this led to differences in project type and outcomes across the
country.
2.1 Capital and revenue split

Overall the programme gave over £94.8 million to projects from the £108m set aside
and the Figure 2-1 shows the breakdown between capital, revenue and mixed
funding. The Active England funding levered in other funding totalling around £132
million. Capital projects were able to lever in a higher proportion of partner funding
as Figure 2-1 shows.
Figure 2-1 – Project costs & Active England funding by project funding type
Number of Total value of Total value of Active
Project type projects projects (£M) England funding (£M)
Capital 29 50.5 17.6
Revenue 101 32.5 17.2
Capital and Revenue 111 147.4 60.0
Total all projects 241 230.4 94.8

Source: Sport England
Most of Active England funding went to projects

Projects mixing capital and
that combined capital and revenue elements
revenue
(total value £147.4 million). Nearly four times
The Trafford Multi Use Games
Area (MUGA) Project included a
as much went into these projects compared
new MUGA and a coordinator. with stand-alone capital or revenue projects.
The coordinator worked with This was largely a deliberate strategy by the
schools and youth services to regions, reflecting priorities in their regional
get young people involved in plans. There was an awareness among the
various projects and events – all regions that facilities alone would not attract
run at the MUGA. participants and achieve the programme’s
objectives.
2.2 Partnership funding

As in many programmes Sport England encouraged partnership funding to lever
funds into the programme. Active England secured significant partnership funding,
levering in an extra £132.5 million to support sport and physical activity projects
across the country.
Some projects were successful in levering significant funding. Burnley Borough

Council Leisure Services and the PCT pooled resources to fund a new multi-purpose
17
Active England
health and activity centre. Active England contributed £1 million of the £7 million
building costs. This was 15% of the total funding.
Overall Active England funded 41% of the total project costs and levered in 59% of
partnership funding. There are examples from across the programme where Active
England contributed a small percentage of the total project value. In particular this
included providing more revenue funding to large capital builds. This significantly
increased the partnership funding available to the programme.
Not all projects however were able to attract extra funds. The Knowsley Domestic
Violence project received 100% Active England funding for a coordinator to work in a
domestic violence refuge, the project included a small capital element to help fund
equipment and gym clothes.
Hull City Council built two 5-a-side 3G pitches and two MUGAs (Active Hull). They
employed a co-ordinator to facilitate and manage the activities. The aim of the
project was to tackle obesity, antisocial behaviour and crime. Active England funded
the total project cost of £450,000.
Ten projects received 100% funding through Active England (4%). Projects
receiving only revenue funding received a greater proportion of Active England
funding towards their total project costs.
The programme had no fixed rules for attracting partnership funding, allowing
regions to work at their own discretion. As Figure 2-2 shows, some regions such as
the North East and South East achieved significant partnership funding, particularly
the North East. This region had only 26% Active England funds across the
programme. Yorkshire had a low total amount of funding against the 24 projects
supported. The average cost for each project was the second lowest but the
average intervention cost was the highest at 64%. The average project costs varied
from £500,000 to £1.4m except for the national projects which averaged £2.8 million.
Figure 2-2 Project value and funding ratio by region (in £ millions)
Average Active
Number. Total Active Average Active England
of Project England Project England funding
Region projects Costs Funding Cost Funding %
East Midlands 36 17.4 8.0 0.5 0.2 46%
East 18 18.0 8.3 1.0 0.5 46%
London 22 30.4 14.8 1.4 0.7 49%
North East 26 36.3 9.5 1.4 0.4 26%
North West 33 37.0 14.0 1.1 0.4 38%
South East 35 24.2 8.9 0.7 0.3 37%
South West 21 18.9 8.6 0.9 0.4 45%
West Midlands 21 20.2 9.5 1.0 0.5 47%
Yorkshire 24 14.1 9.0 0.6 0.4 64%
National 5 13.9 4.2 2.8 0.8 30%
Total 241 230.4 94.8 1.0 0.4 41%
18
Active England
2.3 Organisation type

There are three broad types of organisation funded through the programme: public
sector agencies, charities and voluntary organisations and sports clubs. Figure 2-3
shows the funding each received.
Figure 2-3 - Projects funded by organisation type

Sector Total funding Number of projects
Public sector £58,516,535 155 (64.0%)
Charities and Voluntary orgs £23,811,985 53 (21.9%)
Sports clubs £12,382,410 32 (13.2%)
Social Enterprise £99,394 1 (0.4%)
Total £94,810,324 241
Active England funded several public sector bodies with Local Authorities the main
recipient of the funding with 106 (44%) projects but a further 32 were funded in the
NHS and education sector. However these large organisations have been behind
some of the major innovative projects funded by Active England including the
examples shown below.
Coastal and Rural Extreme Wellness on Wheels Great Yarmouth (Great

Sport (North Cornwall (Wear Valley District Yarmouth Local Strategic
District Council) Council) Partnership/PCT)
Set up surf, climbing and Mobile fitness facility to Using extreme sports to
kayaking academies. Knew take gyms to rural encourage participation by
its own limitations and communities. It can young people. Set up
contracted a local surf school accommodate 16 people power kiting, land boarding,
to run the surf academy. at a time and is supported wake boarding and beach
by gym instructors. life guarding.
2.4 Focus of project

Active England funded projects across a wide range of locations, formats and
contexts. Centre-based projects, outdoor projects and outreach projects are the
three main types – totalling around two thirds of all projects. We have broken down
these three broad categories into more coherent project types which we expand on,
and provide examples of, in the summaries that follow.
19
Active England
Large, single centre-based projects
These projects are all major capital

Lack of facilities for area or group where participation projects involving either developing a new
rates are low sports and leisure facility, or extensive
refurbishment, extension or development
of an existing facility. They are often
Build/refurbish facility + Add staff resources funded in areas where participation rates
are low and there are limited or no local
facilities. Some have a significant revenue
element but the main focus of most is on
providing suitable space and equipment.
Publicise and run facility effectively
These types of project accounted for
around 15% of funded projects. The
Target groups come to centre and their physical activity Woodhouse Park Life Centre in
levels increase Manchester is a state-of-the art
multiactivity centre built on the site of
some old community owned portacabins. It offers outdoor pitches, gym, sports hall,
flexible space and a study support centre. The centre has transformed the
opportunities available to local people.
Smaller, multicentre projects
Smaller multicentre projects are typically

Lack of facilities for area or group capital-funded and aim to develop several
smaller sports or leisure facilities in areas
with poor existing facilities. They include
Build/refurbish a number of venues + Add staff resources
projects seeking funding for refurbishing
changing rooms or adding toilet facilities
such as Carlisle City Council’s project
refurbishing two Multi Use Games Areas.
Promote and run project Because of their success the council
secured funding for a third one. Other
communities are lobbying for their own
Target groups come and engage in sport and physical Multi Use Games Area and there may well
activity be a fourth and a fifth. The different
locations enabled the council to draw
Continued work will help people participate more conclusions about what works best. These
frequently types of project account for roughly 16% of
all projects.
20
Active England
Centre-based outreach projects
These types of projects are based within

Local facilities exist but target groups will not come an existing centre but focus on targeting
specific under-represented groups to
increase participation through outreach.
Employ staff with appropriate skills
Typically there will be low participation
among certain target groups who face
barriers to using existing facilities.
Promote and advertise services Outreach projects have a significant

revenue element, for example, employing
a sport coordinator based at a centre but
Build use and participation working with various target groups to
ensure they use the centre. Sport
coordinators work with local people
Target groups are engaged and participate more specifically in a deprived area.
frequently
Centre-based outreach projects account
for around 17% of the total funded projects including projects such as the Kirklees
Borough Council project targeting overweight and obese young people. It tries to
increase participation by providing a series of specialised sport and activity clinics.
Motivational interviews have been one of a whole raft of initiatives to engage and
sustain activity in the group.
Non-centre-based outreach projects
These projects provide outreach support to

Target groups in the area are not engaging in activity engage targeted groups but are not based
within any specific centre. These outreach
staff can use mobile facilities or make use
Revenue made available to use outdoors/existing facilities of outdoor places or local community halls.
more effectively Funding goes towards necessary
equipment and overcoming barriers to get
to where people are, rather than waiting for
them to come to a specifically funded
People will be encouraged to go to facilities to take part in
project. These types of projects account
events. Target groups will be able to use services.
for around 20% of the total funded projects.
They include a significant revenue element

Target group activity increases although some may also have capital
funding. Examples include projects such
as Steps4Sport run by the Countryside
Agency in the North West. This project focused on getting walking groups into sport
and sporting groups into walking. It covered all the North West with five county
network officers working out in the field.
21
Active England
Outdoor facility based projects
These types of project are based around

The natural environment/Playing fields are under used outdoor sports or leisure facilities such as
MultiUse Games Areas, cycle paths, and
sports pitches. Active England
Revenue is made available to advertise/guide/engage the recognised the value of using existing
public space and funded projects that supported
activity outdoors through organisations
Capital is allocated to improve facilities (such as changing like Sustrans and the Forestry
rooms) Commission.
People come as and when they wish (cycle paths) or when Typically projects use capital funds to
events are organised (pitches) refurbish the facilities and revenue
funding to employ a sport coordinator to
engage the public or advertise the new
Target group participation rates increase
project. These projects account for
around 28% of the funded projects.
Redeveloping the Silver Street Basin in Walsall is a typical example of an outdoor

project. The project introduced canoeing to local young people through classes and
fun activities. A Paddle Power Development course has been set up which is the
first step on the ladder to competence and club membership
Organisational and staff support projects
These projects include work-based

People within a company or organisation have low levels
activities as well as projects where a sport
of activity
coordinator supports or develops others.
These are typically revenue funded
projects supporting staff to market activities
Revenue is made available to stimulate/encourage activity and develop other coordinators.
Active England focused its funding on what

Promotion and marketing of services and benefits of
healthy lifestyles lead agents of projects believed would
make people become more physically
active. This meant funding both places and
Target groups take up opportunities people, recognising there needed to be
support and encouragement to get people
physically active. Active England also
supported existing organisations to train
Participation rates increase providers. These were not directly
encouraging participation in sport, rather
providing the skills and expertise to build capacity and to allow a legacy for training
in the future.
Staffing and organisational projects accounted for about 4% of those funded by

Active England. South Trafford College provides a good example of this project
type. It ran a series of courses and events, both accredited and non-accredited to
support professionals in providing physical activity events.
22
Active England
2.5 Target groups

One of the main objectives for Active England was to increase participation among
young people aged under 16 and target groups with a lower than average
participation rate. Sport England identified these as:
People with disabilities;

People over 45;
Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups;
Women and young women; and
People on low incomes (20% most deprived areas in England according to the
Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004).
Some 56% of projects funded by Active England specifically targeted one of these
groups (123). As Figure 2-4 shows, young people were the most commonly
targeted with around a third of projects targeting them. Across the programme only
4% of projects were specifically targeting BME groups (10) and a similar proportion
specifically targeted women (7).
The Girls do Games project in County Durham focuses on 11-16 year old girls in
Sedgefield communities. They set up peer research groups from the target group in
five areas. They use various methods to identify barriers and work with sporting
hubs to overcome them and have implemented many proposals.
However, many of the projects were successful at targeting participants from these
groups even without a specific focus and we shall explore this in the next section.
Figure 2-4 Number of projects focusing on target groups
80
72
70
60
50
40
30
24
20
10 10
10 7
0
Young People Disadvantaged BME Disabled Women
Source: ValueMapping results
23
Active England
2.6 KPIs collected

The projects were able to select their own KPI’s from a suite of 17 using the
Monitoring Guide 10 ; many consulted with us to agree their KPI’s. This allowed
projects to collect the data that would best show what their project was trying to
achieve. It also provides an insight into the types of projects funded by Active
England.
Almost 40 projects collected and reported data on Young People at Risk, showing
links with other social programmes. Other projects (43) collected and reported on
health referrals showing the strong links Active England has with the health and well-
being agenda. The Technical Appendix includes a full list of the numbers of projects
collecting each of the KPIs.
2.7 Regional differences

Active England was one of the first Sport England programmes that regional offices
delivered so they could respond to local strategic priorities. The percentage of the
funding granted to each region was based on levels of population and deprivation.
Each region had developed a Regional Sport Plan based on the National Framework
for Sport and its priorities and outcomes. Figure 2-5 summarises these national
priorities and outcomes.
Figure 2-5 - Outcomes and Priorities of the National Framework for Sport
Priorities Outcomes
• Promotion and marketing • Increasing participation in sport and
active recreation
• Legislation and regulatory change
• Widening access
• Quality accreditation and improvement
• Improving health and well-being
• Structures and partnerships
• Improving performance
• Innovation and delivery
• Creating stronger and safer
• Strategic planning and evidence
communities
• Improving education
• Benefiting the economy
Although each region follows these priorities and outcomes there are also specific
areas of action in each region. And they have interpreted these priorities flexibly in
the kinds of projects they have funded to meet specific regional needs. Because of
these differences there is little value in comparing KPIs across regions as a whole.
We are therefore providing individual regional reports alongside this national report
in the Technical Appendix.
10
Hall Aitken (2005), Guide to monitoring and self-evaluation for Active England projects (available on
www.aelz.org)
24
Active England
2.8 Key findings

This section has demonstrated the range of projects that Active England funded.
The programme aimed to fund projects that would contribute to its aims but was
flexible enough to respond to regional priorities. The key issues around what
funding delivered are:
Revenue projects received a greater proportion of Active England funding; but the
most common funding model is one that combines capital and revenue;
The public sector was the main beneficiary of Active England funding and Local
Authorities supported some of the most innovative large projects;
Active England also funded a significant minority of projects that focused on up-
skilling organisations and individuals;
The programme funded projects across a wider range of interventions than
traditionally associated with Sport England;
Several projects focused on health referrals and at-risk young people;
Each region has determined what to fund influenced by regional plans linked to
the National Framework for sport;
Active England was successful in securing substantial partnership funding which
has more than doubled the value of the programme;
Regions achieved as much as 74% funding from other sources; and
The average project cost excluding national projects was £932,000.
25
Active England
3 What the programme has achieved

This section sets out the overall achievements of the Active England programme
over its lifetime. It focuses initially on assessing how well it has met its key
objectives and highlights the key factors behind these achievements.
3.1 Meeting programme objectives

As we discussed in the introduction, the priorities and delivery context for Active
England have changed significantly over the lifetime of the programme. However
the original programme objectives are still valid for evaluating achievement.
Specifically we have sought to identify:
What outputs has the programme achieved?

How do different projects compare on outputs and what factors contribute to this?
How does the resourcing match need?
What is the cost for each for each output and how does this compare with other
programmes?
What differences in outputs are there between capital and revenue projects?
Whether successful approaches can be sustained?
Whether projects developed and tried innovative approaches?
Whether good practice has been disseminated and adopted elsewhere?
This chapter looks at what the programme has achieved towards these issues. We
address the issues of innovation, learning through the programme and developing
good practice in later chapters.
3.2 Programme outputs

As outlined in the introduction, all projects focused on achieving progress against an
agreed suite of Key Performance Indicators. Figure 3-1 shows the estimated
outputs from all funded projects that supplied data until March 2008. Of course
achievements will continue until the project ends and, for capital projects, Active
England funding will continue to deliver results even beyond this.
Figure 3-1- Active England outputs against core KPIs

KPI Reported Estimated
KPI 1 Participants 1.2 million 1.4 million
KPI 2 Active members 27,000 33,300
KPI 3 Throughput 6.8 million 7.8 million
KPI 5 Coaches 6,000 8,400
KPI 8 Volunteers 5,700 6,600
Source: ValueMapping, March 2008
26
Active England
Over 1.4 million participants and growing
We estimate that by March 2008 there had been 1.4 million people taking part in
Active England funded activities. However because many of the facilities and
projects funded by the programme will continue to deliver beyond March 2008, we
estimate that by 2010 projects will have attracted over 1.95 million participants.
Figure 3-2 sets out these estimates and projections.
Our estimates assume that participant figures will increase by the same proportion
each year.
Figure 3-2 Projected participants from capital projects up to 2010
2000000
1500000
1000000
500000
0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Projected estimates Reported
Source: ValueMapping reporting. Reported, n=95 projects, Projected estimates, n=117 projects.
Note ‘Reported’ means according to completed monitoring returns, ‘projected estimates’ is our
estimate of the total numbers. Projected estimates are based on average participants for each
£10,000 project cost. Assumptions: Participant figures will increase by the same proportion each
year for the next couple of years until a saturation point.
On average each participant made 5.6 repeat visits to a project based on the total
throughput figures. However clearly there will be a wide range of visit frequencies
underlying this average ranging from regular users to one-off visits.
The programme was intent on attracting people who were New to Sport. The
Pioneer Projects in High Bentham for example looked for ways to combine sport with
art to overcome resistance to traditional forms of activity, particularly among
Kashmiri women. Active Angels in London and other projects such as Bolton Lads
and Girls Club use approaches designed to attract new participants. Packaging
activities as less about competition and more about social engagement worked well
for young girls. While hooking people into a club using subsidised food has worked
well in Bolton. Using this approach about 15% of this group has become regularly
active.
27
Active England
33,000 active members
The active members of a local club or group are the lifeblood of any community-
based action. Active members are important role models in their communities and
encourage others to join in. Through Active England funding, an estimated 33,000
people will have become actively involved in local sports clubs or groups involved in
physical activity by 2010.
The Knowle Park project in Bristol was an example of success in building active
members. The community saved the school from the bulldozers and set about
creating a community resource centre which includes a gym. The low fees and
community ownership have seen a healthy take up of memberships. In time some
go on to join private gyms, but the key is that membership has established an
exercise habit.
8,400 coaches developing others
Coaches, instructors and leaders play a critical role in promoting and supporting
sport and recreational physical activity. We estimate that Active England funding
has supported around 8,400 coaches each of which works with a further 96
participants on average. This would mean that up to 803,000 participants may have
benefited from coaching to some extent. Around 3,600 of these coaches (42%)
were coaching regularly within projects, at least once a week over 12 months.
The Active South Kilburn project in London is working out of three leisure centres in
the South Kilburn NDC. This project aimed to get 1000 residents signed up to the P-
Leisure Pass. In the process some 75 people signed up for training programmes.
This led them to generic sports leader training.
Further analysis shows that outreach projects, those working with over 45s and
those working with people with disabilities have a lower number of participants for
every coach. And through project visits we found that projects focusing on people
with disabilities need more coaches to enable them to engage.
6,600 volunteers increasing delivery
Much of the directly funded activity through Active England was supplemented by
further volunteering. Attracting volunteers is likely to increase the capacity of
projects and make the available funding go further. So encouraging people to work
as volunteers was a key strand of the programme. By March 2008 we estimated
that 6,600 volunteers had been involved with Active England projects in a capacity
other than coaching. Our research found that 1,900 of these volunteers (29%)
volunteered regularly (at least once a week over a year). Outreach projects and
those that targeted disabled and BME clients attracted more volunteers for each
£10,000 investment.
One project that successfully attracted volunteers is again the Bolton Lads and Girls
Club. The club has three members of staff dedicated to recruiting, training and
retaining volunteers. It has some 360 volunteers whose value is estimated to be £1
million a year.
In addition the Active Meadowlands project in Coventry has lessons to teach others.
It has one member of staff, so developing a volunteer workforce has been essential
28
Active England
in growing and sustaining the activities. Simply getting young people playing sport
on a MUGA saw the local paper report a 60% drop in local crime. This impressed
local people to the extent that 48 people volunteered and were trained.
Another example is in Corby, Northamptonshire where the Primary Care Trust

delivers the Active Lifestyles project. They found that existing programmes did not
always target the neediest and that professionals tended to go in and ‘do things’.
Instead the project identified ten local champions to set up and sustain local groups
to run activities.
Soft outcomes
While there was no explicit objective for projects to contribute to softer outcomes,
our evaluation identified several areas where projects made a positive impact.
These include:
Increased motivation;
Improved self-esteem;
Boosting confidence; and
Social engagement and interaction.
During our project visits, coaches and volunteers reported many instances where
there were such wider impacts that go well beyond simple participation. In Figure
3-3 we have listed some of the learning that we have identified when visiting projects
and some examples of these.
29
Active England
Figure 3-3 Examples and learning about soft outcomes

Soft outcome Key Learning Examples
Trying to tell people what to do doesn’t Active Swindon Walking Group brought
work very well. Yet some people who non-participants to physical activity and
have been long-term inactive do need helped them increase and sustain their
some encouragement. involvement.
An effective way of doing this, without

being prescriptive is to apply the A partnership lead by Kirklees Borough
technique of motivational interviewing. Council targets overweight and obese
Increased This is a useful approach with people young people. It tries to increase
motivation who accept that they need to change participation by providing a series of
their behaviour, but may be at different specialised sport and activity clinics.
states of readiness to do so. The The project used motivational
interviews try to increase a person’s interviewing with the young people to
awareness of the problems, engage the young people and continue
consequences and risks faced by their involvement.
continuing their current course of
behaviour.
Often people from hard to reach groups Street League aims to bring
will find difficulty staying with an activity in disadvantaged young people, of which
the longer term. Some research 50% are homeless, into employment by
suggests that it takes eight weeks to using sport as a means of engagement.
establish a habit. Even where people This involves both a sporting
have enjoyed what they did they find it programme and a structured education
difficult to stick at it for all sorts of and development programme. Each
reasons. These could be low self- participant receives personal support to
esteem, no experience of embedding encourage their participation and
structure into their chaotic lives or cultural development.
pressures for example.
Improved
self-esteem Providing on-going support beyond the The Aspire project in Crewe and
formal programmes is a key to getting Nantwich received funds to work with
hard-to-reach groups to continue activity 11-19 year olds with mental health
long enough to establish a habit. It is a problems and behavioural problems. It
way to positively reinforce and reward provided evidence that the young
achievement. Some successful projects people taking part benefited from
have been able to assign participants to increased confidence and self-esteem.
mentors. These mentors help them to
overcome barriers and help with their
continuing needs by taking a personal
interest in the individual.
Open, simple and non-threatening Projects with volunteers and coaches

communication plus outreach are good that target more disadvantaged clients
ways to begin to nurture non-participants were particularly successful in
to the point where they will take part in delivering these soft outcomes to
activity. participants. A good example was the
Salmon Centre in Bermondsey.
While traditional marketing is message- Britain’s most advanced youth centre
Improved based, the social marketing approach is which has focused on state-of-the art
confidence customer based. It tries to get under the design features yet kept its link with the
skin of the customer, to understand their history and ethos of the old centre.
motivations and to accept that they are
not all the same. Its core ideas are:
• Insight – understanding the reality of
the everyday lives of the customer;
• Exchange – what the person has to
give to achieve the proposed benefit
30
Active England
Soft outcome Key Learning Examples

give to achieve the proposed benefit Willenhall Active Lifestyles developed a
and looking at maximising benefits programme to help young obese people
while lessening barriers; and take more control over their weight
management. In doing so it has
• Alternatives – for example habit, opened up access for a group where
addiction, competition for time and the embarrassment factor can be a big
attention. barrier.
Social marketing is an emerging field and

one which has much to offer those who
are seeking to change behaviour.
Perhaps without realising it, some Active
England projects have begun to achieve
success by looking at psychological and
social motivations.
Older people find the social interaction Steps to Sport in the North West
important. provides a social, welcoming and
organised gentle activity (that is non-
For BME groups projects should consider competitive). This has helped them to
particular religious and cultural needs, for attract and keep this age group. The
example a single sex group. Activities health walks that volunteers lead are
should locate in familiar surroundings and popular with adults over 45 who are not
should include less obvious locations active.
such as the mosque. To overcome
barriers, literature may need translating. Tower Hamlets Healthy Living Network
Projects should understand the project attracted 917 participants all
complexity of barriers to participation and from minority ethnic groups. It delivers
Social
staff should represent the group they are activities through partner organisations
interaction
working with. ensuring those who want them can
receive services. They offer tailor-
For young girls getting them engaged is made services in a familiar setting.
more successful when it is projected less
as sport and more as fun with their Active Hastings, in the South East, run
friends. two successful programmes for women
and girls. Both programmes focus on
non-traditional sport and include
activities such as street dance,
rollerblading, cheerleading and
trampolining.
Many of the real benefits delivered by Active England are the changes that it has
made to people’s lives. The data does not always reflect the impact that engaging
with sympathetic people can have. The numbers of new participants, the number of
active members or volunteers is only part of the story so we also collected user
stories as part of our project visits.
Anne - Active Swindon Walking Group
Anne is part of the Active Swindon Walking Group. At school Anne was a keen
walker, so much so that she took part in the Nijmegen Walks twice (an annual road
marching event that takes place every year over four days in Holland. Participants
walk 30, 40 or 50 kilometres a day). In later life Anne developed depression and
was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She had become withdrawn and no
longer exercised. It was her mum that heard about the Active Swindon project,
because she works for the Primary Care Trust. Anne began coming to the walking
group, and has now started walking again on the days when the group doesn’t meet
as well. She has begun to set goals for herself. She uses a pedometer to gauge
31
Active England
her progress and is doing 10,000 steps a day four days a week. Her aim is to be
able to do this every day.
Anne says about what the project has meant to her:
“I’m still here. With my condition that is an achievement. I’m not a social person and I
know that I have to try to be more social and coming to the group has helped me to
achieve that. I want to keep coming to the group and maybe become a walk leader.
My dad believes that endorphins released by exercise are good for my condition.
Well they are not the cure but they do help.”
Other Outputs
Although the focus has been largely on the five core KPIs, many projects also
provided data on the other 12 KPIs. These help show some of the wider benefits of
the Active England programme. Figure 3-4 shows these wider outputs estimated
across the programme as a whole.
Figure 3-4 Total KPI results and projections
KPI Reported Estimated

KPI 17 Funding £6.3m £8.9m
KPI 13 Young People at Risk 20,000 23,900
KPI 10 Health Referrals 15,800 18,800
KPI 6 Regular Coaching 2,600 3,400
KPI 7 Sports Qualifications 9,900 11,700
KPI 14 Non-Sports Qualifications 1,700 3,700
KPI 9 Regular Volunteering 1,600 1,900
KPI 16 Sports Jobs 180 209
KPI 15 Jobs and training 102 214
KPI 4 Organisation Accreditation 33 44
Source: ValueMapping, March 2008
Several projects were part-funded by the NHS and others linked in with the local
PCT to engage with health referrals. For example Carres Grammar School worked
with the local PCT to work with exercise referrals, cardiac rehabilitation and the
mental health recovery group.
People who engaged with Active England projects also gained more than 11,000
sports qualifications. These include football coaching, basketball coaching, archery
and swimming qualifications. A further 3,700 non-sports qualifications were also
achieved including first aid, child protection and health and safety certificates.
Active England also created or safeguarded more than 200 sports jobs including
community sports coaches and more staff for projects. A total of 214 individuals
moved to other jobs or training because of the Active England project.
Projects funded through Active England also gained or helped other organisations to
gain accreditation. These were mostly accredited through National Governing
Bodies or through Clubmark accreditation.
32
Active England
3.3 What Active England Investment delivers

Figure 3-5 shows the programme level Core KPI outputs that each £10,000 of
project cost delivers. Project cost is the total amount of funding available to the
project to deliver its services. This includes Active England grant and funds levered
in from other sources. Core KPI outputs includes an average of 69 participants; an
average throughput of over 450 and just over one coach. Looking at the Active
England share of the funding on its own then, due to leverage, each £10,000 of
funding will have achieved significantly more, including:
165 participants;
13 Active Members;
A throughput of over 1,000 visits;
Two coaches supporting participants; and
Two volunteers working on projects.
Figure 3-5 Outputs for each £10,000 project cost and Active England funding
Active England
KPI Project costs Funding
KPI 1 Participants 69 165
KPI 2 Active members 5.4 13
KPI 3 Throughput 456 1,055
KPI 5 Coaches 1.1 2.1
KPI 8 Volunteers 0.7 1.8
Source: ValueMapping, March 2008, Participants, n=185 projects; Active Members, n=36 projects;
Throughput, n=163 projects; Coaches, n=85 projects; Volunteers, n=87 projects.
Figure 3-6 shows the outputs for four core KPIs by project type. It shows that
outreach and outdoor projects produced a greater number of participants and
throughput for each £10K project cost. Although it should be noted that outdoor
projects often rely on estimates for reporting purposes that are less robust.
Figure 3-6 – KPI outputs for each £10k project cost by project type
Coaches Participants Throughput Volunteers
Centre-based 0.9 42 359 1.4
Others 0.4 68 246 0.8
Outdoor 1.2 135 821 0.6
Outreach 2.1 161 603 2.9
All projects 1.1 69 456 0.7
Source: ValueMapping, March 2008, Participants, n=185 projects; Throughput, n=163 projects;
Coaches, n=85 projects; Volunteers, n=87 projects.
Outreach projects overall provide a higher number of coaches and volunteers while
outdoor projects are less likely to attract volunteers.
3.4 Factors that influence programme outputs

Active England funded a wide range of projects across the country across different
communities and in different contexts. This section looks at some of the factors that
33
Active England
have influenced the key outputs and explores the reasons for these variations. The
diverse type and size of projects receiving funding makes comparison between
simple KPI returns misleading. So for the rest of this section we have looked at KPI
outputs for each £10,000 of project cost. This comparator shows, for example, how
many participants on average projects attracted for each £10,000 project cost.
Differences between capital and revenue
Across the programme as a whole we found that revenue projects were more
effective at attracting and keeping participants than capital funded projects.
Revenue projects appear to be more effective at encouraging people to make repeat
visits – throughput for revenue projects is 864 for each £10,000 of project cost
compared to 585 for capital projects. Revenue projects employing staff can engage
more with people one-to-one and therefore these projects can be more effective in
bringing people in. However capital projects may have taken longer to set up and
will bring more sustained throughput over a longer timescale. For the next few years
they will continue to bring in participants.
Our analysis has also found that project size also has an influence on achieving
outputs. As Figure 3-7 shows, smaller revenue funded projects have achieved the
highest number of participants for each £10k of project cost and that for revenue
projects value for money declines with project size. This backs up findings
elsewhere in the report that smaller, focused projects are effective in targeting and
reaching people from the target groups not engaged in physical activity. Medium-
sized projects with mixed revenue and capital funding (£100k to £500k) were more
effective than similarly sized revenue only projects at attracting participants.
Figure 3-7 Participants for each £10K by cost band for revenue, capital and mixed
revenue-capital projects
247
250
214
200
147
150
100
62 69
50 30
16
9
0
Less than £100,000 £100,001 - £500,000 £500,001 - £1,000,001+
£1,000,000
Revenue Mixed Capital
Source: ValueMapping, n=176 projects
Most capital-only projects were in the largest project cost category. And, while these
were more effective than large revenue funded projects, they attracted fewer
participants for each £10k than revenue projects overall. However many of the
larger projects experienced delays in starting which will have reduced the numbers
reported.
34
Active England
The focus of the Active England funded project
The previous chapter highlighted the diversity of provision funded through the Active
England programme, and the setting within which delivery takes place influences the
level of participation achieved. As Figure 3-8 shows, outreach and outdoor projects
attract significantly more participants for each £10,000 project cost than centre-
based facilities. This highlights how important engaging with participants through
outreach work is to getting more people physically active. Active England funded
outreach projects are more likely to have a lower project cost. This suggests that
smaller outreach projects represent good value for money in attracting more
participants.
However these findings may also reflect the longer time-scales that centre-based
projects have taken to set up – especially where there was new build involved. They
will continue to repay Active England investment over the next 10 to 30 years.
Figure 3-8 Participants for each £10K project cost by project focus
180
161
160
135
140
120
100
80 69 68
60
42
40
20
0
Outreach Outdoor All projects Others Centre-based
Source: ValueMapping, n= 185 projects.
The outputs for throughput of participants in sport and recreational physical activity
show a similar pattern, although Outdoor based projects have a higher throughput
(821) than outreach projects (603) for each £10,000. This highlights the value for
money in making use of existing outdoor venues and locations such as canals,
forests and footpaths as well as funding new centre-based provision.
Solicited projects
Not all of the Active England projects funded were open bids. In 2004 Sport
England identified 16 projects that were already at the planning stage and invited
those projects to come forward to be funded under Active England. The average
total project cost for solicited projects was £2.2million. Figure 3-9 shows that projects
applying through the open programme have attracted more participants for each
£10,000 project cost compared to projects that Sport England solicited. A number of
solicited projects had a high project cost and low participant numbers over the
funding period but these projects will generate more benefits in the future, as they
35
Active England
are capital facilities. Most of the solicited projects, 87%, received both capital and
revenue funding. Just under half of the solicited projects were for large multi-use
centres with an average cost of £3million. The remaining capital projects were
outdoor pitches, MUGAs, cycle trails and skateparks.
Figure 3-9 KPI participants for each £10K project cost by open programme and
solicited projects
80 77
69
60
40 37
20
0
Open programme All projects Solicited
Source: ValueMapping system, n=185 projects
Projects applying for funding were better value for money in throughput as well.
Open programme projects had an average throughput of 500 for each £10,000
project funding compared with 300 for invited projects.
3.5 Increasing participation in sport and physical activity

One of the key targets for Active England was to contribute towards increasing the
proportion of the population who take part in regular sport and physical activity to
50%. Achieving this means attracting people to sport and physical activity that have
previously been inactive. Our analysis has found that just over 173,000 Active
England participants (12%) had been inactive during the 12 months before
involvement.
Our evaluation data suggests that projects that only received capital funding have
been most successful at attracting new participants. As Figure 3-10 shows nearly a
quarter of participants and throughput within these projects were identified as new to
sport. However these figures are based on returns from only half of the capital
projects. And most of these organisations are either trusts or charities where they
are more likely by the nature of their interests to be targeting hard to reach groups.
This is encouraging since we make the point above that built facilities could not
provide the means of achieving activity level targets.
36
Active England
Figure 3-10 Proportion of participants and throughput new to sport by funding type
25%
23%
22%
20%
15% 14%
13%
10%
10%
5%
5%
0%
Throughput Participants
Capital only Revenue only Capital and revenue
Source: ValueMapping, Participants, n=106 projects; Throughput, n=70 projects.
Figure 3-11 highlights that outdoor projects have been most successful in attracting
new to sport participants, with over a quarter of participants (27%) from this group.
Centre-based projects also report a higher than average proportion of previously
inactive participants. Surprisingly outreach projects identify the lowest proportion of
participants that are new to sport at just 4%.
Figure 3-11 Proportion of participants new to sport by project type

30%
27%
25%
21%
20%
15%
12%
10%
5%
4%
0%
Outdoor Centre-based All projects Outreach
The organisation type also has an impact on the proportion of previously inactive
participants that projects engage. Local Authority led projects appeared to be most
effective with 16% of participants from this group. However clubs, associations or
trusts have one of the lowest proportions with just 5% of participants from this group.
Investment in those organisations, particularly clubs, appears to have benefited
existing participants rather than brought new people into sport.
37
Active England
In 2007 Sport England changed the definition of new to sport participants from 12
months of inactivity to inactive in the last four weeks. It was not possible to change
how projects reported as we had set in place guidance and processes for some
time. However we asked projects to provide an indication of how many participants
would fall into this new category. Using the 12 month definition of New to Sport, a
sixth of projects (16%) stated that over half of their participants fell into this category.
Using the new definition of four weeks a third of projects (34%) said that more than
half of their participants were in this group. This suggests that if we applied the new
definition the proportion classified as previously inactive would at least double to
around a quarter of all participants.
3.6 Reaching target groups

Active England has been successful in reaching all parts of society. Raising
participation rates in physical activity among certain target groups was one of the
key objectives of the Active England programme. As mentioned in the previous
Chapter 56% of projects focused specifically on at least one of these target groups.
Just over 15% of Active England participants were from BME groups; a higher
proportion than the minority ethnic population within England (11%). This suggests
some success in targeting this group. Some projects had a high proportion of BME
participants – almost all the participants in the Tower Hamlets Healthy Living project
in London were from BME groups. Other projects such as the Bangladesh
Community Project were aimed specifically to engage with BME groups and
therefore most of their participants are from BME groups.
In Bolton the Lads and Girls Club saw the number of BME young people rise from
256 in 2002 to 1,110 by 2006. Their “Just for Girls” sessions allowed young Muslim
girls to exercise in a safe and culturally sensitive environment.
With fewer people engaged in sport than those not engaged, it could be argued that
most people are hard to reach. Many Active England projects have specifically
targeted particular groups who are known to be difficult to engage including:
Young people from deprived backgrounds and/ or with behavioural problems;

Black and ethnic minority populations;
Older people; and
Disabled people.
Active England has been successful in attracting young people and others into
participation.
One project that focused on elderly people was Active Bedford. The project
provides physical activity sessions for older people in and around Bedford. The
project works with local community groups, fall prevention advisers, health visitors
and district nurses.
Derby College has opened up its facilities and made every piece of equipment
accessible to disabled people. This has met community needs, dramatically
increased disabled access and gives students a more holistic education and a well-
rounded view of sports participation.
38
Active England
Ben attends the Derby College project, he is a wheelchair user and has learning
problems. He regularly uses the gym, floor, bike and the local pool. It has opened
up his life. He says:
“Before I just had physio at the hospital; I never felt part of anything. Now I don’t feel
isolated any more and I can do this whenever I want to. I’m happier, more confident,
and stronger. I’ve met a lot of new people and made friends”.
Find out what they want
It sounds a simple notion, but one reason that projects are successful in engaging
the hard to reach is that they spend time listening to them. They understand the
barriers faced, whether these are real or imagined. Perceived barriers that may
have no foundation in reality can be just as powerful as more tangible barriers such
as affordability.
Tower Hamlets Healthy Living Network works in one of the most ethnically diverse
areas of England. It provides activities which specifically target the identified needs
of the local Bengali and Somali communities and people with chronic health and
mobility issues.
Provide Support
Often people from hard to reach groups will find difficulty staying with an activity for a
sustained period. Some research suggests that it takes eight weeks to establish a
habit. Even where people have enjoyed their activity they find it difficult to stick at it
for all sorts of reasons. These could be low self-esteem, no experience of
embedding structure into their chaotic lives or cultural pressures for example.
Providing on-going support beyond the formal programmes of activity is a key to

getting hard-to-reach groups to continue long enough to establish a habit. It is a way
to positively reinforce and reward achievement.
Some successful projects have been able to assign participants to mentors. These
mentors help them to overcome their barriers and help with their continuing needs
by taking a personal interest in the individual.
The Street League project in London aims to get disadvantaged young people, of
which 50% are homeless, into employment by using sport as a means of
engagement. This involves both a sporting programme and a structured education
and development programme. Each participant receives personal support to
encourage their participation and development.
In Leicester Active England has funded The Peepul Centre. This has a gym and a
motorised gym for those who need a gentle introduction to activity, based in the
community centre. One participant, Shushila, describes her life before saying:
“I was a couch potato. I loved my telly. I started going to the Local Authority leisure
centre but I didn’t feel safe. There were a lot of druggies hanging around and all the
staff seemed to be in the pool area. It reminded me of Fawlty Towers!”
39
Active England
She was one of the first people to join the new facility at the Peepul Centre and she
went on the Evergreen programme. This consisted of ten motorised chair exercises
each lasting three minutes. Shushila says:
“I have a deformed spine and asthma so they monitored me very closely which was
good.”
Now she has progressed to the main gym and describes it as her second home.
She goes five days a week, and when she has finished her cleaning on a Saturday
she calls in then too. She says:
“They look after me here. I have a meaning to my life now.”
Her health has improved considerably. She explains:
“Before I was a miserable git! The people at the hospital have said they can see a
change in me. I don’t use the nebuliser nearly as much as I used to. My diabetes
was over 8.0 now it is 6.1. My right leg used to go dead and I had falls - I haven’t
fallen for ages. I’ve always been on steroids, but last year I didn’t have them for the
first time. I’m on top of the world!”
Motivate
Trying to tell people what to do doesn’t work very well. Yet some people who have
been inactive for a long period need some encouragement. An effective way of
doing this, without being prescriptive is to apply the technique of motivational
interviewing. This has been shown to be a useful approach with people who accept
that they need to change their behaviour, but may be at different states of readiness
to do so. The interviews try to increase a person’s awareness of the problems,
consequences and risks faced by continuing their current course of behaviour.
People are encouraged to picture a better future and become motivated to achieve
it. In that sense, motivational interviewing focuses on the client while being semi-
directive, in that it actively encourages them to make a change. It tries to create an
internal motivation for the client.
A partnership led by Kirklees Borough Council targets overweight and obese young
people. It tries to increase participation by providing a series of specialised sport
and activity clinics. Motivational interviews have been one element of a whole raft of
initiatives to engage and sustain activity in the group.
Another project supporting people was the Hampshire County Council Workplace
Activity Co-ordinator. The project funded a co-ordinator to develop and provide
physical activity sessions for council employees to reduce absence due to stress
and increase work satisfaction.
Establish links with their groups
Projects often use existing groups or a familiar setting to access people regarded as
hard to reach in the sport and physical activity context. These groups or settings
can be formal, for example clubs, societies, doctor’s surgeries and so on.
Alternatively they can be informal. Young people often congregate in informal
groups, sometimes with a common interest for example extreme sports, other times
simply because there seems to be nothing else to do.
40
Active England
Once a group accepts a programme, the group itself becomes a new source for
referrals to it. Some Active England projects have shown that it is possible to
engage with informal groupings if they take the right approach and the results can be
just as effective as with formal groups.
Thanet and Ramsgate Youth Offending Team wanted to provide diversionary

activities for young offenders on their final warning, at risk of offending or at risk of
school expulsion. The team, working in partnership with Thanet Council, set up a
sports diversionary programme called Sport 4 NRG as a pilot. Active England
extended the programme and the Young Offending Team referral base proved
invaluable. Throughput has been high and the rate of reoffending after the
programme was less than 5%.
Understand the subculture
Groups who are not part of the mainstream do tend to close ranks and develop their
own values, beliefs and behaviours. These form the elements of their subculture.
Sometimes these may be quite different from those shared by much of the
population, yet these groups see them as valid and often treasured.
Subcultures may be traditional such as those which come as being part of a

particular ethnic group. Alternatively they may be ‘leading edge’, developing almost
spontaneously and evolving rapidly such as the subculture which surrounds
skateboarding and extreme sports.
Subcultures, whether traditional or spontaneous, usually embody a style of dress, a

code of behaviour and norms of communication. They may be hierarchical or
unstructured, strongly group driven or consisting of small informal clusters.
Whatever the situation, many Active England projects successful in engaging the
hard to reach have either consciously or unconsciously tried to understand and
empathise with the subculture of the group. Using language and settings that are
suitable and fit well with the groups, ensures that programmes have more relevance,
are more easily understood, and fit the needs of the subculture.
CREST, a project using the coastline and natural landscape in North Cornwall,
wanted to appeal to young people interested in extreme sports. They realised that
this group had their own subculture with informal language; a dress code; they were
risk takers; individualistic; and not overtly competitive. The whole approach to the
programme was built around this understanding and was quite different from
anything one might expect to see from a Council led programme.
Actions for engaging hard to reach groups
We identified key actions that help to bring people from target groups into
participation. These include:
Spend a lot of time listening. Treat perceived barriers with the same attention as
more common tangible and traditional barriers;
Provide support particularly in the early stages. Hard to reach groups often have
low staying power. Impetus is needed early on to create a habit;
Logic and information alone have a limited effect. Motivational techniques,
delivered one-to-one, can help to sustain activity;
41
Active England
Set up links with the non-sporting networks associated with your target groups.
These can be a valuable source of support and referral; and
Systems, values and beliefs – whether you believe in them or not – influence
behaviour. If you want to influence the behaviour of hard to reach groups you
need to get in tune with these.
Raising participation and throughput
As Figure 4-12 shows projects with a specific focus on women and disadvantaged
areas have achieved greater levels of participation for each £10k compared to the
programme average. Although there were few projects specifically focusing on
women, they achieved nearly double the programme average for participants and
throughput for each £10,000 project cost. (Figure 4-12 and Figure 3-13).
These charts also highlight that projects targeting young people achieved a slightly
lower rate of participation for each £10,000 than all projects but a slightly higher
throughput. This suggests that those engaged were more regular users of project
facilities. One of the programme KPIs related specifically to engaging young people
who were at risk and some projects were set up to work only with this group. For
example the Sport4NRG project in Thanet works only with young people at risk of
offending or reoffending. They worked with over 900 young people over the funding
period. The programme overall has engaged almost 24,000 young people at risk.
Figure 3-12 KPI Participants for each £10K project cost by target group
140
121
120
100
90
80
69
60 54
40
22
18
20
0
Women Disadvantaged All projects Young People BME Disabled
Outputs for both participants and throughput for projects targeting people with
disabilities and BME groups are around half the programme average. This would
suggest that these projects are working for longer periods with a smaller number of
people. And this is what we found when we visited projects. For example the Saheli
Women’s Health and Fitness Centre (which works with young Asian women) has
worked hard to overcome cultural sensitivities. This means working with small
groups over time building up trust with participants and their families. This intensive
intervention requires more staff time and is therefore more costly to provide.
42
Active England
Figure 3-13 Throughput for each £10K project cost by target group
1000 937
900
800
700
600 550
500 456
400
300 240 225

194
200
100
0
Wo men Young Peo ple A ll projects BM E Disabled Disadvantaged
Source: ValueMapping, n=163 projects.
Projects focusing on disadvantaged areas or communities achieved a high

proportion of participants for each £10k of projects costs – around a third higher than
the rate for all projects (Figure 3-13). However the outputs for throughput were the
lowest of all targeted groups which suggests that people are not sustaining their
participation in physical activity with the project (Figure 3-13).
Attracting volunteers
Projects with a specific focus on target groups have been more successful in
securing a greater number of volunteers for each £10,000 funding than the
programme average. Targeting these groups means drawing on existing networks
of people that can then support recruitment on to the programme. The greater
number of volunteers in projects with a particular focus suggests that these projects
are more successful in also using these networks to attract volunteers. Those
projects that focus on people with disabilities have attracted 2.5 volunteers for each
£10,000 project costs compared with just 0.7 for all projects. Projects targeting
women (1.4) and young people (1.3) also achieved good value for money with
volunteers for each £10,000 project costs.
43
Active England
Figure 3-14 Volunteers for each £10K project cost by target group
3.0
2.5
2.5
2.0
1.5 1.4
1.3
1.0
0.8
0.7
0.5 0.4
0.0
Disabled Women Young People Disadvantaged All projects General
Source: ValueMapping, n=87 projects.
3.7 Sustainability
Delivery after Active England funding ends
Sustaining projects that are successfully delivering was one of the key objectives of
the Active England programme. Almost all (93%) projects have an exit strategy in
place. As Figure 3-15 shows over a quarter (27%) report that local councils and
other publicly funded bodies are mainstreaming them. This suggests significant
alignment of delivery with existing sporting infrastructure.
Some of the Active England projects have now become self-sustaining with funding.
Nearly 1 in 5 projects will continue from revenue they produce themselves and a
further quarter has secured extra funding to continue (23%). However there is also
a quarter of projects that either have no exit strategy or have yet to secure funding
for the project to continue. Only 1% of projects responding said that they were not
continuing.
44
Active England
Figure 3-15 Exit strategies
Mainstream 27%
Further funding secured 23%
Self financing 18%
Other 9%
Searching for further funding 8%
No exit strategy 8%
Funding applications submitted 7%
Not continuing 1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Source: Hall Aitken 2008 annual project survey, n=150 projects
Approaches to sustainability
Active England projects have identified several different approaches that they can
take to ensure their long-term future. Some projects will have a short life span as
they are specifically filling a gap or meeting a short-term need. However, 99% of the
projects receiving funding through Active England in a survey response signalled a
wish to continue, there are several different approaches taken by projects to do this.
Meeting local priorities
Part of the ethos of Active England was to fund new projects that displayed
innovation and changed service delivery. Several projects did this and were able to
redirect existing funding. The On the Go project aims to tackle childhood obesity.
The Newcastle Childhood Obesity Action Plan identified the project as a means of
delivering their strategy. It now receives funding from both the PCT and Local
Authority.
Bedgebury Forest project delivered high numbers of participants. The Sport

England project is now absorbed into the everyday activities of the forest. The staff
posts are incorporated into the organisational structure and the project itself is part
of a strategy and long term delivery plan for the forest.
Demonstrating a need
Some projects have successfully used Active England to display a need within the
organisation. This was a key element of the monitoring and self-evaluation support,
that projects would have the evidence to show need and demand to future funders.
The funding allowed projects to expand into new areas or services before
committing financial resources. Projects are continuing as they have proved there is
demand.
45
Active England
Providing a service
Many of the projects are sustainable because participants pay to take part.
However, many projects can continue to run by charging other organisations for the
use of their facilities or for delivering activities or training.
Projects self-supporting
Some projects had sustainability built-in from the start. This involved providing
training to individuals or groups. This could be through partner organisations who
are then able to run classes or to people in the community who were able to take
over organising and delivering. The Rosslyn Park Primary and Amesbury Circus
MultiUse Games Area received short-term salary funding for a sports development
officer. The project continues to staff the MultiUse Games Area by running sports
leadership accredited awards using the site, and coordinated through Nottingham
City Council.
Keeping what works
Some Active England projects employed coordinators to bring services together or

open them up to different groups. This allowed projects to see what worked and
what would be popular. Some projects will not continue but instead leave a legacy
of groups that are independent or self-funding.
The Bentham Healthy Living Centre supported a walking project that has now
become self-sustaining. Those who joined the group receive training as walk
leaders and the group is now completely independent.
Some key steps to support sustainability
These keys steps include:
Act early. Build an approach to sustainability into the project design. There will
always be reasons to put off thinking about sustainability. The longer you leave it
the harder it will be;
Create a proposition. Funders want to buy into something that moves them
towards their goals, rather than bailing projects out;
Be enterprising. Take steps to move away from grant funding;
Taper in new funding so funders gradually acclimatise to the required level of
support; and
Consider the full range of methods: -
Mainstreaming;
Social business;
Private sector funding;
Volunteer input; and
Consultancy.
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Active England
3.8 Key findings

Active England set out objectives focusing on increasing participation in sport and
physical activity and particularly among disadvantaged groups. Our research has
identified significant progress towards doing this including:
Attracting over 1.4 million people on to an Active England project with a

throughput of over 7 million visits;
Enabling around 803,000 people to benefit from coaching through one of the
projects; and
Supporting 6,600 volunteers to help projects increase participation.
The programme has engaged with people and reached all sections of society.
The number of participants will continue to grow as larger capital projects continue to
bring in new people in the coming years.
Active England investment has levered in added funding to support its objectives.
Each £10,000 of funding has delivered, among other results:
165 participants;
1,055 visits to a project;
2.1 coaches; and
1.8 volunteers.
Various factors have influenced programme outcomes. Some of the key findings are
that:
Overall smaller revenue projects achieved the greatest numbers of participants

for each £10,000 funding;
Outdoor and outreach projects are most effective at generating large numbers of
participants;
Solicited projects did not perform as well as projects applying to the programme.
But some of these projects are large capital projects which will see high returns
over the coming years; and
Larger centre-based projects have delivered smaller numbers of participants but
will continue to deliver over a longer timescale.
Increasing the overall rate of participation was a key objective for the programme.
We identified many lessons to overcome barriers to participation, including:
Match supply and demand by assessing needs and aspirations;

Package activities so they appear less like sport and more like fun;
Do whatever it takes to make them accessible;
Communicate well and outreach;
Consider social and psychological motivations and barriers;
Use great, even iconic design, wherever you can;
Spend a lot of time listening and treat perceived barriers with the same attention
as more common tangible and traditional barriers;
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Provide particular support in the early stages;

Logic and information alone have a limited effect while motivational techniques,
delivered one-to-one, can help to sustain action;
Systems, values and beliefs – whether you believe in them or not – influence
behaviour. If you want to influence the behaviour of hard to reach groups you
need to get in tune with these;
Recognise that projects need different skills for project development, project
management and project implementation;
Understand that all the skills to support clients and the project may not be
available in one person; and
Identify gaps within your people and enable staff development to fill the gap.
The evaluation identified that:
173,000 participants had been inactive over the previous 12 months;

Capital and outdoor-focused projects were more effective at attracting those who
had previously not been active; and
Sports Clubs attract the lowest proportion of new participants.
Over half of the funded projects specifically targeted one of the under-represented
groups. The evaluation identified that:
The programme reached a higher proportion of BME groups than in the

population at large;
Projects targeting women and those in disadvantaged communities attracted
more participants for each £10,000 of costs;
Projects have engaged some 24,000 young people at risk;
Projects that have a particular focus on BME groups and People with Disabilities
have lower numbers of participants for each £10,000; they work more intensively
with a smaller number of participants; and
Projects targeting those with disabilities attract a high number of volunteers for
each £10,000 invested.
The programme also contributed to several softer outcomes including:
Increased motivation;
Improved self-esteem;
Boosting confidence; and
Social engagement and interaction.
Sustaining successful activity was one of the initial objectives of the programme.
The evaluation found that:
Most Active England projects are likely to continue;

These will receive funding through various sources including self-funding,
mainstreaming and other sources;
Around one in six are looking for funding; and
8% have no exit strategy in place.
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4 Effective ways of working

Part of the scope of this evaluation was to consider what works in increasing
participation in sport and physical activity and importantly what doesn’t work. Our
research has been empirical and we have tried to test our observations against
available data wherever possible. We visited every project to support their
monitoring and self-evaluation. And we revisited 150 projects to find clues to good
practice; the conditions in which good practice can thrive; and the characteristics of
projects and people that achieve unusual and above-average results.
The purpose of this strand of work has been twofold. Firstly it had a “viral” effect of
moving novel ideas and approaches from project to project across the Active
England family. Secondly, to provide insights on getting the best from future
programmes and guiding policy on widening participation.
The outcome of our analysis is a series of Active England Legacy Reports. These
summarise the issues that underpin the effective ways of working and highlight the
characteristics of success for others to follow. The Legacy Reports accompany this
report and are a tool for wider dissemination across the sporting landscape.
4.1 Innovation across the programme

The Active England Programme initially stressed the importance of funding projects
that adopted innovative approaches to widening participation. Sport England
originally envisaged it as an innovation fund to test new approaches and ways of
working. They encouraged projects to try things even if these were to fail; in that
way Sport England could learn from the experience.
We found that radical innovation is not widely prevalent across the programme
though a few projects are showing that this need not be the case. Innovation is a
term that is being used, in the sporting context, to describe at best minor changes to
the way things are, and at worst a subtle repackaging of what exists.
There are stars within the Active England programme, who offer the clues to the
drivers of greater innovation in getting people more physically active. There is also a
growing core of projects that want to take creativity and innovation more seriously.
The Active England projects that stand out have:
Acted on insights;
Moved quickly;
Flat decision making structures; and
Entrepreneurial style leadership.
The Active England Legacy Report Drivers and Barriers to Innovation begins to
identify the characteristics future projects should develop and adapt if they are to
succeed in finding creative, innovative ways to engage people in sport and physical
activity.
We have identified three levels of innovation across the programme:
Programme level: Projects develop new and untried ways of working;
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Active England
Area level: Projects set up ways of working that have not been tried in their area
before; and
Project level: Projects try new ways of working that they have not tried before.
While all levels of innovation are positive, the real breakthroughs will come from
modelling the characteristics and behaviours of those who are pushing back the
boundaries either with novel ideas or through adopting a particular ethos.
There are two important axes along which Active England projects sit. One running
from ‘innovative to passive’, the other running from ‘connected to isolated’. The
boundary busters appear to be connected innovators while the projects that struggle
are ‘isolated passives’. The Boundary Busters tend to be programme level
innovators who start off with a good idea and don’t rest on it. They continue to
develop and adapt the idea. This often happens as a spin-off of their connective
approach. They will connect with anyone or anything which they think will move
their project forward – partners; communities; individuals; ideas; trends; insights; and
observations. They will look for connections both within their field and beyond.
They take calculated risks, can cope with ambiguity and uncertainty and look for
creative solutions to whatever their issues may be.
The isolated passives do not express any of these qualities. They have a way of
delivering a project they feel is suitable to their need. They do not network, consult
or seek to learn about alternative ways of delivering a service. They miss the
opportunity of learning good practice.
We assessed a batch of project leaders using the Personal Enterprise Profile (PEP)
which classifies people into four categories based on their beliefs attitudes and
behaviours. The typology includes expert, corporate, enterpriser, entrepreneur. If
this random sample is representative, and we have no reason to suppose that it is
not, then it is clear that most projects are led by expert and corporate types. Given
the characteristics and drivers of these types (See separate Legacy Report on
Sporting Enterprisers) it is not surprising that we have not seen project and area
innovation. It is our view that the radical programme innovation will only come when
projects engage people in the enterpriser typology. This has significant implications
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Active England
for recruiting and developing the next generation of sporting leaders if we are to
achieve more than consolidation and incremental innovation.
Clearly there are some star projects and some that are causes for concern. Most
projects were sitting somewhere in the middle. Our interest was in how we can
move projects across to the top right-hand side of the window. The plot, if translated
to a distribution curve, would not be too different from a normal distribution, as in
Figure 4-1. We might expect a programme aimed at innovation to show a different
curve, one that is skewed quite a way to the right. A curve showing that we have
selected and funded mostly innovators.
Figure 4-1 Distribution curve
4.2 The importance of people

During our visits to Active England projects, a recurring theme has been the
importance of people. People make projects.
The really successful projects are led by outstanding people. These are people who
have something more than simply technical competence or a specialist skill. Special
people can do a lot with very little.
But special people are hard to find. It may be that a project has to call on several
people to pull together all the qualities needed to make a project successful. Just
occasionally one person will have all these to some degree. Based on observations
of projects and their development we have identified three distinct sets of
proficiencies which combine to give a project a better chance of being successful.
Projects sometimes have the right proficiencies but they deploy them at the wrong
phase and this can sometimes hamper a project’s progress. The three phases are:
Project development or imaginative phase: Very much the domain of the

enterprising, creative communicator, we identify six competence themes.
Project management or practical phase: The core skills are organisation and task
orientation. But because projects rarely go as planned a creative outlook is
needed. We identify five project management proficiencies.
Project implementation phase: Too often seen as the domain of the technical
expert. In widening participation, projects value performance and people skills at
least in equal measure to expertise. We identify four project implementation
proficiencies.
Clearly there is overlap between the phases, and just occasionally a project is
envisaged, managed and delivered by an extraordinary all-rounder. This is rare and
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a key success factor for projects is to create a balanced portfolio of proficiencies and
to put the right people into play in the right slots.
4.3 Finding clues and tactics

One of the great lessons from the Active England programme is that simply
providing activities and a logical argument about why it is a good thing is not
enough.
It is encouraging that many projects have tried to go beyond this simple premise in
an attempt to uncover some clues and develop tactics to engage more people.
Our visits to projects across England have enabled us to look behind and beyond
the data to uncover some of the less tangible reasons behind the success of some
projects. We were also able to expose other projects to some generic and replicable
themes.
What works in targeting these groups
Across the programme we found projects focusing on specific groups built up a

wealth of expertise in targeting these groups. This includes:
Getting the activities right – mainly assessing the needs of the target group and
offering activities that match their needs and aspirations.
Packaging the activities so they seem less like sport and more like fun.
Making the activities accessible – activities must be local, run at the right time and
be at the right price. And transport might need to be provided.
Communication, outreach and marketing must be suitable for the target group.
Being aware of the social and psychological reasons that may motivate or put off
a target group from taking part.
Choosing the right staff.
There is also specific learning that emerges from projects targeting specific groups
and we set this out in Figure 4-2.
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Figure 4-2 - Learning from target groups

Target Group Key Learning Example
Successful projects work with people with The Longsight Youth Fitness Centre,
disabilities to identify services that meet based in the North West, has been
their needs. Projects need to be clear specially designed to allow easy access
about what the activity will involve and to disabled users. The gym equipment
about what can be incorporated into a and layout meets Sports England's
People with
standard community session. Projects inclusive fitness standards, and the
Disabilities
also need to offer a wide range of specifically designed H.U.R resistance
activities to cater for various types of equipment helps this user group.
disabilities and different levels of ability. Nearly 10% of their participants are
people with disabilities.
Projects should offer new and unusual Shrewsbury Sports Village, based in
activities, different to those available in the West Midlands, has a school
the school environment. Those that holiday programme called Active Kids.
provide learning, are fun and are low cost It is designed with working parents in
are popular with young people. Activities mind effectively providing holiday
Young People
should be easily accessible, taking it to childcare, parents are able to drop them
where young people live or providing off any time after 8.15am and collect
transport. Or providing activities that them as late as 5.45pm.
double as childcare.
Activities should reflect people’s needs. Steps to Sport in the North West
Setting up a senior focus group that provides a social, welcoming and
brings together service providers such as organised gentle activity (that is non-
Age Concern, the PCT, community competitive). This has helped them to
groups and older people helps identify attract and keep this age group. The
Over 45s
suitable services and activities. The health walks that volunteers lead are
social element is important to this target popular with adults over 45 who are not
group and projects should provide social active.
events as well as services.
Projects should consider particular Tower Hamlets Healthy Living Network

religious and cultural needs, for example project attracted 917 participants all
a single sex group. Activities should be from minority ethnic groups. They
located in familiar surroundings and deliver activities through partner
Black & should include less obvious locations organisations so those who want
Minority such as the mosque. To overcome services receive them. They offer
Ethnic barriers, literature may need translating. tailor-made services in a familiar
groups Projects should understand the setting.
complexity of barriers to participation and
staff should represent the group they are
working with.
Projects should provide sessions that Active Hastings, in the South East, run
allow women to feel comfortable in their two successful programmes for women
surroundings. Often activities should and girls. Both of the programmes
focus on health rather than competition. focus on non-traditional sporting activity
Women
Daytime sessions are often more popular and include exercises such as street
and sessions often need to be brought to dance, rollerblading, cheerleading and
their doorstep. trampolining.
Involving the community and making sure Belvedere Community Activity Centre is
it is something they would like to attend in one of the most deprived areas of
Deprived and is affordable. The quality of the Liverpool. Local people were at the
areas environment is important, with good heart of the development allowing them
facilities close to public transport links. to convert a historic Victorian building
into a community sport facility.
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Our Active England Legacy Report Clues and Tactics to Widening Participation
begins to do this and identifies:
Match supply and demand by assessing needs and aspirations;

Package activities so they appear less like sport and more like fun – The Trojan
Horse Principle;
Do whatever it takes to make sure activities are accessible;
Communicate well and outreach;
Consider social and psychological motivations and barriers;
Choose good staff; and
Use great, even iconic design, wherever you can
4.4 The Active England Legacy Reports

The earlier sections opened up the issues
explored in three of our Legacy Reports:
Drivers and Barriers to Innovation;

Clues and Tactics to Widening Participation;
and
People and Proficiencies.
There are 10 reports in the series, the others

being:
Beyond Bricks and Mortar – Soft Success Factors;

Engaging Hard to Reach Groups;
Increasing Volunteering;
Mobile Facilities;
Water-Based Activities;
Project Sustainability; and
Increasing Membership.
All the Legacy Reports are in the Technical Appendix of this report. They provide
insights way beyond the scope of data and analysis and in that sense we do see
these as an on-going legacy of this programme.
4.5 Successful approaches

Over the life of the programme we have run four national conferences for projects;
facilitated five thematic workshops; run creativity sessions across all regions; and
have undertaken an unprecedented visit programme.
The Legacy Reports capture this learning as do the 29 case studies that we have
produced; the summaries of thematic workshops undertaken and the connections
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made and ideas transferred during the many interactive events with projects. These
are also available in the Technical Appendix and on the website – www.aelz.org.
Active England has perhaps encouraged greater variety in approaches to getting

people active than any other programme around this theme so far. There are
highlights across the menu of schemes, and the detail of these are in the case study
material. Samples of the variety of successes that the programme has delivered
include:
Outreach projects: using many different methods of getting out there among the
people. CREST in North Cornwall commissioned a Surf Academy which took its
principles from those of the more established Ski Academies. While a
Northampton project achieved a lot by knocking on the doors of influential people
in the neighbourhood and engaging them by building relationships.
Capital Projects: large-scale capital investments have often attracted other money
towards a scheme and achieving multiple benefits. Capital projects have involved
new build and refurbishment of dedicated facilities. The Blackpool Sports Barn is
basically a roof caged on three sides. It is simple yet its location and informality
attract people to it.
Water: Water is an attraction to people. The Whittlingham Outdoor Education
Centre combines great water-based activities with an iconic design at the head of
the water. The data tells the story of what happens when you combine two
irresistible features with a well-run programme and a commercial outlook. Yet
activities don’t always have to be on the water and much has taken place on
canal banks and beaches (such as power kite-flying).
Mobile facilities: Getting mobile can create an unforgettable experience and hook
people into activity. From the half million pound Mission Active Future to Great
Yarmouth’s ‘stadium in a box’, Active England programmes have shown there are
many ways to get mobile and something to fit any budget.
Outdoor projects: Active England outdoor projects make use of forests,
heathlands, beaches, parks and even city streets.
Whatever the sport or the location, what Active England has shown is that
projects have to do much more than be providers and experts to widen
participation.
The case studies show the range of approaches that projects have taken; the
Legacy Reports try to uncover the secrets of success; while the data and analysis
explain what happened.
There is no ‘right’ way. Circumstances, resources, people and issues will vary from
place to place. Active England is leaving a template and the tools to help new
projects to think, adapt and innovate; in short to become more effective, more
quickly.
4.6 Key findings

This section has set out some of our learning from the project visits and the Legacy
Reports that accompany this report. This includes:
Radical innovation has not been prevalent in the Active England programme.
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Active England
Most projects are run by ‘expert’ types whereas ‘enterprising’ types are most
likely to innovate and find new approaches to widen participation.
If innovation is desirable a programme should set up differently and projects must
be helped to model the ‘boundary busters’.
Organisations running projects should take account of the barriers and drivers to
innovation and take steps to remove them.
People make projects and there are three distinct phases to a successful project
needing three distinct sets of proficiencies.
Providing activities and a logical argument has little bearing on success. Active
England projects have made good progress in finding clues and employing
specific tactics to widen participation.
There are 10 Active England Legacy Reports which go behind and beyond the
data. These will be useful for future projects; planning future programmes and for
policy making.
Active England has shared learning across ‘the family’ as well as the Legacy
Reports.
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Active England
5 Findings, conclusions and learning

In this chapter we draw together the overall findings from the Active England
programme against its aims and identify how well they were met. We also highlight
our key conclusions and identify the key lessons from our research, while
considering what they might mean for future programmes with similar objectives.
5.1 Did the Active England Programme meet its aims?

Overall our evaluation findings show Active England has largely met its original aims
around increasing participation in target areas and for specific target groups.
However it has only partially met the objective of creating innovative approaches.
We summarise the key findings below against the three main objectives.
Creating sustainable The programme created many sustainable multiactivity

innovative multiactivity centres and environments, although only around 10%
environments of approaches were innovative and truly creative.
However this is still more than we would normally
expect.
The programme levered in £131m from other funders.
77% are sustainable with clear funding or other plans

in place.
Increasing participation in 1.4 million participants

sport and physical activity
173,000 people were inactive during the previous 12
months
665,000 people from deprived areas
636,000 young people were supported
578,000 women and girls
217,000 participants from BME groups
Outdoor and outreach projects have been most

effective so far
Embedding new, effective Projects have built effective links with NHS, voluntary
ways of working across the organisations and education services in many areas.
sector Some have been adopting collaborative approaches.
Monitoring and self-evaluation is now more widely

understood and more commonly used.
The programme has engaged 1.4 million participants of which 12% had previously
been inactive (with the latter definition of non-participation being 4 weeks then this
would be significantly higher) and at least 60% were from one or more target groups.
Projects struggled to collect data on whether participation among these groups was
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sustained. Further longitudinal research and participant tracking is needed to

determine the sustainability of sport and physical activity participation rates.
There remain challenges in continuing project activity. At the time of writing, only
27% of projects had been mainstreamed, a further 23% had other funding in place
and 18% were self-sustaining. But 23% of projects had not yet secured their future
or were only starting to consider sustainability of their activities.
5.2 Creating innovative multiactivity environments in areas of

deprivation
Objectives for developing new facilities
The Active England Programme aimed to create sustainable innovative multiactivity

environments in areas of social, sport and health deprivation in England. There are
various potential definitions and differing interpretations of the key terms sustainable
and innovative. We considered two key questions:
Were innovative approaches developed and tried out?

Can projects sustain successful approaches?
Impact on delivery
The Active England funding has, together with funding levered in from existing
mainstream budgets and elsewhere (£131m), delivered a wide range of sport and
physical activity projects. These range from traditional sports centres and pitches to
innovative outdoor and outreach projects in non-traditional settings. We have
included in our Technical Appendix 29 case studies that outline the breadth of
funded provision. These range from outreach projects targeting BME groups to
mobile facilities, water-based activities, extreme sports to use of green spaces. So
projects have tested a wide variety of methods and the results delivered suggest
what we can expect from this type of investment under specific circumstances.
We have developed a matrix to calculate the expected outputs that different types of
project can expect for each £10,000 invested. This would be useful to either
appraise applications put in by organisations or to help projects set themselves
targets within their own application. This is included in the Technical Appendix.
Active England encouraged a greater variety in approaches to getting people active

but radical innovation has not been prevalent. Often the projects funded were not as
new or innovative as were expected and we estimate that only around 10% of
projects receiving funding were truly innovative. By this we mean developing
approaches that were new to sport and implementing them.
Two examples of innovative projects were: the Eureka mobile facility and the way
the CREST programme incorporated youth culture. It became clear however that
many projects (and more latterly Sport England itself) focused on quantity - getting
greater numbers of people involved became a priority concern as opposed to the
more abstract objective of developing innovative methods.
Regions appeared to choose the safer bet of encouraging bids from more traditional
approaches that they understood such as sports centres and sport villages. They
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were less inclined to risk trying untested ways of engaging people into physical
activity. Many regions also chose to maximise the number of projects from their
Active England allocation, leading to a larger number of traditional projects rather
than more resource intensive innovative approaches.
Embedding innovation in future programmes
We found projects that have strong ownership drive people to innovate and find
solutions where others may give up. By ownership we mean delivery staff have a
full understanding of the aims of the project and indicators of success. We found
this strong ownership is more likely to develop when the person responsible for
accessing the funding is the person that follows through with the project or at least
has a deep involvement with its implementation. This contrasted with projects where
the process of securing the funding and setting up the project were the responsibility
of different people.
Projects should take time to understand the values and beliefs of target groups and
try to avoid making value judgements about whether they are right or wrong.
Programmes that find ways to engage with the mind-set of the target group will have
a better chance of success.
Projects should have risk assessment policies and tools in place but they can
become barriers to success. Health and safety concerns have limited the
challenges young people can experience through outdoor play in areas such as
London; and CRB checking has limited the number of volunteers coming forward.
Unfavourable risk assessments can provide an opportunity to be even more creative
and find new ways of doing things while balancing the need for child safety.
Projects should enable managers to decide quickly and have rapid access to the
resources assigned to the programme. And projects should ‘ring-fence’ budgets
wherever possible so that they do not become affected by circumstances outside the
control of the project.
We provide further clues to innovation in the ‘Drivers and Barriers to Innovation’

Legacy Report accompanying this report. Other Legacy Reports cover embedding
innovation in projects across different settings, specifically ‘Beyond Bricks and
Mortar’, ‘Using Mobile Facilities to Increase Participation in Sport and Physical
Activity’ and ‘Using Water-Based activities to Widen Participation’.
Sustaining delivery and participation
Our evaluation sought to identify whether successful approaches can be sustained.

We saw sustainable projects as those that have an income stream identified to carry
on delivering the services built up through Active England. This was only the case
for a minority of projects, with most relying on applying for alternative funding.
However, many of the approaches tested through Active England will be
mainstreamed into existing local services. We found nearly all (93%) Active England
projects intend to continue in some form. However, only 77% have any measures in
place to continue their activities.
Active England funded projects for three years with the aim that they would have
some method for becoming sustainable in the long-term. Often projects were slow
to develop in the first year as they set up and marketed, then lacked focus in the
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Active England
third year as funding ended and staff begun to look elsewhere. A five-year funding
cycle would allow projects at least to get three positive years of activity. Staggered
funding could be assigned to years one and five to recruit more staff during the
delivery period, between winding-up and winding-down. Projects continue to
struggle with this; around half of the projects in Active England will continue to rely
on external funding as their main source of income.
Planning for sustainability – considerations for future projects
Active England has shown there are some important lessons for projects in
achieving sustainability. Applying for funding is challenging and increasingly
competitive. But by creating an irresistible proposition it puts projects in a position to
meet both their own and funders’ needs. This involves making sure projects:
Address the key concerns of funders;

Show evidence of addressing these concerns;
Show value for money;
Offset some of the costs with money from elsewhere; and
Provide intangible benefits such as good PR.
Mainstreaming for many projects is the hoped-for solution to long-term sustainability

but it is challenging to achieve. It needs good understanding of the budget systems
and local priorities of any given area. But even if mainstreaming is not achievable
for a project, building in a taper of support may be. This involves getting funders to
increase and decrease their commitment incrementally to a project over its lifetime.
Being enterprising can help reduce a project’s reliance on grant funding. This can
include any number of activities but some examples include:
Developing trading income;

Fund-raising events;
Sponsorships;
Private donors; and
Sale of consultancy or intellectual property.
We set out further ways of achieving sustainability in the ‘Project Sustainability’

Legacy Report.
5.3 Increasing participation in sport and physical activity
Objectives for participation
Sport England sought to move participation in sport and physical activity across
England from 32% to 50% by 2020. This would begin to move England towards the
levels of other, better performing European nations such as Finland. The benefits of
this would be more then just physical fitness and would include well-being,
community cohesion and self-efficacy among young people in particular.
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While Active England aimed to increase participation among all the sections of
society it had a specific focus on under-represented sections of society. Our
research looked at answering the following key research questions:

How do different projects compare on participant outputs and what factors
contribute towards these?
What are the differences in performance between capital and revenue projects?
Two million people more active by 2012
The Sport England target is now to have two million people more active by 2012.
The expectation is that this will be one million from sport and one million from
physical activity. The strategic approach for Sport England is that they help people
to excel in sport, continue their involvement and grow participation mainly through
the National Governing bodies of sports and the club structure.
People need not be “new to sport” as defined in the Monitoring Guide we developed
for Active England. The Government’s strategic approach is that the Department of
Health will support people who are mainly taking part in physical activity.
Effectiveness of targeting
Young people have been a popular focus with 72 projects specifically targeting
them. But projects have engaged more women (121) for every £10k of programme
funding than young people (54). This suggests that much of the activity used to
attract young people was either costly or their approaches have not been as
effective as they had planned. Projects targeting young people often need greater
supervision and coaching which is likely to increase delivery costs.
We also found that BME (22 participants for each £10k) and disabled (18) groups
were more expensive to target for the funds assigned to them. Projects working with
clients with disabilities often provide one-to-one support and need specialist
equipment, so we would expect a higher cost to engage this group. The reasons
that BME project costs for each output were higher are less clear. However working
with these groups may need increased levels of resources (or longer timescales) to
overcome barriers to participation. They may also have to target smaller pools of
clients and therefore have lower levels of overall throughput for the same staffing
needs.
Lessons for future programmes, projects and wider interventions
Active England has provided substantial information around what works to widen
participation in Sport and Physical Activity. Some 636,000 young people have taken
part in Active England projects as well as 665,000 from deprived communities and
101,000 people with disabilities.
Around 60% of projects funded by Active England had a specific focus on the under-
represented groups. These have shown that increasing participation in under-
represented groups involves:
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Active England
Matching supply and demand by assessing needs and aspirations;

Packaging activities so they appear less like sport and more like fun;
Doing whatever it takes to make sure activities are accessible;
Communicating well and using outreach;
Considering social and psychological motivations and barriers;
Choosing good staff; and
Using great, even iconic design, wherever they can.
Many factors affect participation from access to cost and from cultural reasons to
personal motivation. There are many variables involved and these differ from setting
to setting. However there are also some similarities between the successful
projects.
People (managers and delivery staff) are critical to a project’s success. The Legacy
Report on increasing participation describes the ‘boundary busters’. These are
people pushing back the boundaries, always looking for new ways of working or new
activities to try. To increase participation other projects should look for their staff to
model their behaviours and attitudes along these lines.
A common failure of projects is to assume there is a need for an activity just

because it is not there. Projects should always understand their target group and
what their needs are. Projects should also try to understand the motivations for the
target groups, why they will or won’t take part in an activity. This includes
understanding the barriers people face, be they childcare, confidence or financial.
Projects can work to overcome these but only if they understand what they are.
Some groups and individuals are wary of sport and physical activity and, to
overcome this, projects can package activities so they appear as something
different. Using this principle some projects (such as the Bolton Lads and Girls
Club) have been successful in selling people in target groups an activity only after
capturing their attention in other ways.
The ’Widening Participation in Sport and Physical Activity’, ‘People and

Proficiencies’ and ‘Engaging hard to reach groups’ Legacy Reports identify further
ways of increasing participation.
5.4 Ensuring the sports sector adopts effective ways of working

A key aim of the programme was sharing and adopting effective ways of working
across the sports sector. Our evaluation looked specifically at:
Whether good practice has been spread and adopted elsewhere?

Dissemination events
Over 300 delegates attended our conferences as well as further workshops on

specific themes such as multiactivity centres, green spaces and extreme sports
attracted projects. These events have helped people find out what else was
happening and to learn from these approaches.
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We saw from the project survey returns that projects most valued having a named
Hall Aitken contact person, the monitoring guide and the www.aelz.org website. We
have also developed 29 detailed case studies of successful projects made available
through the website.
Embedding performance monitoring
We had identified at an early stage in our work that sports people and organisations
were in the past less interested in tracking performance than in delivering effective
support to people. But a greater policy emphasis has emerged for most key funders
on achieving outcomes rather than simply delivering activity. Active England
projects have been able to stimulate understanding of, and embed a method of
collecting data for, measuring change and identifying potential for improvement.
One key difficulty was that applicants did not know about the need to collect specific
data at the start of the programme. It is important for future programmes that:
Original project applications clearly state targets, indicators and methods of

collection;
Regular reporting arrangements are in place; and
Programme support staff reinforce the need for compliance.
We focused project staff on results and not just on what they deliver or spend. We
made clear to projects that we wanted to:
Be clear on the outcomes they wished to achieve;

Help projects continuously improve what they do;
Help regions and sports lead bodies to track strategic progress more clearly; and
Show the value of increased participation in sport and physical activity to
government and the wider community.
To achieve this we encouraged projects to introduce effective management

information (or monitoring) systems and provided guidance to help them do so. This
led to several benefits such as:
For projects
To find out what works and what doesn’t;
It gave projects data that they could present to future funders;
To help them report to communities;
To provide aftercare to their customers; and
To keep them focused on their purpose.
For Sport England Regions

To report to communities on what their funding was achieving;
To identify when projects needed help;
To inform future strategic plans; and
To decide what projects to fund in the future.
63
Active England
For Sport England

To measure true impact and results;
To report accurately to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport;
To report accurately to the wider public; and
To have evidence of outcomes for the Treasury to fund more sports and physical
activity.
Persistent and repeated targeting of projects led to 235 projects identifying what they
wanted to achieve, what key performance indicators they needed and to set up a
monitoring framework and ValueMap. This was 97% of all Active England projects.
In a 2008 survey of all Active England projects one project said “The fact that we
have to report data regularly has helped to discipline the team to collect the data.
We also report this to key stakeholders and this has helped to raise the profile of the
project. It has also been useful in putting in funding bids, award applications etc”.
In a survey of all projects across England over 60% of projects found the
ValueMapping (monitoring web tool) useful.
Through the monitoring and evaluation process we have worked to share best
practice and there is a legacy of knowledge and expertise built up through the Active
England programme that the sports sector can and will adopt.
New ways of working
The legacy of different ways of working is perhaps most clearly seen through the
Well-being portfolio, funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The link to the broader
physical activity agenda is now more established and several of the projects funded
by Active England are now continuing though the Big Lottery Fund Well-Being
programme.
We can learn from this that there are clear health and well-being links that other
funders can buy into. They do however, need to have these benefits spelled out and
see the evidence that supports successful outcomes.
64
Active England
Contact details
Hall Aitken
Contact David Gourlay
Direct Line 0141 225 5511
E-mail david.gourlay@hallaitken.co.uk
Address 3rd Floor
93 West George Street
Glasgow
G2 1PB
Telephone +44 (0) 141 204 3183
Fax +44 (0) 141 221 2953
E-mail haa@hallaitken.co.uk
Website www.hallaitken.co.uk
Other Offices
Manchester
Address 23 New Mount Street
Manchester
M4 4DE
Telephone +44 (0) 161 212 1100
Fax +44 (0) 161 212 1105
Newcastle upon Tyne
Address 2nd Floor
Adelphi Chambers
20 Shakespeare Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 6AQ
Telephone +44 (0) 191 260 3906
Fax +44 (0) 191 260 3890
Cardiff
Address Temple Court
Cathedral Road
Cardiff
CF11 9HA
Telephone +44 (0) 29 20786616
Fax +44 (0) 29 20786617
65

Active England Final Report

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Active England

The Active England Programme

Active England’s three main objectives were to:

Create sustainable, innovative multiactivity

How was the programme delivered?

Participation exceeded targets set by projects

1.4 million participants

The number of participants will continue to grow as capital projects

Each £10,000 of Active England funding has delivered:

Comparing the success of projects

Targeted support increased overall participation…

…And in under-represented groups

The programme aimed to reach under-represented

The programme reached a higher proportion of

Effective ways of working

Radical innovation has not been prevalent in

Figure 1-1 lessons from Active England

Sustainability 12. Understand the challenges with securing mainstream funding.

Key lessons that will influence future programmes

Matching supply and demand by assessing needs and

Embedding a culture of self-evaluation

Keeping up the momentum in the longer term

Sustaining successful activity was one of the objectives of the programme. We

Planning for sustainability

Address the key concerns of funders;

Mainstreaming for many projects is the hoped-for solution to long-term sustainability

Active England’s three main objectives were to:

Create sustainable, innovative multi-activity environments in areas of sport, social

In 2002 the UK Government published Game Plan: A strategy for delivering

Some of the overarching priorities of Game Plan were:

Key reasons that influence participation (drivers);

Active England’s contribution to other policies and strategies

Health and physical activity

Following a consultation, the Government published its White Paper on Health 5 in

Education and sport

Social inclusion through sport

The Positive Futures programme, launched in 2000, is a national sports-based

Community development through sport

The Community Club Development Programme (CCDP), launched in December

Help in creating a sustainable and financially viable sports club infrastructure in

Provide a step change in setting up a career structure for coaches;

Sport and equal opportunities

1.2 Monitoring and evaluation objectives

What outputs has the programme achieved?

Key performance indicators

Figure 1-1 - Active England Key Performance Indicators

KPI 2 The total number of participants in each activity or session totalled

Throughput for the month.

KPI 5 Coaches This is the number of coaches or leaders or instructors or teachers

KPI 4 Accreditation of the project to a nationally recognised Quality

KPI 7 Sports The number of people gaining sports related qualifications.

KPI 11 Regular The number of adults who do 30 minutes of moderate intensity

KPI 14 Non- Number of individuals gaining non-sports qualifications through

physical activity after it started.

Developing and supporting a self-evaluation culture

We provided continuing support in using this guidance through a programme of

Real-time data collection, collation and analysis

We developed Value Mapping™, a web-based data reporting, collation and analysis

We developed a web-based learning zone (www.aelz.org) to serve as both an

The programme of annual conferences and themed seminars also promoted

Success and challenges

2 What was funded?

2.1 Capital and revenue split