Creating sporting opportunities in every community

Briefing Note

NI8 - release of Active People Survey 3 data on

17 December 2009

With effect from 1 April 2009 NI8 is now treated as an Official Statistic and
DCMS manage the official release of the data.

On Thursday 17 December 2009 DCMS released Active People Survey 3

performance data for NI8 and the cultural indicators 9,10 & 11.

For NI8, the data published for County Councils and those authorities that have
boosted sample sizes the figure is based on Active People Survey 3 (October
2008 - October 2009).

For the other authorities the NI8 published statistic is based on responses to the
APS2 and APS3 surveys combined, giving a sample size of 1000. In these
cases, therefore the NI 8 statistic will be based on data collected between
October 2007 and October 2009. Note - for these authorities, upon completion
of APS 3, all future releases of NI8 results will be based on 24 months data.

The timeline overleaf shows how the results relate to the survey periods for APS
surveys.

1
Diagram setting out how Active People data will be used to report NI8

Apr 08 Mar/Apr 09 Mar/Apr 10 Mar 11

LAA reporting Year 1
Year 2 Year 3
years

Example 1: County Councils and local authorities with boosted samples - Data for
NI8 Year 1 is based on at least a 1000 sample in each Local Authority drawn from
Active People between Oct 08 and Oct 09 and reported in Dec 09.

Min 1,000

Min 1,000

Min 1,000

Example 2: Single tier authorities and districts (not boosted) - Data for NI8 Year 1 is
based on a 1000 sample in each Local Authority drawn from Active People between
Oct 07 and Oct 09 and reported in Dec 09.

500 + 500
500 + 500
500 + 500
Active People
Survey years
Oct 07 Oct 08 Oct 09 Oct 10 Oct 11
(full year data
available each
December)

Statistical significant changes in NI8 data

All survey data contains a margin of error. For NI8 the ranges are calculated using a
95% confidence interval which means there is a 95 % probability the significant
increases / decreases observed are true variations in performance. A statistically
significant change is indicated by 'increase' or 'decrease' and this means that we
are 95% certain that there has been a real change (increase or decrease).

Where a change is not reported to be statistically significant this means there is

no change in the result when comparing results from Active People Survey 1
with results from Active People Survey 3 or 2/3 combined.

If a local authority has achieved a statistically significant increase from APS1 to

APS3 or APS2/3 combined this is a real increase and indicates a positive
direction of travel.

If a local authority has seen no statistically significant change from APS1 to

APS3 or APS 2/3 combined this means it is not 95% certain that there has been
real change in the result

2
If a local authority has a statistically significant decrease from APS1 to APS3 or
APS 2/3 combined this is a real decrease and indicates a negative direction of
travel.

Breakdown of NI8 data and Active People Diagnostic

The data will also be incorporated into Sport England’s Active People Diagnostic
as soon as possible after the data has been released. It is anticipated that this
will be available interactively by April 2010.

For NI8 data Sport England will also:

• In the first two weeks of January 2010 supply all local authorities with the
NI8 data broken down by key demographics and frequency (number of
days) in Excel spreadsheet format

• By the end of January 2010 have updated the Active People Diagnostic
with the above information in static form.

KPI1

For those local authorities that still have stretch targets the DCMS data release
does not include KPI1 (which has a slightly narrower definition of ‘sport’ - see
attached link for details.
http://www.sportengland.org/idoc.ashx?docid=d65addc2-db76-473f-92b5-
12ae1a40afc5&version=-1

KPI1 data for Active People Survey 3 can be found on Sport England’s website:
http://www.sportengland.org/research/active_people_survey/active_people_sur
vey_3.aspx

Sport ‘1 million’ indicator

Sport England also published a range of other Active People Survey data on its
website on 17 December including the sport ‘1 million’’ indicator.

There is a commitment in Sport England’s new strategy to getting one million

people taking part in more sport by 2012-13. Sport England’s progress towards
this target is measured by the Active People Survey.

Aligned to Sport England’s new strategic focus, the one million target is based
on a sports participation indicator that includes a narrower range of activities
than other sport and active recreation indicators reported by Active People such
as NI8, the national indicator for local government. The 1 million sport indicator
is therefore a different (narrower) measure of participation than NI8 and will
therefore be equal to or lower than an areas NI8 measure.

Please note the figures for the sport ‘1 million’ indicator are also available at the
local authority level.