Young People in Focus

Home » Research » Completed Research » Sport PESSCL pilots

COMPLETED

Evaluation of the Community Sport PESSCL Pilots

Background

The 2005 Youth Green Paper has the theme of "sport" as one of the key parts of the five-theme "offer" to young people, with a commitment to provide opportunities for at least two hours of structured physical activity outside of school. The PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) Strategy seeks to develop new 'enhanced' opportunities to offer these additional 2-3 hours of sporting opportunities. The aim of the Community Sport PESSCL pilot scheme is to identify ways of providing local opportunities for young people to access the additional 2 to 3 hours of sport beyond the curriculum. TSA was commissioned by Sport England to conduct some longitudinal research which involved a series of pre and post focus groups with young people across nine different regions in England during 2005/6.

Aims of the research

The main aims of this research were to explore:

• Young people's views of participation in sport and physical activities outside of school lessons.
• Potential barriers to young people's participation in sport, both in school and in the community.
• Young people's views of proposed intervention programmes and to elicit their 'ideas' to increase levels of participation relevant to their local circumstances.
  

Methods

The research was undertaken in nine schools with Year 8 and Year 11 pupils who did not participate in sport and physical activity. 6-8 pupils from each year group participated in focus group discussions on two separate occasions. Phase one of the research aimed to establish young people's perceptions of existing provision in their locality, and where possible to use these responses to develop targeted extra-curricular activities. Phase two focus group discussions followed an interim period whereby pupils were encouraged to participate in sport, via new activities or positive changes to existing provision that were identified in Phase one. Re-convened focus groups sought to establish and gauge young people's reactions to these programmes of change.

Findings

The findings of the research provided up to date information on the dislikes and limitations associated with sports participation, both in school and in the community, and raise important implications for future policy and practice. Sport England are now using the results to develop policy and practice in this important area.

Timetable

The project started in September 2005 and was completed at the end of April 2006.

Project staff

Louise Cox and Dr Nigel Sherriff were the research officers working on the project. Dr Lester Coleman and Dr Debi Roker were the project managers.

More information:
Please contact Young People in Focus
Email: info@youngpeopleinfocus.org.uk
Tel: 01273 693311

May 2007