Sport England South West now has a core team of 3 staff who work within the "Performance and Investment" area and are based within the Regional Office :

Simon Ridd  - Head of Performance and Improvement (0207) 273 1845
Email:simon.ridd@sportengland.org;
Jim Barrett  - Improvement Manager (0207) 273 1855
Email: jim.barrett@sportengland.org
Matt Roebuck - Performance Analyst (0207) 273 1871
Email:matt.roebuck@sportengland.org

Their role is about generating a culture of continuous improvement within the sports sector by showing what outcomes are being achieved within the sector and what types of interventions and investments are making a real difference.  Through clear performance management, new policy and resource allocations can be made that are based on clear evidence.

Active People Survery Overview
One such management tool is the recently conducted Active People Survery that the team have been leading on.  The survey results provides us with unprecedented levels of detail about the sport and exercise habits of the nation.  For the very first time it give a picture of participation by geographic area, right down to local authority area and will help us to shape the future direction of Community Sport working closely alongside our national and regional partners.

The headline results of the Active People Survey were published in December 2006. It is the largest single survey of sport and active recreation ever undertaken and provides statistical information about levels of participation across the country – by geographic area, age group, sex, disabled / non-disabled, ethnicity and socio-economic group. This includes information on participation across all 354 local authorities in England. The survey also gives a breakdown of levels of participation in different sports and the proportion of people volunteering to support sport.

Survey Rationale
These results will help Sport England and its partners:

• Encourage the nation to become more active through sport.
• Present a current picture of activity levels.  The survey will be repeated in 2008/09 and again in 2011/12. This will give an accurate indication over time of how sporting our nation is, and allowing us to measure the effectiveness of our work to get more people participating in sport and active recreation every year.
• Demonstrate the benefits that sport can bring to the health of the nation.
• Inform future policy and resource allocation by helping us identify the areas of greatest need. Sport England will work with its national and regional partners, with County Sports Partnerships at the sub-regional level, and through them with local partners to utilise this knowledge.

Information gathered from the Active People Survey will work in tandem with information on sports facility provision available via www.activeplaces.com (public web database) and www.activeplacespower.com (available to registered users). Together this will help Sport England and partners identify gaps in provision and address barriers to access.

The results will also inform the new sport and recreation indicators in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

Survey Information and Headline Results for the South West Region:

• A total of 364,501 people were surveyed between October 2005 and October 2006 (this includes a minimum of 1000 people in each of the 354 local authorities in the country).
• The Active People Survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Sport England.
• People aged 16 and over were surveyed – it did not have an upper age limit.
• The results of the survey provided the following key statistics for the Region:

Participation

• 21.9% of the adult population (905,191) take part regularly in sport and active recreation – the national figure is 21%.
• South West is the second most active Region in the Country.
• 28.9% of adults (1,196,620) have built sport or exercise into their daily lives.
• 49.2% of adults (2,038,701) have not taken part in any moderate intensity sport and active recreation of 30 minutes duration in the last 4 weeks – the national figure is 50.6%.

Regular participation in sport and active recreation varies across different socio-demographic groups:

• Males - 23.8%; Females - 20.1%.
• People with a limiting longstanding illness or disability - 9.1%; those without - 24.3%
• Black and other ethnic minority groups - 21.4%; Adults of white origin - 21.9%.
• Lowest socio-economic groups- 17.9%; highest socio-economic group - 25.9%.

• Regular participation ranged from a high of 26.2% in West Devon to a low of 18.6% in Plymouth.

Volunteering

• 5.2% of the adult population (215,079) contribute at least one hour a week volunteering to sport - national figure is 4.7%.
• Volunteering levels ranged from 7.6% in West Somerset and West Devon to 3.6% in Bristol, Gloucester and Plymouth.

Club membership, receiving tuition, taken part in organised competition

• 24.4% of the adult population are members of a club where they take part in sport – the national figure is 25.1%.
• 18.4% of adults have received tuition from an instructor or coach over the last 12 months – the national figure is 18%.
• 16.2% of adults have taken part in organised competitive sport in the last 12 months – the national figure is 15%.

Satisfaction with sports provision in the local area

70.5% of adults are fairly or very satisfied with sports provision in their local area  - national figure is 69.5%.

To find out more about activity and volunteering levels in your area of the Region click onto the SW factsheet