RESEARCH WINNING WAYS How Sport Unlimited delivered legacy impacts for young people
MAXINE GREGORY LED THE EVALUATION OF SPORT UNLIMITED, CARRIED OUT BY THE SPORT INDUSTRY RESEARCH CENTRE (SIRC) AT SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY. SHE REPORTS ON THE PROGRAMME’S SUCCESSES AND HOW THEY WERE ACHIEVED
I
n 2012, all eyes will be on the Olympic and Paralymic Games and the legacy promise to get the nation doing more sport.
For children and young people the
previous Labour government set the ‘five-hour offer’ target – to give those aged five- to 16-years old access to five hours per week of high-quality sport. One of the key work strands estab-
lished in order to deliver the five-hour offer was Sport Unlimited’. Its aim was to bridge the gap between school and com- munity sport and increase opportunities for young people to take part in a wide range of different and engaging activi- ties to find ‘their’ ideal sport. The programme ran from 2008 to
2011, delivering a £36m programme of Sport England-funded projects, which aimed to engage, retain and sustain semi-sporty young people in more sports participation. It was an important element of the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People and one part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy objectives.
Sport Unlimited delivery – the stats Sport Unlimited was set an ambitious target to retain 900,000 young people
The programme engaged 1.2 million people
in sporting activity by the end of March 2011. Over the three-year period the programme engaged nearly 1.2 million young people and retained almost 82 per cent of these in activity – thereby exceeding the retain target by more than 60,000 young people. Participants were deemed to have been retained if
THE KEY FEATURES OF SPORT UNLIMITED
• Sport Unlimited was an innovative youth sports programme, which cascaded funding to local communities via the County Sports Partnerships Network
• Local providers organised eight- to 10-week blocks of weekly high-quality taster sessions designed to inspire youngsters to sign up for longer-term participation
• The Sport Unlimited programme was targeted at youngsters who may have had some interest in sport, but were not
particularly engaged with community or club sport (termed semi-sporty)
• A key element of the programme was finding out which sports young people actually wanted to do
• Sport Unlimited adopted a broad definition of ‘sport’ that included activities outside of Sport England’s support structure that were relevant and compelling to children and young people and encouraged their engagement
they attended 60 per cent or more of an eight- to 10-week block of sessions – and in total 960,938 young people achieved this measure. The overall success was equal for
male and female participants and for different year groups. This is particularly noteworthy, as Sport Unlimited narrowed the trend of the gender gap in sports participation, demonstrating substantial success in engaging with females. In fact, female retention rates were higher than those for males. The programme also had a target
of sustaining 300,000 young people in activity once their Sport Unlimited sessions came to an end, either by joining a club or participating in informal environments (such as skateparks, BMX tracks, swimming pools and fitness activities). The Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University undertook a bespoke sustainability study, which combined several different monitoring systems including: exit postcards (4,427 completed), before and after surveys (1,867 completed) and participant tracking with 1,122 individuals. The key findings were as follows:
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Issue 2 2012 © cybertrek 2012
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