National Insight
This section brings together documents to help you understand different audiences, evidences how sport and physical activity contributes to communities and provides useful information to help you show the evidence base for sport and physical activity.
Understanding your audience
A number of resources have been produced to help understand different audiences and how to engage them in sport and physical activity.
- Dementia Friendly Sport and Physical Activity Guide
- Mental Health Champions Toolkit
- Lockdown Research – Implications for Women’s Participation
- Go Where Women Are – Engaging Women and Girls in Sport
- Youth – Under the Skin
- Youth Insights Pack
- The Outdoors Insight Pack
- HE Insight Pack
- Mapping Disability Insight Pack
- Inactivity: Essential Insight
- Tackling Inactivity: Approach and Investment Guide
National Strategies
There are a number of key strategic documents which relate to sport and physical activity. These are listed below:
- Sporting Future – A New Strategy for an Active Nation
- Sport England – Towards an Active Nation
- Public Health England – Everybody Active, Everyday
- Physical Activity Guidelines and Infographics
- Sport and Recreation Alliance – The Heart of an Active Nation
- Youth Sport Trust Strategy 2018-2022 – Believing in Every Child’s Future
- Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action
- Volunteering in an Active Nation
- UK Coaching Strategy 2017-21
- Obesity, healthy eating and physical activity in primary schools
- DCMS Loneliness Strategy
- Improving Peoples Health Behavioural Strategy
Useful reading
The documents below contain some useful facts and figures about sport and physical activity which may help when you are building the case for investment in sport and physical activity.
- Prevention is better than cure
- Public Health England – Health matters: physical activity – prevention and management of long-term conditions
- All Party Commission on Physical Activity
- UK Active – Physical Activity and Health
- UK Active – Turning the Tide of Inactivity
- nef – Five Ways to Wellbeing
Contribution to communities
If you need to evidence how sport and physical activity contributes to communities on a wide range of issues, the documents and weblinks below will help to do this. There is information on the economic costs of inactivity, how sport benefits individuals in society, contribution to reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, community cohesion, lifelong learning, and much more.
- Economic Costs of Physical Inactivity
- The Role of Culture and Leisure in Improving Health and Wellbeing
- Strategic Commissioning, Sport and Physical Activity
- CLOA Self Assessment for Practitioners
- Game of Life – References
- Game of Life – Executive Summary and Introduction
- Game of Life – Full Report
- Benefits of Sport to Individuals, Society and the Economy
- Value of Sport Monitor – Contribution of Sport to a Range of Social Issues
- Sport and Exercise Medicine – A Fresh Approach
Research and evidence
This section signposts to research and review of evidence documents to help you take an evidenced based approach to your work. The Sport England review of evidence document is particularly useful to read.
- Sport England – Review of Evidence of the Outcomes of Sport and Physical Activity
- Evaluation and Impact of National Sport England programmes (i.e. Sportivate, School Games, Active Colleges, Active Women, Active Universities, Community Sport Activation Fund). Scroll down the page to “Evaluation”
- Psychological Health and Wellbeing Research
- NICE Guidelines
- Systematic Review – Sedentary Behaviours in Under 6’s
- PHE Evidence Review on Physical Activity and Disability
- PHE Evidence Review on Muscle and Bone Strengthening and balance in adults
- PHE Evidence Review on 10 mins walking a day in mid life for health benefits
Guidance documents
National guidance documents have been produced for a number of age ranges. These are listed below:
- Chief Medical Officers Physical Activity guidelines
- The Best Start in Life
- Children and Young People
- Interpreting the UK Guidelines for Frailer Older People
- Interpreting the UK Guidelines for Older Adults in Transition
- Interpreting the UK Guidelines for Active Older Adults
- Sedentary Behaviour
- Physical Activity for Disabled Adults
- Physical Activity for Pregnant Women
- Physical Activity for Women After Childbirth
