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Adventure into SportEvaluation Report

This report is an evaluation of the Adventure into Sport Project led by Play England and delivered in partnership with Eccleshill Adventure Playground and Play Association Tower Hamlets with Mudchute Farm.

The evaluation was written by Jenny Gibson and Gareth Richards of Play in Education and Learning Centre, University of Cambridge with funding support from Sport England.

A pdf version of this report is free to download from Play England

www.playengland.org

Acknowledgements to Zulma Terrones

Executive Summary 5

Introduction 5

Evaluation purpose 5

Evaluation methodology 6

Key findings 6

Conclusions 9

Recommendations: 9

Introduction 11

Links between play, sports and physical activity 11

About Adventure into Sport 11

Contexts 12

Evaluation methods 13

Ethics 13

Aims 13

Outcomes 13

Measures 13

Procedures for data collection 15

Findings 16

Questionnaire data 16

Questionnaire respondents 17

Descriptive data 18

Parental questionnaire 22

Observations 24

Interviews 26

Staff interviews 26

Young person interviews 31

Discussion 34

Conclusions 36

Recommendations 37

References 38

Appendix: Reflections on the evaluation process 40

Contents

5ADVENTURE INTO SPORT EVALUATION REPORT 2018

IntroductionParticipation in sports and physical activity is low amongst UK children from low-income backgrounds. Increasing sports participation of those living in disadvantaged communities is an important goal for improving health, wellbeing, and access to leisure and recreational opportunities.

The Adventure into Sport project was a pilot funded by Sport England. It delivered a 10-week programme of play-based physical activity opportunities in disadvantaged communities. Its aim was to provide high-quality opportunities for children and families to use play to leverage a positive and sustained relationship with sport and physical activity.

Alongside Play England, the following partners were involved in the delivery of Adventure into Sport:

l Eccleshill Adventure Playground (EAP) – Community play provider

l The Big Swing – EAP main project delivery site

l Play Association Tower Hamlets (PATH) — Community play provider

l Mudchute Farm – PATH main project delivery site

In addition, London Sport, Yorkshire Sport and Sport England provided guidance and advice.

Evaluation purposeThe evaluation aimed to assess the programme’s effectiveness in the following areas:

l Participation in physical activity or sports activities

l Changes in attitude towards physical activity and active play

l Behavioural change over 10 weeks

l Factors influencing engagement with the programme

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ADVENTURE INTO SPORT EVALUATION REPORT 20186

Evaluation methodologyThe evaluation involved information gathering from community play providers, parents and children.

Parents and children were asked to complete questionnaires about their attitudes towards and participation in sports. Children completed questionnaires before and after the project. Parents completed the questionnaires at the beginning only.

Staff at community play settings were trained in the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY); an observational method of evaluating children’s physical activity during play. SOPLAY was completed on 44 occasions (each occasion contained 2 observational episodes — one for boys and one for girls) during the project delivery period.

Five members of staff and five children were interviewed at the end of the project. The interviews were analysed to find common themes and perspectives on the Adventure into Sport programme.

This evaluation report presents the findings of these evaluation activities.

Key findingsThe target of the project was to engage 300 participants (160 aged 5 to 13, 40 aged 14 to 25, and 100 over 25), with a 1,200 throughput. Engagement exceeded the targets with total attendance reaching 1,293 and the achieved throughput was 2,133 over the course of the 10 weeks.

The key findings of the evaluation are presented in this section, according to data type.

Interviews with young people

Five children and young people were interviewed; four 10-year-olds and one 17-year-old. All interviewees were male. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically. The following themes emerged from this analysis:

Activities –The range of activities in the Adventure into Sport programme was clearly valued by young people. They enjoyed listing and explaining the different types of active play on offer.

Attitudes –The young people also clearly articulated how their attitudes and emotions were affected by taking part in the active play opportunities. They discussed benefits for physical health and social wellbeing, and viewed active play as a way to relieve stress experienced from pressures at school or at home.

Achievements – The young people shared stories about how participation in activities, especially those with an element of risk, built up their sense of confidence and achievement.


Taken together, these three elements illustrate the young interviewees’ perspectives at the core of the highly successful engagement strategies used in the Adventure into Sport programme.

Interviews with staff

Five members of staff from across the two settings were interviewed; three females and two males. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically. The following themes emerged from this analysis:

Challenges – All staff interviewed discussed the socioeconomic challenges faced by the areas where the settings were based, and the impact this had on young people’s participation in sports and physical activity. Specific implementation challenges for Adventure into Sport were considered to be the weather, engagement with parents, and the involvement of girls in more active play.

Choices – Interviewees consistently raised the importance of being child-led and offering children choices in their play. The provision of enticing opportunities for active play, while giving children free-choice to engage, was viewed as the key to encouraging more active play. This was considered especially effective for children who were unfamiliar with the game/sport, or who were nervous about getting active.

Connections – Alongside choices, staff also identified the importance of social relationships to the success of the programme. Positive role models from peers and staff helped to engage new young people in the activities on offer. This was acknowledged to be a process, something built up over the course of the Adventure into Sport sessions.

Changes – Staff were also well-placed to observe the changes in young people who participated in the programme. Young people developed new physical skills such as those needed for racquet sports or gymnastics. Staff also reported positive changes in children’s confidence and social relationships.

The interviews with the staff shed light on the elements of high quality play provision that offers a flexible range of activities that respect the young person’s right to choose how and when to participate.

Observation of young people:

SOPLAY observations were conducted to gain an overview of the types of activities in which children were engaged and which ones were most likely to promote vigorous physical activity. During 88 observational episodes (sampled on 44 occasions), records of physical activity level (‘sedentary’, ‘walking ’, or ‘vigorous’) were noted for 264 girls and 344 boys. The following key findings were noted:

l Children were observed to be engaged in a wide variety of active play activities.

l Football, aerobics and gymnastics were the most popular among the more traditional sports activities.


l Hula-hoop, skipping, parkour, ‘tig’ (also known as ‘tag’) and log-walking were also observed.

l 44.1% of children coded in these observations were engaged in vigorous activity, 28.5% were in the walking category, and 27.5% were in the sedentary category.

l Boys were more often engaged in vigorous activity (50.3%) compared to girls (36%).

l Girls were more often engaged in sedentary activity (34%) compared to boys (23%).

The proportions in the walking category were: girls (30%), boys (27%).

Questionnaire, young people and parents

Overall, sports were not reported as a typical way of spending time when young people were asked what they would do if they were not attending the programme. Sport was much less popular than video games, watching TV, and hanging around with friends, and a little less popular than homework. A similar picture emerged from the parental questionnaire too. This evidences that the pilot was successful in reaching its target demographic of children and young people who do not typically engage in sports and physical activities.

Significant implementation challenges were encountered with the questionnaire. These affected the quality of data that was designed to investigate differences in baseline and follow-up data. Problems included unequal sample sizes and inability to track change in individual responses. This means the questionnaire data were not suitable for inferential statistical analysis. The questionnaire findings below should be considered descriptive. It is strongly recommended by the authors of this report that these descriptive statistics are not used to make inferences about the Adventure into Sport programme outcomes; whether positive, neutral or negative. However, an overview of the data, including the problematic aspects, is provided here for the purposes of transparency.

Baseline questionnaires (before participation) were received from 103 children and young people. Most respondents were aged 7-8 years. The following observations were made:

l 84.5% reported exercising and 80.6% reported doing sports at least once a week.

l 67% found exercise easy, 77.7% agreed PA/exercise was healthy, and 76.7% agreed exercise made them feel good about themselves.

l 67% viewed participation in sport/PA positively, 70.9% viewed playing out positively, 64.1% viewed using sports equipment positively, and 54.4% viewed playground games positively.


Follow-up questionnaires (after participation) were received from 54 children and young people. Most respondents were aged 7-8 years. The following observations were made (green text = higher than baseline; red text = lower than baseline – to be interpreted with caution as noted above):

l 96.3% reported exercising and 96.3% reported doing sports at least once a week.

l 68.5% found exercise easy, 87% agreed PA/exercise was healthy, and 68.5% agreed exercise made them feel good about themselves.

l 70.4% viewed participation in sport/PA positively, 66.7% viewed playing out positively, 57.4% viewed using sports equipment positively, and 57.4% viewed playground games positively.

ConclusionsAdventure into Sport is an innovative programme that successfully engages hard-to-reach populations of children and young people in physically active play and sports. The programme also has positive influences on young people’s attitudes towards physical activity and its physical, social and emotional benefits. A number of factors have contributed to its success, including the provision of free sessions, the inclusion of a variety of activities, the skill and experience of playworkers in facilitating engagement at each child’s own pace, and the building of positive relationships between the children and young people, as well as between the children and young people and staff.

RecommendationsThe Adventure into Sport programme appears promising in its ability to engage hard-to-reach young people in physical activity through play. Recommendations for the next steps are as follows:

l The approaches used in Adventure into Sport may be unfamiliar to organisations promoting healthy lifestyles and physical activity. A communication and dissemination strategy could be used to share the successful engagement approaches used in this programme.

l A feasibility study would be a useful next step to explore issues of taking the pilot programme to scale and to refine the theory of change/logic model underpinning the programme.

l The programme delivery period should be extended to include a longer lead-in, allowing time to build up key community relationships, especially with parents.

l As implementation varied considerably between the two pilot sites, a scoping workshop could be useful to develop a shared view of the core principles of the programme.


l Strategies to address the relatively low participation of girls, both in the programme and in the evaluation, should be developed, preferably in consultation with girls and young women themselves.

l The inclusion of individuals from different ethnic groups and also of individuals with disabilities was not raised in the current evaluation. Future work should consider inclusion and diversity issues.

l Outcome indicators in complex settings should be recognised and costed in future programmes. Co-design of all types of outcome indicators, as well as co-development of plans for their implementation should be considered. This is more likely to be successful if implemented at a workshop, rather than by email.

l Future programme provision should include time and costs for staff to come together across the programme’s geographical areas, to attend training and to share good practice in issues such as engagement of parents, improving participation by girls, monitoring progress, and collecting data.


Links between play, sports and physical activityThe Health Survey for England (2012) recommendation is for children aged 2-4 years to achieve 180+ minutes of physical activity each day, and for children aged 5-15 to achieve 60+ minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity each day. However, only 9% of children aged 2-4, and 21% of children aged 5-15 from England meet these guidelines. This lack of engagement with physical activity is particularly important considering that worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, and that 41 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese in 2016 (World Health Organisation, 2017). Physical activity is also associated with additional benefits. For instance, a recent study of secondary school children from Cornwall showed that high exercise frequency was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, higher school attendance, and higher attainment at Key Stage 3 and 4 English and maths (Richards & Smith, 2015, 2016).

There is good evidence of a positive link between children’s free play opportunities and physical activity (Dobbins, Husson, DeCorby, & LaRocca, 2013; Engelen et al., 2013; Ridgers, Carter, Stratton, & McKenzie, 2011). Moreover, access to outdoor play environments, where children are enabled to assess and manage risks for themselves, has been associated with health and physical activity in a robust, systematic review of the highest-quality studies available (Gray et al., 2015). Thus, free play is a known yet often overlooked piece of the puzzle when it comes to supporting children in developing healthy attitudes and behaviours relating to physical activity.

About Adventure into SportAdventure into Sport was a pilot project that offered a 10 week programme of free after-school and summer holiday play opportunities to hard-to-reach children and their families. To implement the programme, Play England worked in collaboration with Eccleshill Adventure Playground in Ravenscliffe, Bradford, and Play Association Tower Hamlets with Mudchute Farm in the Isle of Dogs, as well as with regional sports providers, London Sport and Yorkshire Sport. The intention was to use play as a springboard to help children and their parents get into sport, and to achieve more active, healthy lifestyles.

INTRODUCTION


Each participating organisation is well-known as a provider of play opportunities in their local areas. The basic idea of the project was to enhance existing provision in ways that maximised opportunity for financially disadvantaged young people to engage in active play and sports. The settings had in common that they offered participation in physically active play and sports, and that they were free to attend. The implementation of the programme was different in each area, according to local need and the type of facilities available at each setting. For example, Mudchute Farm purchased new sports equipment and took advantage of its playing field to provide a smorgasbord of free-choice activities such as badminton, hula-hoop, skipping and football to all passing children. Eccleshill Adventure Playground ran taster sessions for adventure play at local schools, and took a group of children to experience a professional trampolining facility.

ContextsThe Adventure into Sport project was carried out in areas with high levels of deprivation. Around 44% of children aged 0-15 years in Ravenscliffe are growing up in households where adults do not work, and a similar percentage of children are considered to be growing up in poverty; this is more than twice the national average for England. 89.2% of children in Ravenscliffe are in the bottom 20% of the Child Wellbeing index, and 100% of children in the area are in the bottom 20% for problems with Housing, Education and Crime.

Tower Hamlets also has the highest proportion of children growing up in poverty of any local authority area in the UK. In the Isle of Dogs, prevalence of childhood obesity in Year 6 children (i.e. aged 10-11) is 27.1%, well above the national average of 19.1%.


EthicsEthical review and approval was gained from the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

All adult participants gave informed, voluntary consent to participate in the evaluation. Consent for child participation was given by parents/legal guardians. In addition, children only participated if they wished to do so.

AimsThe aim of Adventure into Sport was to ascertain whether a 10-week programme of play-based physical activity delivered by local play providers can be used as an effective tool to inspire hard to reach children and families to develop a positive and sustained relationship with sport and physical activity.

OutcomesThe evaluation aimed to assess the programme’s effectiveness in the following areas:

l Participation in physically active or sports activities

l Changes in attitude towards physical activity and active play

l Behavioural change over 10 weeks

l Factors influencing engagement with the programme

MeasuresA number of methods were selected to generate data that could be used to address the evaluation outcome areas.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires were designed to capture changes in behaviour and attitudes towards physical activity over the course of the programme. Questions were based on existing questionnaires in the play and physical activity literature, and were agreed upon via email between all stakeholders.

Questionnaires were made available on paper, and on the Internet via Qualtrics.

EVALUATION METHODS


Observations

Observations were carried out using the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY). SOPLAY (McKenzie, Marshall, Sallis, & Conway, 2000) is an observation tool designed for the systematic observation of children’s activities and physical activity levels in playground settings. This made it ideal for the current project, as Adventure into Sport was mostly delivered in open play spaces. The systematic nature of the observation is important for improving the reliability, validity and comparability of observations.

An advantage of SOPLAY is that it can be easily adapted to different settings. Each play setting establishes designated target observation zones prior to the observations. Target observation zones are chosen as the ones where children are most likely to be active. Each observer conducts systematic visual scans on the target zones to track the physical activity (PA) levels and the types of activities that children are engaged in. The target areas are always scanned in the same order, starting with Target Area 1.

Observed PA is classified into 1 of 3 categories: Sedentary, Walking, Very active or vigorous (McKenzie et al., 2000). The walking category is equivalent to light physical activity. Different play types or activities are coded according to a predefined list, e.g., 1=football, 2=badminton.

The initial reliability of SOPLAY was established in a study including observation of 186 target areas over 2 weeks. Validity of the PA measure was established by comparing heart rate measures to the categorical coding of PA (McKenzie et al., 1991) and positive, moderate correlations with Biotrainer activity monitor data were found in a recent field trial (Saint-Maurice et al., 2011).

No additional reliability or validity data were collected for the current study due to resource considerations. However, all staff using the measure attended a training session and achieved 80% reliability with the SOPLAY training videos.

Interviews

A mixture of 1:1 interviews and focus groups was used to gain insights from participating children and young people, as well as from the staff involved at the different settings. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Tran-scripts were then analysed with a view to drawing out common themes that would shed light on the main evaluation questions. Transcripts from adults and children were analysed as separate groups.


Procedures for Data collection Each site was responsible for collecting data from the questionnaire and observational measures. Jenny Gibson (evaluation lead) led the collection of qualitative data for the interviews.

Attendance data was recorded at each delivery setting throughout the programme. Table 1 shows the method of data collection for evaluation purposes.

Table 1. Data collection plan

Baseline data — Week 0 Early project Follow-up — Week 10

Parent attitudes & behaviour SOPLAY observation Parent attitudes & behaviour questionnaire questionnaire

Child attitudes & behaviour Child attitudes & behaviour questionnaire questionnaire

Consent forms SOPLAY observation

Usual setting background information Semi-structured interviews form with settings’ staff (2 at each)

Referrer information form Semi-structured interview


The evaluation findings are reported in this section.

The target of the project was to engage 300 participants (160 aged 5 to 13, 40 aged 14 to 25, and 100 over 25), with a 1,200 throughput. Engagement exceeded the targets with total attendance reaching 1,293 and the achieved throughput was 2,133. This demonstrates the success of the programme in engaging a group of children and young people who are often considered to be “hard to reach.”

Questionnaire dataA note of caution for interpretation of questionnaire findings.

Considerable implementation challenges were encountered in the collection of data using questionnaires. The initial plan outlined above was agreed between all stakeholders but proved challenging to deliver in practice. There are a number of issues with the resulting data:

l Reported completion dates on the ‘Baseline’ survey data varied. It was therefore unclear whether baseline data represents a true baseline or if it might include data from some children who had already participated in the programme for some weeks.

l There is a large discrepancy between the numbers of questionnaires completed at baseline and the numbers of questionnaires completed at follow-up.

l A high percentage of missing data in the participant identifier field means that it is impossible to tell if any of the children or young people who completed the questionnaire at baseline are also included in the follow-up sample.

l Reported completion dates for the ‘Follow-up’ survey data varied. It was therefore unclear whether the follow-up data are from immediately after the programme, or with some weeks’ delay.

The unequal sample sizes and inability to track change in individual responses means the questionnaire data are not suitable for inferential statistical analyses. The possible issues arising from ‘contamination’ due to variable start and end timings mean that the interpretation of findings is not clear.

FINDINGS


The questionnaire findings are therefore reported descriptively. It is strongly recommended by the authors of this report that these descriptive statistics are not used to make inferences about the Adventure into Sport programme outcomes, whether positive, neutral or negative.

A reflection on the implementation challenges, together with recommendations for future work, is presented in Appendix 1.

Questionnaire respondentsBaseline questionnaires were received from 103 children and young people aged between 5 and 20 years. Most respondents at baseline were aged between 7 and 8 years. Just over half (50.5%) of respondents were female (49.5% male). Follow-up questionnaire responses were received from 54 children and young people, 46.3% female (53.7% male). The distribution of responses by age group is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Number of children/young people who responded to the questionnaire at baseline and follow-up by age-bracket.


Descriptive data

Young people’s usual activities

We asked children and young people to report on their typical activities if they were not attending the Adventure into Sport programme. This information is presented for the whole sample of 157 children and young people. Note that young people could endorse more than one activity, or none. Figure 2 shows the relative popularity of the different activities reported (total number of reported activities across all participants =504, an average of just over 3 activities per person).

Figure 2. Relative popularity of usual activities

Watching TV., hanging out with friends, and playing video games were the activities young people reported they would be most likely to engage in if they were not attending Adventure into Sport. The next most frequent activities were using social media (e.g. Snapchat, Facebook), chatting via message services (e.g. WhatsApp), and doing homework. Importantly for understanding the activity habits of this group of young people, participation in sports was less popular than reading and doing crafts, and even doing homework. It was equivalent to reported internet use for non-social media purposes.


Young people’s views of opportunities in their area

We asked children and young people to report their views of the opportunities to engage in sports and physical activity in their area. Findings are reported in Table 2. A higher percentage of young people in the baseline sample strongly agreed that opportunities for active play in their area were good, compared to the percentage in the follow-up sample.

Table 2. Young people’s views of opportunities in their area.

Note: Percentages may not total 100% due to missing data.

Negative Baseline % (number)

Negative Follow-up % (number)

Neutral Baseline % (number)

Neutral Follow-up % (number)

Positive Baseline % (number)

Positive Follow-up % (number)

Opportunities for Physical Activity

18.4% (19) 24.1% (13) 11.7% (12) 37% (20) 68.9% (71) 37% (20)

Opportunities for Sports 20.4% (21) 31.5% (17) 22.3% (23) 24.1% (13) 52.4% (54) 42.6% (23)


Participation in exercise

Participation in sports

Participation in Outdoor Play

Use of local park

Participation in sports activities

We were also interested in how often children and young people participated in activities likely to promote physical activity. Table 3 shows the percentages of children and young people at baseline and follow-up who reported participation once a month or less compared to the percentages of children reporting weekly or more frequent participation.

Table 3. Frequency of participation in activities by baseline/follow-up groups.

Onc e a month Baseline % (number)

Onc e a month Follow-up % (number)

Once a week Baseline % (number)

Once a week Follow-up % (number)

15.6% (15) 3.7% (2) 84.5% (87) 96.3% (52)

18.4% (19) 3.7% (2) 80.6% (83) 96.3% (52)

18.4% (19) 18.5% (10) 80.6% (83) 81.5% (44)

23.3% (24) 22.2% (12) 76.7% (79) 77.8% (42)


Table 3 shows that a higher proportion of survey respondents in the follow-up group reported at least weekly participation in sports and exercise activities compared to the baseline group. Reported engagement in outdoor play and use of local park facilities were roughly similar between groups.


Attitudes

Children and young people were also asked about their attitudes towards participation in activities associated with play, sports and exercise activities. Responses were categorised as negative, positive or neutral. The distribution of responses in these categories for the baseline and follow-up samples is reported in Table 4.

Table 4. Children/young people’s attitudes towards participation in play, sports, and exercise activities at baseline and follow-up

Negative Baseline % (number)

Negative Follow-up % (number)



Positive Baseline % (number)

Positive Follow-up % (number)

Participation in Sport 8.7% (9) 11.1% (6) 23.3% (24) 16.7% (9) 67% (69) 70.4% (38)

Playing out 5.8% (6) 14.8% (8) 22.3% (23) 16.7% (9) 70.9% (73) 66.7% (36)

Using sports equipment 11.7% (12) 13.0% (7) 23.3% (24) 27.8 % (15) 64.1% (66) 57.4% (31)

Playing playground 11.7% (12) 11.1% (6) 31.1% (32) 29.6% (16) 54.4% (56) 57.4% (31)


Attitudes towards physical activity (PA) were also explored. Survey respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with the following statements: ‘Physical Activity is Easy for Me’, ‘Physical Activity makes me Healthy’, ‘Physical Activity Makes me Feel Good’. Responses were categorised as disagree, agree or neutral. The distribution of responses in these categories for the baseline and follow-up samples are reported in Table 5.


Table 5. Children/young people’s attitudes towards physical activity (PA) at baseline and follow-up.

Agree Baseline % (number)

Agree Follow-up % (number)

PA is easy for me 9.7% (10) 14.8% (8) 20.4% (21) 14.8% (8) 67% (69) 68.5% (37)

PA makes me feel healthy 4.9% (5) 1% (1.9) 16.5% (17) 9.3% (5) 77.7% (80) 87% (47)

PA makes me feel good 5.8% (6) 9.3% (5) 16.5% (17) 20.4% (11) 76.7% (79) 68.5% (37)

Disagree Baseline % (number)

Disagree Follow-up % (number)




Parental questionnaireAlthough the original evaluation plan was to collect parental questionnaires at both baseline and follow-up, settings’ staff found parental engagement to be very challenging, and parental questionnaires were returned for baseline only.

The play providers reported that many parents were not interested in completing the questionnaire or they felt uncomfortable being asked to disclose information on an official-looking form. Providers also felt that the 10-week delivery period of the play sessions meant it was difficult to build up trust and relationships with parents during the play sessions’ drop off/collection ‘window’.

Furthermore, the play sessions delivery took place in the summer holidays, at the beginning of the project, which meant there was insufficient time to engage parents before delivery. There are many considerations to be made with respect to timing of the programme, for example pushing it back could have meant an increase in weather-related non-attendance. Future projects should consider building in a relationship building period to connect with schools, parents and the community before the programme is implemented.

In spite of the challenges, some parents did agree to participate in the evaluation. Thirty-seven questionnaires were returned, 23 (62.2%) from mothers and 14 (37.8%) from fathers. Figure 3 shows the parental response to the question, “What would your child usually be doing if they hadn’t come along to [play setting] today?”


Figure 3. Relative popularity of usual activities

Through comparison with Figure 2 it is clear that as groups parents and young people have similar views of their typical activities.

These findings illustrate that the Adventure into Sport programme has suc-cessfully engaged children, young people and families who would not typically engage in organised sports or physical activity.


SOPLAY observations were conducted to gain an understanding of the types of activities in which children were engaged, and which ones were most likely to promote vigorous physical activity. A total of 88 observational episodes (44 for girls, 44 for boys) were conducted across both London and Bradford sites. Dur-ing these observations, records of physical activity level (‘sedentary’, ‘walking’, or ‘vigorous’) were noted for 264 girls and 344 boys.

Overall, 44.1% of children coded in these observations were engaged in vigor-ous activity, 28.5% were in the walking/moderate category and 27.5% were in the sedentary category. Vigorous activity was markedly more frequent for boys (50.3%) compared to girls (36%). The proportion of children in each activity category by gender is shown in Figure 4 (percentages have been rounded to nearest whole number).

Figure 4. Relative popularity of usual activities for girls and boys

Girls

OBSERVATIONS


Boys

The different types of activity in which children were engaged during obser-vations are shown in Figure 5. Children were engaged in a variety of activities, with traditional playground games (e.g. tag), gymnastics and football being among the most popular options. However, activity in most of the observations fell into the ‘other’ category, reflecting the less traditionally ‘sports-like’ nature of the play-based activity in these settings. Field notes from the observations listed as ‘other’ show the breadth of different options on offer. One or two ac-tivities listed as ‘other’ were of a more sedentary nature, such as ‘sitting under gazebo’, or ‘using loomband’, while others were not. There were familiar sport related activities, such as ‘hula-hoop’, ‘skipping’, and ‘dodgeball’, while others were more unusual (e.g. ‘Log walking’, ‘painting large equipment’, ‘building a treehouse’).

Figure 5. Types of activities in which children/young people were engaged.


The final aspect of the evaluation comprised semi-structured interviews with staff and young people who had participated in the project.

Staff interviewsInterviews with staff were conducted at both settings. Each setting selected staff to be interviewed based on their involvement with the project. There were two male and four female interviewees. Experience of working in the playwork or youthwork sector ranged from 2-20+ years.

Interviews took place in a quiet, 1:1 setting, and were audio recorded then transcribed. Transcriptions were then analysed using a thematic approach. These themes are presented below, together with quotations from interviewees. To preserve anonymity in these small samples, quotations are not attributed, and particular characteristics of the respondents are not reported.

Four main themes emerged from the analysis of the transcripts: Challenges, Choices, Connections, and Changes. These will be discussed in turn.

Challenges

Staff identified some of the challenges the children and young people in their local area face regarding participation in physical activity and sports. The neighbourhood environment was raised as a concern,

“I mean you’ve only got to look around here to see that every space is gradually being taken. You’ve got a 10x10 and the next thing you know there’s a block of flats on it”

“There isn’t anywhere around here really to go. … Even the parks, there is no place they can go and play football.”

“… [there are] some play spaces for them out there but they are vandalised or things like that”

The reduction in available free space for play and activity was also viewed in a wider context of social and financial disadvantage:

“A lot of the football clubs you have to pay for around here, unless you went to one of the free sessions which is normally like once then you get a taster for it and then you have to pay and then they can’t afford it”

INTERVIEWS


“There isn’t any sports clubs around here. There isn’t anywhere around here really to go. There isn’t much, even after school club and stuff the parents have to pay. There isn’t anything for the less fortunate children to roll up and take part in.”

“It’s a very disadvantaged area and a lot of parents don’t work.”

Interviewees also emphasised challenges concerning habitual behaviour and attitudes towards physical activity and sports. As one playworker comments,

“there’s lots of ‘will you do it for me’, ‘I’m not very good at it’ there’s more of a feeling of ‘if I don’t get it right, or I can’t do it straight away I don’t want to’”

Some participants attributed this reluctance to issues surrounding confidence,

“There’s an element of if you’re not good at it, you’re on show, some kids don’t enjoy being the one to stand up and be looked at, other kids do really enjoy that – they’re probably the kids already in a football club or doing something at after school club”

While others emphasised the important role played by parents and expectations at home;

“At home they are used to playing [computer] games and not coming out as much.”

“They’re … coming home and seeing that their parents haven’t done much with their day … they will be just sat at home on the xbox”

Challenges relating specifically to the Adventure into Sport programme were also raised. Some of these were practical issues — the influence of the weather in the initial phases of implementation was raised by many

“At the start numbers weren’t that high. We were really unlucky with the weather.”

“The weather is never great. Sometimes we planned to do something the next day and then the weather would be shocking”

However, related to the more general attitudinal challenges mentioned above, there were also particular challenges around the involvement of girls:

“there hasn’t been a high girl involvement and if there is girls on site they don’t, they are more girls that are teenagers and they just want to sit, they just want to sit and talk to staff, or talk to their friends”

“Looking at ways we could promote physical stuff through to the girls as well. It was really hard.”


All participants were asked about the implementation of the Adventure into Sport programme and to identify the practices that they perceived to be particularly successful in overcoming some of the challenges they identified.

Choices

All interviewees placed a strong emphasis on the importance of being child-led and offering children choices in their play.

“Always give the children choices. I know quite a few children around here don’t like school cos they’re constantly being told what to do. Here they can come in and take ownership of the sessions and they get some responsibility.”

“you go to things like netball and you go to the after school club and it’s so structured and that is the big difference, because we are free flow, they are allowed to come and go as they want, they can do whatever they want. That’s what makes us different, we are totally child led”

Prioritising child choice, as well as being valued in its own right, was viewed as an important way to overcome some of the behavioural and attitudinal challenges encountered in these settings,

“When kids are playing there isn’t a right or wrong … You don’t have to be the best and the fastest, if you want to do it and have fun with it, great, and if you don’t just leave it, … having that affordance and freedom really set out to you helps. Taking away that pressure”

One playworker noted that being child led does not imply passivity on the part of playwork staff,

“It’s alright saying, ‘child led’ and that’s brilliant but you have to have someone down there going “come and have a go of this! If you don’t have a go of this you’ll never know!” That’s what we’re all about. We are about encouraging the kids to come along, encourage them to have a go.”

As well as verbal encouragement, playworkers discussed how the combination of free choices and the physical set up of the play space was used as an enticement for children to join in active play

“The children’d come in and we’d give them the freedom. We’d have some activities planned about the playground and they can come in and choose what they want to do. And it was the parkour/free running which was very popular”

This approach was also viewed as facilitative for children trying new activities for the first time:

“For kids to focus, and to own it, and feel like they want to do this then having a bit of time to get around what it’s for like, a few


kids have never seen a shuttlecock, so to work out why you hit a certain end and what you do with them, it was quite nice to have a bit of a free for all”

In addition, playworkers felt that the free choice approach supported children who needed to let off steam after school and who struggled

“Space to run around, after school there’s a real explosion, they do get in and run around and then maybe focus in and try one thing for a bit, like the badminton or different types of skipping, or football and target practice, lots of balls and throwing and catching.”

Connections

Alongside provision of choice, interviewees discussed the essential role that social factors played. This quotation from a playworker illustrates how sensitivity to peer opinions plus being unsure about a new activity can lead to reluctance to participate:

“after a while they joined in the skipping, and I think they wanted to wait until all their friends from school had gone past and they didn’t want to be the ones to be looked at because they hadn’t tried it yet … once they had tried it then it was ok”

The quotation also shows that with enough time and space the young people were able to join in and gain confidence. This sentiment was echoed by a playworker from a different setting:

“after a while you gain their confidence and once they have seen other people their age or someone that they know also doing it, they are more likely to just go and have a try.”

Also linked to the social aspects were the behaviours of the staff in creating positive role models. A sense of humour and willingness to join in were seen as important staff behaviours:

“If they see you taking part, even if you can’t do it they [the young people] will try. Sometimes it’s just making them laugh and if they’re having fun, having a laugh they are more likely to just go and give it a try.”

“staff get involved and join in with encouragement, someone will see that and say can I join in, can I do this and then that attracts the children. We’ve got 2 young playworkers at the minute doing apprenticeships and they’re attracting and engaging all the children and young people cos they’re running about with them constantly”

“We are about encouraging the kids to come along, encourage


them to have a go. They see me skipping “oh I can’t do that” “what do you mean you can’t skip? Get a rope and we’ll all have a go.” That’s how it starts. It’s all about monkey see monkey do.”

In addition to this, relationship building is highly valued,

“It’s about staff being approachable, they can listen to the children, have a nice friendly conversation, go up and introduce yourself and just see. It’s about building that relationship with the children”

“The staff keep some of the kids coming back, we get kids coming in and they’ve built up that much of relationship with some of the staff“

Changes

The final theme that came out of the qualitative analysis was about the ways in which children’s attitudes toward and participation in physical activity and sports changed. As the playworker cited here summarises, the skills and confidence gained in the Adventure into Sport settings stand children in good stead to participate in other contexts:

“to be able to go out with a football, you already need to be a bit confident and know some other kids … which is the play stuff”

Sometimes reported change in engagement took place over the course of a session:

“You’d be surprised at the amount of kids that can’t skip, and by the end of the sessions could skip. Those that couldn’t hit a bat and ball could actually play tennis by the time we finished, they could play badminton by the time we finished, or at least they got a sense of it, they knew how to hit a ball, they knew different rules to different games, rounders, cricket.”

Other playworkers reported seeing change over a longer time,

“Once they get started they can’t stop. We had a lot more kids joining in towards the end [of the 10 weeks] that wouldn’t necessarily join in at the beginning.”

Staff also reported changes in children’s confidence and social relationships once they had engaged in Adventure into Sport

“They do feel more confident, they feel like “oh I’ve done this now so I think I’ll do that.” It is lovely to see.”

“Confidence has been improved greatly in a lot of children, and I think socially it has brought together some children who wouldn’t normally play together and they’ve made friends, and that’s had a positive impact in them making friends, which is a massive part of life.”

The interviews with the staff shed light on the elements of high quality play provision that is engaging to young people who may not engaged with traditional sports offers. Adventure into Sport engages young people because


it offers a flexible range of activities that respect each young person’s right to choose how and when to participate.

A key learning point from this evaluation is therefore that the interpersonal and individualised aspects of skilled play provision a critical to the programme’s success.

Young person interviewsChildren and young people were interviewed with the aim of gaining an understanding of the project. Interviewees were selected by the participating sites. Interviews were carried out by Jenny Gibson (report author) with a member of staff from the setting present in the room. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for later analysis.

All young people interviewed were male: four 10-year-olds from Eccleshill, and one 17-year-old from PATHS. The 10-year-olds were interviewed as a group using some photographs of their play as visual aides to conversation.

Three main themes arose from the analysis: Activities, Attitudes, and Achievements. The themes are presented in turn below:

Trampoline!

Jumping tower – you jump off different stages and the higher you get, the more scared you get.

Zip wire would be my favourite.

Football, big swing I can jump off the thing and stand on it!

Big slide!

Dens, you get a saw, a hammer and a few nails and you get to build a den.

Monkey bars.

Climbing on the things, you can climb on stacks of wood.

Parkour. Parkour is like if there’s a table there, and a table there, and there’s a table in the middle you have to jump across ‘em with one leg. It’s scary because if you accidentally fall off you could die – or you could get up, pick yourself up and try again.

Survivor gets us moving. One or two people, sometimes three, have to count to 20 or 30 or any number, and the rest of us have to hide and if you don’t hide you can just run away from them if you get caught you have to go 1,2,3 survivor or ‘tig’ It involves lots of running because you have to run away from the people, … you can do Parkour in it too.

Yeah you can! You can jump from building to building.


Activities

The group of ten year-olds enthusiastically gave a list of what was on offer that helped them to get active:

It is clear from these quotations that the children enjoyed the sense of ad-venture and freedom to explore things that contain an element of risk. The 17-year-old was able to articulate what he felt differentiated the play-based approach from more traditionally organised activities:

“I used to play football a couple of years back and we used to do football training on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday and it was repetitive repetitive repetitive … I did eventually quit … when we were doing football here it was exciting, we had set things to do … running to a cone and kicking a ball into the net … and if you didn’t like it, you didn’t have to do it, it was fine, … you can go and do badminton until there was a [football] match, and then when the match came everyone would play then – you know you had the option, whereas at training you’ve got to keep running to a cone, coming back, go again”

Similarly, one of the 10 year -olds compared his adventure play experiences to other local activities,

“The youth club is a bit more like ‘sorted out’ when you come here you can do anything you want, just not anything like hurting people.”

There was also evidence that the younger children valued the adventure play activities for their affordance for imaginative play, drawing in elements from popular culture:

“… he’s doing his Spiderman moves, going up and down the big swing, going on monkey bars and getting on top of it.”

“What I like to do is mostly play on the pirate ship, I don’t know about you but I always wanted to be a pirate. I still love Pirates of the Caribbean”

Attitudes

Interviewees also talked about their attitudes and perceptions of the benefits of engaging in physically active play. They also remarked on how different play activities made them feel:


Physically

“It makes you stronger, healthier”

“It makes you fitter for when you are older you can have a good job which … like you can be a builder, you can be successful”

[I feel] “… marvellous. Because I know that I’ve had a good exer-cise – healthy”

Socially

“I feel like when I come to the big swing, I feel better about myself because I can meet more friends”

“The first couple of weeks everyone was a bit shy, but after the first couple of weeks the ice is broken, you bounce off each other’s banter and you’re messing around and you get to know each oth-er. The most important thing was making new friends. A couple of them I still talk to now, that I met here. I’m like oh how you doing, I’m alright, we get talking”

“Dodgeball, I enjoyed the most because it was competitive, friendly competitive everyone got to do it as well”

Emotionally

“If you’ve just done your SATs and you’ve just finished your last paper, you can come here and you’re feeling happy”

“If something bad happened to me, like I smashed my phone, If I come here then I feel better because it takes my mind off of what’s bad and then I run and play with my friends”

Achievement

Finally, young people were able to articulate how participation in activities, especially those with an element of risk, built up a sense of confidence and achievement:

“I feel like when, when, say you’ve achieved something and you’ve never done it before, you can finally say you’ve done it”

“When I first came here I was scared of the jumping tower, to jump off the top one, and I started to try it and I got better at it, now I can jump off of it”

“I was jumping off the jumping tower I tried doing a front flip and I did a front flip off the second to lowest stage and then I tried it on the highest and then I did it. My dad brought me and he were like, “come on [name of child] you can do it!” And then I finally did it!”


The present evaluation reported aimed to explore different aspects of the Adventure into Sport (AiS) programme. The first goal was to explore the success of AiS in improving children and young people’s participation in physically active play or sports activities. This aspect of the programme was highly successful. Adventure into Sport engaged many children and young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, exceeding its target by almost 1000 children.

Importantly, the AiS programme was successful not only in getting young people to attend the play provider settings but also in enabling them to participate in physical activity. The data from the SOPLAY observations demonstrate that a large number of children and young people were engaged in physically active play or in sports activities when participating in the programme. Moreover, based on the survey reports from parents and children the group of children engaged would not typically be engaged in these types of activities.

The second focus of the evaluation was change in attitude. Changes in attitudes towards physical activity and active play were brought up by both staff and children/young people during the interviews. Reported attitudes and changes in attitudes were universally positive. Most of the young people reported a growing sense of capability and personal achievement as a result of engaging in physical activity. This was seen as something that unfolded over time rather than an immediate effect. Longer term behavioural change was not quantified given the lack of robust follow-up data.

The factors influencing the engagement with the programme are evident from all three aspects of the evaluation. The preponderance of engagement with activities that were physically active yet not part of traditional sports (evidenced by the SOPLAY data) demonstrates that, at least for this group of children and young people, variety and novelty may be important factors in increasing PA engagement.

This was borne out by the comments made by the young people in the 1:1 interviews. Each of the 10-year-olds listed activities such as den building, Parkour, and survivor (a tag game) among their favourites, while the 17-year-old mentioned his favourite activity to be Dodgeball, a sport he’d never tried before. Perhaps related to this, interviewees mentioned cost as a significant barrier to participation in physically active or sports activities in the Adventure into Sport areas. The provision of the programme for free undoubtedly enabled the most economically disadvantaged young people to attend.

DISCUSSION


The observations and interviews clearly demonstrate that low engagement can be overcome with a combination of good resourcing (i.e. provision of high-quality activities) and skilled playwork intervention. A key influence on engagement was the skill of the staff in building relationships with children and young people and striking a balance between encouragement and respect for children’s individual choices. The way in which this was valued by the young people concerned was evident during the interviews.

The three themes emerging from the young people’s interviews illustrate the interviewees’ perspectives on the core of the successful engagement strategies used in the Adventure into Sport Programme. Once engaged into the programme the young people are quick to appreciate the choices available to them and the benefits of becoming more physically active in this type of setting. Although issues with the data meant that we could not directly assess individual progress, building these foundations of confidence and intrinsic motivation to engage in sports and physical activity is an essential step in encouraging sustained changes in attitude towards sports and PA.

The comments from the young people as well as from the adult interviewees give insight into the reasons why the levels of engagement significantly exceeded initial expectations. Put simply, the play settings are providing high-quality social and physical environments that offer enticing invitations for young people to engage in physically active play and succeed at their own level.

A more challenging observation is that although there was good evidence of both boys and girls engaging in vigorous physical activity, the proportion of boys doing so was consistently higher than for girls. No girls contributed to the evaluation interviews, meaning that this result cannot be further explored in the present study. This observation of girls showing less engagement with physical activity than do boys is consistent with other studies and evaluations in the literature. However, that more than one third of girls were engaged in vigorous physical activity, and also that this was the most frequently observed activity category for girls, is an important achievement in its own right.


Adventure into Sport is an innovative programme that successfully engages hard-to-reach populations of children and young people in physically active play and sports. The programme also has positive influences on young people’s attitudes towards physical activity and its physical, social and emotional benefits. A number of factors have contributed to its success, such as the provision of free sessions, the inclusion of a variety of activities, the skill and experience of playworkers in facilitating engagement at each child’s own pace, and the building of positive relationships between the children and young people, as well as between the children and young people and staff.

CONCLUSIONS


The Adventure into Sport programme appears promising in its ability to engage hard-to-reach young people in physical activity and sports through play. Recommendations for the next steps are as follows:

l The approaches used in Adventure into Sport may be unfamiliar to organisations promoting healthy lifestyles and physical activity. A communication and dissemination strategy could be used to share the successful engagement approaches used in this programme.

l A feasibility study would be a useful next step to explore issues of taking the pilot programme to scale and to refine the theory of change/logic model underpinning the programme.

l The programme delivery period should be extended to include a longer lead-in, allowing time to build up key community relationships, especially with parents.

l As implementation varied considerably between the two pilot sites, a scoping workshop could be useful to develop a shared view of the core principles of the programme.

l Strategies to address the relatively low participation of girls, both in the programme and in the evaluation, should be developed, preferably in consultation with girls and young women themselves.

l The inclusion of individuals from different ethnic groups and also of individuals with disabilities was not raised in the current evaluation. Future work should consider inclusion and diversity issues.

l The challenging nature of successfully implementing quantitative outcome indicators in complex settings should be recognised and costed in future programmes. Co-design of all types of outcome indicators, as well as co-development of plans for their implementation should be considered. This is more likely to be successful if implemented at a workshop, rather than by email.

l Future programme provision should include time and costs for staff to come together across the programme’s geographical areas, to attend training and to share good practice in issues such as engagement of parents, improving participation by girls, monitoring progress, and collecting data.

RECOMMENDATIONS


Dobbins, M., Husson, H., DeCorby, K., & LaRocca, R. L. (2013). School-based physical activity programs for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2, CD007651. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007651.pub2

Engelen, L., Bundy, A., Naughton, G., Simpson, J. M., Bauman, A., Ragen, J., … van der Ploeg, H. P. (2013). Increasing physical activity in young primary school children it’s child’s play: A cluster randomised controlled trial. Preventive Medicine, 56(5), 319–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.02.007

Gray, C., Gibbons, R., Larouche, R., Sandseter, E. B. H., Bienenstock, A., Brussoni, M., … Tremblay, M. S. (2015). What is the relationship between outdoor time and physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and physical fitness in children? A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606455

Health Survey for England (2012). Physical activity and fitness. London: The Stationery Office.

McKenzie, T. L., Marshall, S. J., Sallis, J. F., & Conway, T. L. (2000). Leisure-Time Physical Activity in School Environments: An Observational Study Using SOPLAY. Preventive Medicine, 30(1), 70–77. https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1999.0591

McKenzie, T. L., Sallis, J. F., Nader, P. R., Patterson, T. L., Elder, J. P., Berry, C. C., … Nelson, J. A. (1991). BEACHES: an observational system for assessing children’s eating and physical activity behaviors and associated events. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1991.24-141

Richards, G., & Smith, A. P. (2015). Risk factors for, and effects of, stress, anxiety, and depression in adolescents. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 10(4), 1-10. doi:10.9734/BJESBS/2015/19501

Richards, G., & Smith, A. P. (2016). Demographic and lifestyle correlates of school attendance, English and maths attainment, and behavioural sanctions in British secondary school children. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 17(1), 1-15. doi:10.9734/BJESBS/2016/26393

REFERENCES


Ridgers, N. D., Carter, L. M., Stratton, G., & McKenzie, T. L. (2011). Examining children’s physical activity and play behaviors during school playtime over time. Health Education Research, 26(4), 586–595. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyr014

Saint-Maurice, P. F., Welk, G. J., Silva, P., Siahpush, M., Huberty, J., Saint-Maurice F., P., … Huberty, J. (2011). Assessing children’s physical activity behaviors at recess: a multi-method approach. Pediatric Exercise Science. https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.23.4.585

World Health Organization. (2017). Obesity and Overweight factsheet. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ (accessed 13 November, 2017).


The evaluation for the Adventure into Sport programme did not proceed as initially planned. In the initial conception, the questionnaire was planned to be completed at baseline and again at follow-up by the same 300 children. Furthermore, we had planned to follow-up a sample of parents too. The questionnaire was intended as an outcome indicator, and having the ‘before’ and ‘after’ samples was intended to enable the study of changes in individual behaviour and attitudes. However, in practice the questionnaire was not distributed in this way and the follow-up aspect of the evaluation could not be completed as planned. The evaluation plan was therefore adapted to suit the data that were available, and some interviews and reflections on the evaluation process were conducted.

A number of complicating factors were identified that had not been initially recognised as potential difficulties for the evaluation plan. Firstly, participants in the Adventure into Sport programme were not all completely new attendees in the delivery settings. This meant that the baseline questionnaire data could potentially contain a mixture of complete novices alongside children very familiar with adventure play activities. Some children completed the questionnaire after one or two weeks’ attendance, adding further complications for treating the baseline questionnaires as a single set. Furthermore, no consistent means of uniquely identifying which children had completed questionnaires was implemented; this made individual follow-up and the planned statistical analyses impossible. Another factor was that, due to the free-flowing nature of the settings, some children did not complete the full 10 weeks and were therefore missed out on being invited to complete the follow-up questionnaire.

In addition some challenges were encountered in engaging parents. Many parents were happy for their children to take part in the programme but did not provide the necessary consent form for the children to participate in the evaluation. Some parents were slow to return the consent, and this impacted on the point at which the ‘baseline’ questionnaires were given to children and young people, meaning a ‘true’ baseline was not always established. Staff also had considerable difficulty in engaging parents to complete the parental questionnaire. A sample of parent data was collected at baseline only, thus it was impossible to measure changes in parental attitudes or behaviours over the course of the programme. It is also likely that this sample represents only those parents who thought the project to be important.

APPENDIX

Reflections on the evaluation process


On reflection many reasons for the difficulties were identified. Many staff at the settings felt that the questionnaires were too long (12 questions for parents, 25 for children) and should have been simpler yes/no questions rather than Likert-type scales. Another factor was that the need to deliver the outdoor play activities in the summer at the start of the project meant that it was not possible to build relationships with parents before the programme started. Consequently, parents and carers were reluctant to complete questionnaires. In some cases this was due to concerns they would be judged. In others it was due to a general wariness of giving information.

It is clear from discussions and reflections between researchers and staff that everyone involved considers evaluation important but had not quite realised the impact of some of the difficulties of data collection on the competition of this aspect of the evaluation.

More positively, we felt we could learn from aspects of the evaluation that did go well. The SOPLAY observation was implemented successfully by relatively inexperienced staff because of engagement in a planning and training workshop that took place before the programme. In contrast, the questionnaire had been planned and approved by email, and the implementation turned out to be much weaker. Training and discussion of the practicalities of outcome measurement will therefore be a high priority in future work.


Play England

Play England is the national charity for children’s play. We campaign nationally for children’s right to play and provide guidance for thousands of play providers: adventure playgrounds, after-school clubs, parks departments, parents, volunteers and schools.

www.playengland.net

‘The Big Swing’ - Eccleshill Adventure Playground

Eccleshill Adventure Playground is a registered charity based in the Ravenscliffe area of Bradford. It is an adventure playground for five to 16 year olds, open five days a week, free of charge. It works closely with disadvantaged children including children from BAME communities, disa-bled children and children from low income and single parent families.

http://www.thebigswing.org/

Play Association Tower Hamlets

Play Association Tower Hamlets (PATH) is a charity that provides play opportunities to children and young people across the borough. Their trained play rangers deliver outdoor play sessions, working closely with local communities to ensure children and young people can play on their housing estates, close to their homes, supported by the community. Over 16 years, the charity has built up close links with the local authority, housing and residents associations, working hard to ensure that play is firmly at the heart of community life in Tower Hamlets.

http://www.playtowerhamlets.org.uk/

PEDAL, Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning, University of Cambridge

PEDAL was launched in October 2015. Its mission is to conduct academic research into the role of play in young children’s education, development and learning to inform wider practice and policy.

https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/pedal/

PARTNERS

Play Englandc/o Homerton Grove Adventure Playground

Wardle StreetLondonE9 6BX

[email protected]

@PlayEngland

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