Change4Life Sports Clubs research 2016 - part one report

Change4Life Sports Clubs are funded by the Department of Health and managed by the Youth Sport Trust (YST). The clubs were introduced into primary schools in 2011/12 and aim to increase the physical activity, health and wellbeing of less active 7-9 year olds through the provision of fun multi-sport themes and healthy lifestyle activities. The success of the clubs has resulted in additional funding to expand the programme as a central part of a broader healthy lifestyle offer in schools. This is supported by the development of a hub of expertise focused in the areas of greatest health inequalities (priority areas) to support and share effective practice among schools and local authority Health and Wellbeing boards.

In 2015, spear produced a Lifetime Impact Evaluation of the Change4Life Sports Clubs (2011-2015). The evaluation incorporated a controlled experimental evaluation at the forefront of research in the social sciences and NESTA rated 4-5. Data from over 7,500 children in more than 500 clubs showed that Change4Life Sports Clubs have a significant, positive impact on the activity levels, health behaviours and wellbeing of participating children. The Lifetime Evaluation Report included a number of recommendations for enhancing and building upon the evidence base for the programme. These recommendations included assessing the effectiveness of programme infrastructure in the sustainability of the clubs, assessing programme alignment with public health priorities and exploring the possibility of an economic assessment of the impact of the programme.

The Change4Life Sports Clubs Research 2016 has three key objectives:

1. Demonstrate the wider impact of the Change4Life Sports Clubs
2. Assess the value for money and return on investment of the
Change4Life Sports Clubs
3. Capture good practice for embedding and sustaining the
programme (locally and nationally)

This Part 1 Report examines the evidence of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs (objective 1), explored and presented in 5 main sections:
1.Evaluation of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs
on healthy lifestyles
2.Evaluation of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs
on behaviour and engagement
3.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs are being
embedded and sustained in schools
4.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs programme
supports whole school agenda
5.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs programme
supports public health priorities

The final section of this report presents 6 area profiles to provide a geographical context to the wider impact of the Change4Life Sports Clubs.