When considering taking on a community asset or providing a new activity, it’s important to understand the need and demand in the area.
Your review of the local authority strategic priorities (covered in section 2F) should help you to identify the facilities that are already available and the demand for certain sports or activities in your local area.
And your community engagement efforts (covered in Section 2B) should provide you with important feedback and insight on your proposals and highlight the potential interest in any new or enhanced assets, activities, or services that you’re considering.
Reviewing and collating this information will help you provide the evidence and need for your project. It will also help you to understand any competition or highlight any gaps in local service or facility provision.
To further enhance your evidence base and demonstrate the impact of your project, you can access a range of publicly available data and tools, including:
- Active Lives Survey. Collects data on the engagement in and attitudes towards sports and physical activity.
- Active Places Power. Provides a database of facilities to help users understand what’s available in a local area.
- Local health profiles. Provides an overview of health for each local authority, highlighting issues that need to be addressed.
- National governing body or county associations. Data is usually available for specific sports within strategies, impact or progress reports and specific data sets.