First Sporting Future results due in early 2017

The initial impact of the government's sport strategy on levels of engagement in sport and physical activity will be revealed in the document’s first annual report in early 2017.

Published in December last year, Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation set a number of desired targets around physical and mental wellbeing, social and economic development, as well as an increase in overall participation.

While a number of data collection methods will be used to measure certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – such as Sport England’s Active Lives Survey gauging participation and the number of volunteers in physical activity – the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will publish a yearly overarching report of the progress made, starting in early 2017.

In its Single Departmental Plan: 2015 to 2020, DCMS states: “New data collection is in place to measure engagement in sport. It is expected that the first results will be available in early 2017.”

Sporting Future set 23 KPIs, which ranged from a boost in overall participation and increases in children’s physical literacy, to average attendance levels at domestic sporting events. Progress against all of the KPIs will be present in the annual report.

The strategy detailed five headline outcomes that it wanted to achieve: improved physical wellbeing; improved mental wellbeing; individual development; social and community development; and economic development.

While Sporting Future produced no concrete targets to aim for, and several of the headline outcomes had loosely defined targets – e.g. “increased levels of social trust” in social and community development – the report published early next year is expected to produce some progress report on each.

In terms of elite sport, the Single Departmental Plan: 2015 to 2020 revealed that the DCMS is “developing a measure of UK and home nation performance” in world, European and Commonwealth competitions to “measure success in elite sport”.