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"This is a summary of the key findings that have so far emerged from our evaluation of the UK-wide New opportunities in PE and sport (NOPES) initiative.
Overall, excellent progress has been made. NOPES has the ability to not only achieve its own programme aims but to provide the facility 'jigsaw piece' which enables schools to implement other national programmes.
In England, the main findings are as follows.
Before the NOPES facility, 46 per cent of pupils took part in two hours of PE and school sport in a typical week. Each school worked in partnership with an average of eight primary schools and six sports clubs. Some projects planned to target specific groups of young people, most often girls and gifted and talented pupils.
In the first six months of opening, there has been a dramatic impact on both the quality and quantity of PE offered, as well as an increase in the provision of extracurricular activities. That said, operational concerns have taken priority over more strategic aims of community impact and wider social outcomes.
In Scotland, findings from the baseline survey to the activities projects show the following.
Of those activities projects that returned the survey, most are developing either Out of school hours activities (OHSA) (49 per cent), or Active steps projects (31 per cent) that aim to divert young people from crime, with only a minority trying to do both (19 per cent).
84 per cent are managed by the local authority, 11 per cent by the voluntary sector and just over two per cent by the private sector.
All Active steps projects and 61 per cent of OSHA projects are targeting their provision at specific groups of young people.
91 per cent of Active steps projects work with pupils in Secondary one-four age group – the age group most at risk of engaging in criminal behaviour or truancy and of being excluded from school.
Many projects found monitoring and evaluation to be a challenge."
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