Sport England has confirmed that it will replace its Active People Survey with a revised participation measure as it seeks to “renew the sector’s confidence” in the data it uses.

The widely expected overhaul was outlined today (18 May) in Sport England’s new strategy, which seeks to deliver against the five health, social and economic outcomes set out in the government’s Sporting Future strategy released in December.

From the end of 2016, the much-maligned Active People Survey will be replaced with the Active Lives Survey, which aims to move away from a focus on how many people are playing one sport at a particular time, to understanding how active people are overall.

The new survey will also look at ways of evaluating the broader outcomes of sport, especially mental wellbeing, individual development and social and community development in a move designed to strengthen the case for continued public investment in sport.

Speaking to Sports Management ahead of the report’s publication, Sport England CEO Jennie Price said the new method will give a broader picture of activity patterns and will also become a more efficient way to gather diverse data.

“Instead of a 28-day snapshot of what people do, it looks across a whole 12-month period and asks people questions about their activity in the last year,” said Price.

“This gives a much clearer overview of the patterns around activity and helps us to see how different sports work together, what they do at different times and different seasons.”

The new survey will use a ‘postal to web’ system, with respondents contacted first by post and then asked to fill out a survey online to deliver a “more balanced sample of respondents” and “ensure accurate geographic coverage”.

Read more on the Sport England strategy

• NGB funding system overhauled by Sport England
• Hundreds of millions invested in location-based Sport England pilot
• Sport England readies £250m war chest to tackle inactivity epidemic
• Small local facilities to benefit from increased Sport England support
• Sport England funding: the seven new investment programmes