Does the UK sport delivery system's approach to sport provision influence individuals’ sport participation and their outcomes differently? A case study of a County Sport Partnership in England

There is a lack of knowledge on how alternative forms of sports facility provision influences end user's sports and physical activity behaviour, and the consequent impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis has undertaken a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system. It examines if strategic priorities and objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities, that are being influenced by macro level forces, along with their characteristics and ownership, influences individuals sport participation behaviour with a potential consequent impact on the policy outcomes of health, well-being and social capital. In the UK recently, sport policy objectives have focussed on increasing the population s participation in sport and physical activity to enhance a range of outcomes including health, well-being and social capital. Over the last three decades, there has also been significant changes in sport provision with the growth of private sector facilities, and public sector facilities being outsourced to private management. However, there is no evidence of the effectiveness of these alternative arrangements in delivering the policy objectives. There is limited knowledge on how different agents and actors in the sport delivery system function collectively to achieve these objectives or not, and a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system i.e., from policy, through facilities, to end users does not exist. This gap in knowledge is addressed in this thesis through the adoption of a mixed methods case study of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport-County Sport Partnership (LRS-CSP) region in the midlands of England. The sport participation of individuals who use differently owned and managed sport and fitness facilities in the LRS-CSP region is examined, and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital, from macro level (policy), meso level (facilities), and micro level (end users) perspectives. Data collected at these levels involves, semi-structured interviews with the regional managers (macro level) who are responsible for the development and provision of sport in the region, a quantitative survey involving the facility managers (meso level) who are responsible for the day-to-day activities of the facilities, and quantitative survey and focus groups of end users in the region (micro level). Surveys done at the meso and the micro level are matched to the facilities of a variety of different ownership and characteristics to explore the influence this might have on individuals participation frequency and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. The results show that government and public sport agencies priorities towards the sports sector which operate at the macro level of the sport delivery system influence the strategic objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities that are responsible for sport provision at the meso level of the sport delivery system. Public sport agencies and government bodies through their policies seem to have a significant influence over public sector including LMC facilities strategic decision making. However, this is not the case for the private sector facilities. Neither the strategic objectives of facilities nor their ownership and characteristics are shown to have a significant difference on the users sport participation behaviour, nor on the sport policy outcomes of their health, well-being and social capital. The largest influence on sport participation seems to be when individuals engage in sport with those they meet at the facility, indicating that facilitation of the co-creation of social capital among individuals could play a bigger role in increasing participation levels. Along with this, results also show that sport participation has a direct positive influence on individuals health which then enhances their well-being and social capital. This thesis contributes towards the long-standing debate about the relative value of different ownership types that span the public, private, and LMCs and their relationship with performance . The findings of the thesis suggest that, providing general availability of space for sport and fitness activities and by facilitating a network of opportunities with others and across activities is important in achieving the policy outcomes of improved participation and the consequent positive impact this has on health, well-being and social capital, and should be given priority in sport provision

Sport participation: From policy, through facilities, to users’ health, well-being, and social capital

Sport delivery systems, aimed at facilitating sports participation, represent an inter-institutional, cross-sector collaboration. Researchers focusing on the impact of different levels of sport provision from policy, through facilities, to end users remains limited. The authors address this gap in knowledge through a mixed-methods approach to examine sport participation from the perspective of the whole delivery system. Specifically, focusing on a County Sport Partnership region in the UK, the authors examine sport participation from the policy (macro), facility (meso), and end user (micro) levels. Regional heads responsible for sport development and delivery participated in semi-structured interviews, facility-level managers completed a survey, and end-users across public, private, and outsourced facilities participated in focus groups. Results show a clear divergence between the sport policy goals across the private and public sectors, with significant differences observed between facility types on their social and commercial objectives and their prioritized stakeholder groups. The divergence has little impact on user participation or expression of health, wellbeing, and social capital, offering new evidence on the role of neoliberalism in sport delivery systems

Does sport and fitness facility ownership matter? The impact on sport participation and citizens’ health, well-being and social capital in England [Abstract]

Does sport and fitness facility ownership matter? The impact on sport participation and citizens’ health, well-being and social capital in England [Abstract

Means as well as ends: some critical insights for UK sport policy on the impact of facility ownership and configuration on sports participation

The effectiveness of sports facility provision in increasing participation is debated internationally. The impact will be mediated by the sport delivery system, the welfare system within which sports policy might operate and the culture of sport. Change in the political persuasion of recent UK governments has followed a broadly consistent neoliberal policy direction of moving from big government and public ownership, to outsourcing and governance through networks. The intended aim: to more effectively achieve policy objectives, such as subjective well-being (SWB), health and social capital. A case study of participation in sport and fitness activities in a County Sports Partnership (CSP) in England is presented to examine if different ownership types and configuration of facilities that have emerged as a result of the policy direction, has influenced participation and policy targets. Regression results reveal that the ownership and configuration of facilities has no effect on the duration of activity and consequently no impact on policy outcomes. The largest influence on participation occurs in using facilities with others that were previously met there. The results also suggest that participation in facilities combined with other sport and physical activity can have an impact on health and social capital, and indirectly SWB. These insights are strongly indicative of the co-creation and interconnectedness of participation and suggest that policy should focus on network development more than specific forms of ownership and provision in seeking to achieve policy objectives. The research casts new critical light on the role of neoliberalism in sports policy

Mental health and satisfaction with partners: a longitudinal analysis in the UK

Background: Current UK health policy stresses treating health as an asset to underpin and promote a more inclusive and productive society. The quality of personal relationships is essential for overall quality of life. The social determinants of health (SDH) literature shows that poor mental health and well-being are linked to weaker personal and social connections for individuals, families, and society. The causal impact that mental health has on satisfaction with partners is less understood but requires investigation. Methods: The causal relationship between mental health and satisfaction with partners is examined drawing on the United Kingdom’s British Household Panel Survey from 1991 to 2008. A total sample of 9,024 individuals in dyadic couples comprising 42,464 observations was analysed using fixed-effects and instrumental variable fixed-effects panel data estimation. Results: Lower mental health is associated with a lower satisfaction with partners. However, some causal evidence of lower mental health reducing satisfaction with partners is present for males. Discussion: For females, relationship satisfaction is more likely to influence mental health. For males there is a potential ‘vicious circle’ between satisfaction with partners and mental health. Conclusions: Investment in mental health provision can improve satisfaction with partners which in turn will further enhance health and well-being.</p

Clinical Characterization of the study population.

<p>Data represented as mean±SD.</p

Combined effect of increasing number of risk alleles from STRA6 (rs736118), RBP4 (rs3758539) and GLUT4 (rs5435).

<p>A. risk allele distribution in subjects with and without type 2 diabetes. B. percentage prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the study population with increasing number of risk alleles. C, D, E and F. Association analysis of BMI, fasting blood glucose, HBA1C and age at onset of diabetes with increasing number of risk alleles.</p

Association analysis of selected SNPs in <i>STRA6</i>, <i>RBP4</i> and <i>GLUT4</i> with type 2 diabetes.

<p>MAF- minor allele frequency, OR- ODD's ratio. <i>P</i>- P value calculated by Chi Squared test for difference in allele frequency between cases and controls. * - P value after Bonferroni correction, <i>P</i>(add) – P value obtained by logistic regression after adjustment for age, sex and BMI using an additive model. <i>P</i> values showing significant association have been indicated in bold. NS- Not significant.</p

Haplotype analysis of selected SNPs in <i>RBP4.</i>

<p>Haplotype frequencies were compared using Chi squared test. Haplotypes are defined by selected SNPs in <i>RBP4</i> in the following order – rs3758538, rs3758539, rs36014035 and rs34571439. * P values after Bonferroni correction. NS- not significant, 1-major allele, 2- minor allele.</p

Summary of selected SNPs.

<p>MAF – minor allele frequency in the whole study group. HWE – Hardy Weinberg Equillibrium. SNPs were selected from dbSNP, NCBI based on their position in the gene, minor allele frequency or previous studies. Hardy Weinberg test was done using the Pearson's goodness of fit test and a P value <0.05 was considered to show significant deviation of the observed genotypes from Hardy-Weinberg proportions.</p