The Potential of Existing Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Surveys to Support the Commonwealth Games 2014 Legacy Evaluation

1. INTRODUCTION

Background

1.1 Glasgow will be hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games between 23 July and 3 August 2014. The Games will be the biggest multi-sports event that Scotland has ever hosted, with an expected cost of over £500 million. This event will shine a spotlight on Scotland not only as a venue for hosting major sporting occasions, but more broadly as a place to live, work and visit.

1.2 The 2014 Games will also provide an opportunity to promote longer term positive benefits, or 'legacy', in both Glasgow and Scotland as a whole. The Scotland-wide Games legacy plan 'A Games Legacy for Scotland'^[1] was launched in September 2009 and sets out the legacy ambitions of the Scottish Government and its wide range of partners. These ambitions centre around four themes:

• Flourishing - contributing to the growth of the Scottish economy.
• Active - encouraging Scots be more physically active
• Connected - strengthening connections at home and internationally through culture and learning
• Sustainable - demonstrating environmental responsibility and helping communities live more sustainably

1.3 The Government has embarked on a programme of research and evaluation activities to enable an assessment of the Games legacy in respect of the four themes. The Games Legacy Evaluation Working Group (GLEWG) was established in 2012 to design and deliver this body of work. In October 2012, the group produced Report 1: Questions, Methods and Baseline^[2], which sets out its broad approach to the Glasgow 2014 legacy evaluation, the research questions that will be addressed and the range of methods to be used.

1.4 GLEWG has designed a programme of research with 6 key legacy evaluation components. The first component, Tracking Outcome Indicators, is concerned with creating a set of outcome indicators that will be tracked from a 2008 baseline to 2019 across the four national themes.

1.5 Some indicators and baseline are presented in Report 1. These have been drawn from: statistical data, survey data and indices.

1.6 The key survey datasets used as sources of outcome indicators include: the Scottish Health Survey^[3]; the Scottish Household Survey^[4]; and GoWell^[5].

1.7 Under the second component of the legacy evaluation, Secondary analysis, the working group identified the need for a piece of work assessing the potential of existing cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys, other than those already mentioned in Report 1, to answer some of the key research questions^[6], namely:

• Has there been a change in sport participation and physical activity?
  • Are sustained changes in physical activity and sports participation evident among particular groups?
  • Is there evidence for a 'demonstration effect' among those already, or recently, physically active?
  • Is there evidence of a 'festival effect' among those who are currently sedentary?
• What effect has the Games had on volunteering?
  • Have legacy investments and programmes which aim to support people into volunteering contributed to change?
• Has there been a change in cultural engagement?
  • Are sustained changes in cultural engagement evident among particular groups?
• Has there been a change in civic pride?
  • Has there been a change in civic pride among particular groups?

1.8 Ipsos MORI was commissioned to conduct a 'Data Review in support of the Commonwealth Games Legacy Evaluation' in order to meet this priority. This report outlines the findings from the data review.

Research Objectives

1.9 The main objectives of the data review were to:

• establish which UK and Scottish surveys can address the research questions set out in the evaluation of the Commonwealth Games 2014 Legacy;
• describe and present the data within these surveys which is currently available, that will help address research questions on Games legacy;
• identify additional future survey questions that would help address the research questions, specify on which survey they would be best placed, and explore the feasibility of having them included in future survey waves^[7].

Structure of the report

1.10 Chapter 2 begins with an outline of the methodology used to identify the different data sources used in the review, before discussing the relative merits of cross-sectional and longitudinal data.

1.11 Chapters 3-6 cover the analysis conducted in relation to the four main legacy areas on which this research is focused, namely sport and physical activity, cultural engagement, volunteering and civic pride. It then provides a discussion of the current evidence base before drawing conclusions.

1.12 Finally, chapter 7 provides the overall conclusions of the review and recommendations drawn from the analysis.

Presentation and interpretation of the data

1.13 Where percentages do not sum to 100%, this is due to computer rounding, the exclusion of 'don't know' categories or multiple answers. Throughout the report, an asterisk (*) denotes any value of less than half a percent and a dash (-) denotes zero.

1.14 All tables have a numerical base showing the population or population sub-group examined in it. While all results have been calculated using weighted data, the bases shown give the unweighted counts. It should therefore be noted that the results and bases presented cannot be used to calculate how many respondents gave a certain answer. When base sizes are small, please interpret with caution.