Accredited official statistics

Annexes - Taking Part Survey 2019/20

Published 16 September 2020

Applies to England

1. Annex A

1. The Taking Part survey is commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its partner Arm’s Length Bodies. For 2011 to 2020, these are Arts Council England, Historic England and Sport England.
2. The fieldwork for the Taking Part survey has been conducted by Ipsos Mori and NatCen Social Research since 2016/17. Between 2005/06 to 2015/16 the fieldwork was conducted by TNS-BMRB.
3. The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. National Statistics status means that our statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value, and it is our responsibility to maintain compliance with these standards.
4. The continued designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in February 2013 following a compliance check here by the Office for Statistics Regulation. Since this assessment we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements: i) Continued review of survey content and format of outputs to enhance user experience. For further details see the survey technical reports. ii) Removal of the longitudinal sample from the cross-sectional data as detailed in the 5 year strategyto ensure data collection procedures are tailored to their purpose.
5. Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics, it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.
6. Stringent quality assurance procedures have been adopted for this statistical release. All data and analysis has been checked and verified by at least two different members of the DCMS team and NatCen Social Research.
7. Guidance on the quality that is expected of Taking Part statistical releases is provided in a quality indicators document. These quality indicators outline how statistics from the Taking Part survey match up to the six dimensions of quality defined by the European Statistical System (ESS) (version 1). These are: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, comparability and coherence.
8. The Taking Part survey measures participation by adults (aged 16 and over) and children (aged 5-10 and 11-15) living in private households in England. No geographical restriction is placed on where the activity or event occurred. Further information on data for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can be found in question 2 of the “Taking Part: Guidance Note”.
9. Sample sizes for each year and data breakdown can be found in the accompanying tables.
10. All estimates have been rounded to one decimal place in the data tables, and to the nearest whole number in the report.
11. Changes over time and differences between groups are only reported on where they are statistically significant at the 95% level. This means that we can be confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents are reflective of differences present in the population. Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 95 times out of 100 we would get similar findings. When sample sizes are smaller we can be less confident in our estimates so differences need to be greater to be considered statistically significant.
12. The upper and lower bounds presented in this report have been calculated using a 95% confidence interval. This means that had the sample been conducted 100 times, creating 100 confidence intervals, then 95 of these intervals would contain the true value. When the sample size is smaller, as is the case for certain groups and in certain years, the confidence intervals are wider as we can be less certain that the individuals in the sample are representative of the population. This means that it is more difficult to draw inferences from the results.
13. The data are weighted to ensure representativeness of the Taking Part sample. There are two types of weighting: to compensate for unequal probabilities of selection, to adjust for non-response.
14. Weighting is based on mid-2018 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
15. For more information about the Taking Part survey and to access previous publications and the questionnaires, see the Taking Part survey webpages.
16. The responsible statistician for this release is Harry Smart. For enquiries on this release, please contact [email protected].
17. To be kept informed about Taking Part publications and user events, please sign up to the Taking Part online newsletter here. You can follow us on Twitter @DCMSInsight.

2. Annex B

Term	Definitions
2019/20	This is the time period covering April 2019 to March 2020. In this release, this refers to the date that the interviews were conducted. The activities reported on took place in the year prior to interview.
Arts	A list of activities that are classified as engagement with the arts is given in Annex C.
Confidence interval	A confidence interval provides a range within which there is a specific probability that the true value for the population will fall. For the Taking Part survey, 95% confidence intervals are used which means, had the sampling been conducted 100 times, creating 100 confidence intervals, then 95 of these intervals would contain the true value for children in England.
Engagement	This refers to either attending and/or participating in the culture or arts sector, for example, going to a carnival or playing a musical instrument.
Heritage	A list of activities that are classified as engagement with heritage is given in Annex C.
Significant increase/decrease	A significant increase/decrease at the 95% level means that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 95 times out of 100 we would observe the increase/decrease.
Visiting a library	The list of activities that are classified as visiting a library are given in Annex C.

3. Annex C

3.1 Arts

The respondent was asked whether they (11-15) / their child (5-10) has engaged in any of the arts activities from a given list, including any helping out or volunteering. Eligible activities were as follows:

3.2 Dance activities

• Taken part in a dance club
• Taken part in a dance performance
• Created a new dance routine
• Attended a dance event
• Taken part in a dance lesson
• Do not include: Danced at a disco or party

3.3 Music activities

• Sang to an audience or rehearsed for a performance
• Practiced and rehearsed a musical instrument
• Played a musical instrument to an audience
• Written music (includes writing lyrics or music)
• Attended a live music event
• Taken part in a music lesson

3.4 Theatre and drama activities

• Rehearsed or performed in a play/drama or drama club
• Taken part in a drama lesson
• Attended theatre performances such as plays, pantomime, opera, musicals, comedy

3.5 Reading and writing activities

• Written stories, plays or poetry (include adults helping/writing on behalf of child for 5-10)
• Read books for pleasure
• Taken part in a reading club (where people meet up to discuss and share books)
• Listened to authors talk about their work
• Taken part in an English Literature lesson
• Do not include: Reading textbooks which are required for school (except those required for English Literature lessons)

3.6 Arts, crafts and design

• Painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture or model making
• Photography as an artistic activity
• Crafts such as pottery or jewellery making, woodwork, metal work
• Attended exhibition of arts, photography or other craft work
• Taken part in an arts, crafts, design or photography lesson

3.7 Film and video activities

• Made or appeared in films or videos for artistic purposes
• Watched and discussed film or videos in a lesson or film society (to know more about how films are made as well as the stories they tell)
• Attended the cinema or an outdoor film screening
• Do not include: Watching films on television, DVD or the internet or talking about films with family and friends

3.8 Other media activities (5-10 only)

• Computer-based activities such as: made, revised or wrote their own blog, website or podcast; made or revised their own computer game; used a computer to create original artworks or animation
• Radio activities such as: made radio broadcasts or programmes
• Do not include: Playing computer games, Surfing the internet, listening to the radio

3.9 Computer-based activities (11-15 only)

• Made, revised or wrote your own blog, website or podcast
• Made or revised your own computer game
• Used a computer to create original artworks or animation
• Do not include: Playing computer games; Surfing the internet

3.10 Radio activities (11-15 only)

• Made radio broadcasts or programmes
• Do not include: Listening to the radio

3.11 Street arts, circus, carnival or festival activities

Taken part in or been to any of the following:

• Street arts (art in everyday surroundings like parks, streets or shopping centres)
• Outdoor sculptures and art works
• Circus
• Carnival
• Festivals

3.12 Heritage

The respondent was asked whether they (11-15) / their child (5-10) had done any of the following, including any helping out or volunteering:

• Visited a historic building, garden or landscape open to the public
• Visited historical monuments or sites of archaeological interest
• Visited a city or town with historic character
• Visited important modern buildings or public spaces

3.13 Libraries

The respondent was asked whether they (11-15) / their child (5-10) had visited a library to do activities such as the ones on the show card. The interviewer asked the following.

“By this we mean visiting a library to do activities like the ones on this card.

• Read or taken out books
• Taken out CDs, DVDs etc.
• Used computer services, photocopiers etc.
• Used study areas
• Used reference materials or information services
• Attended an event in the library”

3.14 Museums

The respondent was asked whether they (11-15) / their child (5-10) had visited a museum.

“By this we mean visiting a museum to do activities like the ones on this card.

• Visited exhibitions
• Attended an event held at the museum”

4. Annex D

In addition to the data included in this report, data on competitive sport and archives can be found in the accompanying tables.

4.1 Archives

Archives are collections of documents that have been created by families, individuals, businesses or organisations and have been specially chosen to be kept permanently.

The accompanying tables include statistics for:

11-15 year olds:

• Has visited an archive in the last 12 months
• In and out of school engagement (visited in last 12 months)

4.2 Competitive Sport

The Active Lives Survey provides comprehensive data on child sport participation and is the recommended source for evidence in this area.

The accompanying tables include statistics for:

5-15 year olds:

• All competitive sport in and outside school in the last 12 months
• All Competitive sport in school in the last 12 months
• All competitive sport outside school
• Played for a sports team (outside of school)
• A sports competition or one-off event (outside of school)
• Been a member of a club that plays sport (outside of school)

5-10 year olds:

• Played sport in their school in organised competitions (e.g. a school sports day)
• Played sport against children in other schools in organised competitions total.
• National School Sports Week

11-15 year olds:

• Played for a sports team
• Been a member of a club that plays sport
• Played sport against other people in PE or games lessons
• Played sport in your school in organised competitions
• Played sport against children in other schools in organised competitions National School Sports Week