Place Need Classification tool

Use the map below to find the Place Need Classification data for your project location.

How do I search for a place?

Using the 'Find an address or place' search bar located in the top right hand corner of the map, search for an address, town, city, county or postcode. As you type, results matching your search criteria will appear. Select a location from the list and the map will zoom to it.
Use the buttons in the top left hand corner of the map, or your mouse scroll, to zoom in/out. Move the map by clicking and dragging while holding the left mouse button.

How do I find the Place Need Classification results?

When you have found your location, click on it, with the left mouse button, to reveal a pop-up screen showing the relevant Place Need Classification data.

What is it?

One of the three guiding principles in our Uniting the Movement strategy relates to our goal of tackling inequalities: ‘investing most in those that need it most’.

This is because we know that people who are less active tend to have worse outcomes and that these people and communities have more to gain from a change in physical activity behaviour.

The Place Need Classification identifies a place as somewhere of ‘greatest need’ based on where the data indicates there's a:

sport and physical activity need: data that describes the physical activity behaviour we're seeking to change. This data speaks most directly to our mission to increase activity, reduce inactivity and reduce inequalities.
social need: data that describes places where outcome data is less favourable. On the basis that sport and physical activity can provide a range of benefits, we believe there's the greatest potential for individuals and communities to benefit from increased activity levels where both outcomes and activity levels are lower.

The Place Need Classification also considers need at two geographic levels and two broad age groups:

Geographic
- Local authority-level: a general level of need identified across the whole of, or a significant proportion of, a local authority (LA) area.
- Neighbourhood-level: need identified within specific pockets or neighbourhoods within a local authority.
Age
- Adults (aged 16 years and over)
- Children and young people (aged 5-15 years)

Data overview

The tables in the Appendix of the below document provide an overview of the individual data sets currently used within the Place Need Classification.

Identifying priority places for expanding our place-based partnerships 2023-28 Download the file - 1.88 MB

Data considerations

It's important to note that data sources differ in nature and this will affect how we best utilise them to identify places of greatest need.

Each source of data has been judged and selected based on the following criteria:

Relevance - the data sources selected are, based on current understanding, the most relevant measures to understand sport and physical activity need and social need.
Data quality/coverage - we will use high quality data that has representative England-wide coverage.
Direct estimates, modelled/inferred estimates and proxy measures - we'll identify places of greatest need based on direct estimates, supplemented with high-quality, modelled data where it can provide a useful, more detailed picture. Proxy measures will be used to provide context and more detailed description.
Geographic detail - most of the data we'll use is available at local authority level. This aligns well with the ecosystem for delivering sport and physical activity in a place. However, in some instances, we've access to data at a more local level (MSOA, LSOA, OA). This can be used to identify specific ‘pockets’ (neighbourhoods) of need, within wider local authority areas, that might otherwise get overlooked.
Timeliness - in most instances we have used the most recent available data. However, datasets are published and updated at different times and intervals. We'll review and update the data as outlined within the ‘Maintenance of the Place Need Classification’ section.
Indices - indices are data sources that themselves draw on a range of data and have made judgements about what to include/exclude, how to rank that data, and how to weight each source of data to provide the basis for an overall assessment. These indices generally reflect a large amount of effort by leading experts and agencies in the relevant field of public policy (e.g. Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Office for National Statistics). As such, it's considered reasonable to accept the domains and measures, formulae and weighting they've selected.

Maintenance of the Place Need Classification

The current classification reflects our assessment of the best available data upon which to identify places of greatest need and how it's most appropriately applied.

Our understanding will be dynamic, developing and improving over time. The classification will be updated as quickly as is practically possible when new data becomes available. This will be reviewed at regular intervals and may include:

when new 24-month Active Lives datasets become available
updates to other datasets used in the classification
as other datasets are updated or become available (e.g. Census outputs, new measures/indices of sport and physical activity or social need).

As the data is updated this may result in new places appearing within the classification, or places that previously appeared no longer doing so.

In these circumstances we're clear that any work or investment that may have commenced in those places, that no longer appear, will continue to be supported in a proportionate manner by Sport England.

Place Need Classification tool

How do I search for a place?

How do I find the Place Need Classification results?

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