Research Into Barriers to Exercise for Newcastle City Council
In 2019, ERS was commissioned by Active Newcastle at Newcastle City Council to explore the barriers to exercise for people in what were traditionally regarded as entry level or blue-collar jobs, many of whom may be assumed to come from lower socio-economic groups. We worked closely with Newcastle University, Stagecoach (Newcastle) and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals. Funded by Sport England, this research sought to identify what would best support and motivate staff to undertake more exercise and generally become more active.
Data was collected through paper surveys, focus groups and interviews. Target groups were bus drivers and engineers from a bus company, hospitality and logistics staff from a university, and domestic and catering staff and porters from two hospitals in a local hospital trust. 621 questionnaires were distributed, mostly in paper form due to target groups lack of access to IT, with 230 questionnaires returned. ERS also held discussions with management at each organisation.
Our findings from the survey were used to inform the focus groups with each organisation. Topics explored included working conditions and current activity levels, limits and barriers to increasing activity, and practical changes that could make a difference.
Our analysis resulted a series of key findings which included barriers to participation such as lack of information about activity opportunities at work, as well as lack of bike storage. Ultimately, we produced a series of recommendations for Active Newcastle to help them implement greater participation rate in exercise.