Creating Active Schools Sustain and JU:MP Data Research Programme: Long-term Evaluation, Physical Literacy, Secondary Analyses and Exploratory Research

Children need regular physical activity for their health, wellbeing and development, yet many children are not active enough and important inequalities remain between different groups of children. These inequalities are particularly important in ethnically diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities such as Bradford.
Join Us: Move Play (JU:MP) is a whole-system, place-based physical activity programme developed and delivered in Bradford. It aims to increase children’s physical activity by working across the different parts of the system that influence how active children are, including families, communities, neighbourhoods, organisations and schools.

Creating Active Schools (CAS) was the school-focused component of the wider JU:MP whole-system approach; but is also a national established programme operating within 100’s of schools across England. CAS supports schools to embed physical activity across the whole school system rather than relying on a single activity or intervention. Schools are supported to consider their policies, physical and social environments, staff and other stakeholders, and opportunities for children to be active across the school day. These opportunities include physical education, active lessons, break and lunchtimes, active travel and extracurricular activity. The current NIHR-funded CAS Sustain study (https://www.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR174726) builds directly on the earlier JU:MP evaluation and will examine the long-term effectiveness, sustainability and cost-effectiveness of CAS after sustained implementation.

As part of the original JU:MP evaluation, a controlled study was established involving intervention and comparison schools across Bradford and West Yorkshire. The original trial collected a rich range of child, parent, school and neighbourhood data across baseline, 24-month and 36-month measurement waves. These include device-measured physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep; anthropometric measures; socio-emotional wellbeing; quality of life; and information on family, school, neighbourhood and wider contextual influences on children’s physical activity.

We are now undertaking the NIHR-funded CAS Sustain study, which builds directly on the previous JU:MP research. CAS Sustain will examine whether the Creating Active Schools programme leads to sustained changes in children’s physical activity and wider health, wellbeing and educational outcomes after five and seven years of implementation. The study will also examine how CAS has been sustained within schools, why it may work differently across schools and groups of children, and whether the programme represents good value for money.

The original JU:MP baseline data are essential to the NIHR-funded work because they provide the pre-intervention starting point for the long-term comparison. We are therefore requesting access to the JU:MP baseline data required for the CAS Sustain analyses.

Alongside the defined NIHR-funded CAS Sustain work, we are also requesting managed access to the complete JU:MP controlled-trial dataset across the baseline, 24-month and 36-month waves. This will allow the original research team to maximise the scientific and public value of this important longitudinal research resource through a wider programme of clearly defined secondary and exploratory analyses.

An important component of this request concerns the MY-PL physical literacy questionnaire. MY-PL was developed to assess children’s own perceptions of their physical literacy and was incorporated into later JU:MP controlled-trial data collection. We understand that MY-PL questionnaire data were collected at the 24- and 36-month measurement waves, with the paper questionnaires currently retained within the Wolfson Centre/BIHR research environment, but that these data have not yet been fully entered into an electronic dataset.

We propose that, subject to agreement from BiB and the appropriate information governance arrangements, the University of Bradford research team will provide the staff resource required to complete the entry, checking and preparation of the MY-PL data. The questionnaires were collected using the existing JU:MP controlled-trial participant identification system, allowing the resulting MY-PL data to be linked to the wider controlled-trial dataset without the transfer of names or other directly identifying information.

The University of Bradford applicants were integral members of the original JU:MP controlled-trial research team and were involved in the study design, delivery, ethical governance, measurement procedures and analysis planning. Dr Daniel Bingham was the named contact person on the original ethics application, Professor Andy Daly-Smith was a named co-investigator, and both were members of the original JU:MP research and publication team. The correspondence relating to MY-PL also documents the University of Bradford team’s role in developing the proposal to add the questionnaire, submitting the ethics amendment and determining how MY-PL data would be linked using the existing trial IDs.

Following data entry and quality assurance, the completed MY-PL dataset will be securely transferred to BIHR using agreed institutional processes and incorporated into the main JU:MP controlled-trial research resource. The definitive research copy will therefore remain available through the agreed JU:MP/BiB governance arrangements. The completed MY-PL data will enable important research examining physical literacy as an outcome and potential determinant of physical activity, including relationships with device-measured physical activity, sedentary behaviour, demographic characteristics and wider child outcomes.

The wider programme of work may include analyses examining physical activity patterns and inequalities; physical literacy; sex, ethnicity and socioeconomic differences; changes in sedentary behaviour and other movement behaviours; health, wellbeing and quality-of-life outcomes; and the influence of family, school, neighbourhood and wider contextual factors. The data may also support methodological work, exploratory analyses, development of future grant applications, peer-reviewed publications and appropriately supervised student dissertations.

Individual projects will be developed around specific research questions. This request is therefore not seeking unrestricted or ungoverned use of the dataset. BiB Executive will be informed of each planned paper, dissertation or substantive new analysis before the work begins, and all outputs will follow relevant BiB governance, publication and authorship procedures.

The NIHR-funded CAS Sustain study has received ethical approval (Humanities, Social and Health Sciences Research Ethics Panel at the University of Bradford – E1396). The original JU:MP controlled trial also received University of Bradford ethical approval (E891). The original study ethics and governance arrangements specify secure storage, restricted research-team access, pseudonymisation and long-term secure retention of research data. The proposed MY-PL data entry and transfer process will be agreed with BiB and the relevant information governance teams before movement of the paper questionnaires or electronic data takes place.