Safety in Sport Perception Survey 2024 – Key findings and discussion
Joseph* is in Year 11 at a comprehensive school in the East of England. Last year he broke his leg in hard tackle while playing football in PE. He spent the first two weeks after his accident at home, alone and in pain while he healed enough to get onto crutches and get back into school. “I felt really lost and I didn’t know what to do with myself,” he told me when we met.
As the Schools and Clubs Lead at Podium Analytics, a charity which promotes physical activity participation by preventing injury and managing recovery, I hear lots of stories from young people who have been injured during PE and sport. Some, like Joseph, have accidental collisions, but many others have strains and sprains after skimping on warm-ups or increasing workload too quickly. Other injuries are the result of over-training through doing competitive sport inside and outside of school in addition to PE.
Problems that follow injury can be mental as well as physical. Anne-Marie*, who was in Year 12 when she ruptured a tendon during a rugby match, told me about the difficulties she faced: “[Injury] took me out for a year and that was really difficult for me mentally because I felt like without sport, I didn’t know what to do with myself.” And of course, head injuries or significant incidents that lead to missed lessons can also impact learning.
At Podium, we focus on preventing injuries in sport and PE, and promoting return to participation, to support young people so that they can in turn lead active, healthy lives. It is vital for the PE space to consider and understand the steps which can be taken to reduce the risk of sports injury in young people. In fact, one recent study found that 12%[1] of young people who had dropped out of organised sport gave injury as a reason.
To understand more about public and parental support for measures to address injury and wellbeing in sport and physical activity, Podium conducts an annual Safety in Sport Perception Survey, in association with YouGov. The 2024 poll, conducted in August and published in November, surveyed 2,182 adults, sampled to be representative of the UK public. Of these, 24% were a parent/guardian of a child aged 18 or under. Some 9% said they participated in community team sports, 36% participated in personal fitness activities and 59% did not participate in either sport or physical activity.
This year the poll examined attitudes towards tracking sports injuries across the NHS, and training in First Aid and mental health for volunteer and grassroots youth coaches. We also asked our annual questions about attitudes to worries about injury, recording injuries in school and rule changes in sport to address preventable injuries.
A summary of this year’s findings and key considerations for the PE sector are below:
Key Insights and Recommendations from the findings:
- Strong public support for the NHS to record whether a head injury was sustained during sport. 73% say the NHS should record whether a head injury has been sustained during sport.
Recommendation:
- Systematically capturing information about head injuries in sport would be an important step towards quantifying the problem and understanding long-term health implications. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee Inquiry into Concussion in Sport recognised this when it recommended that all concussions that occur within sport and PE should be reported and collated within a national sports injury database.
The UK-wide Concussion Guidelines for Non-Elite (Grassroots) Sports is the current guidance for concussion in sport. The consistent message is ‘If in doubt, sit them out’, which advises that no-one should return to sport within 24 hours of a suspected concussion.
- Endorsement for mandating first aid training for volunteer youth sports coaches with 84% saying all youth coaches should have a first aid qualification.
Recommendation:
- A desktop study undertaken by Podium of 167 UK sports National Governing Bodies (NGBs) in September 2024 found that only an estimated 40% of these mandate training for grassroots coaches. Podium would advocate for NGBs to make first aid training mandatory among volunteer youth sports coaches. Encouraging volunteer youth coaches to have basic first aid training could help drive new standards for safety in sport, leading to improved response measures.
- Widespread backing for equipping grassroots sports coaches to support young people’s general and injury-related mental health. 72% say youth coaches should be trained to raise awareness of mental benefits of sport and 68% of participants said grassroots sports coaches should be trained to support youth mental health. Some 63% said coaches should have training to support young people who cannot participate in sport due to injury.
Recommendation:
- Some organisations such as Mind, already offer mental health literacy training for sport coaches, but there is a fundamental lack of knowledge and training for how to address injury-related mental health problems.
- Podium Analytics Young Voices project is addressing the injury-related knowledge gap through the creation of peer resources. It aims to work with youth coaches to develop materials that highlight the social and emotional impacts of injury and offer strategies to prevent associated negative effects on mental health.
Discussion and Reflections for PE teachers
The following discussion points and questions are considerations for reflection by PE teachers in light of the findings.
Overwhelmingly, there is agreement that for young people, the benefits of sport outweigh the risks of injury (79%). This rose to 90% of those who have been injured themselves or know someone who has been injured. Whilst it is great that this sentiment is recognised in adults, there is greater work required to support young people in and through their experience of injury.
- What is the message and reaction when a student is injured at school and do practitioners play a role in a student’s emotional journey back to activity?
Worrying about injury:
We found there is a general difference in the perceptions of adults who play sport with a club or team themselves, and the general population who don’t play any sport. The former indicate that they worry more about their child/children getting injured than those who don’t play any sport; however, they are firm in their belief that the benefit to sport outweighs the risks of getting injured.
- How can practitioners look to mitigate concerns around injuries in sport? And what happens when a student is injured at your school?
Recording injuries:
There was strong public opinion in favour of mandatory recording of injuries sustained playing sport in schools and clubs, with 80% who believe it should be compulsory, against 9% who oppose.
- Whilst it might be recorded through the school nurse, do you think this data would support some of the decisions you need to make in your practice?
Rule changes:
In addition, the findings revealed that the majority support rule changes to reduce injury incidence: 52% either strongly or slightly supported changes, against 11% who strongly or slightly oppose changes and 37% who did not know.
- What do you notice about some of the activities in your sessions/lessons? Are the formats appropriate, how adaptable are the rules for the needs of the students?
Concussion:
We asked participants to what extent they were confident that their child/children’s school would know how to manage concussion. A fifth of the overall sample (21%) strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, against just 9% who strongly or somewhat disagreed.
In the sample of parents/guardians with a child at school (39% of sample), 54% are confident that their child’s school could manage a concussion, against 21% who did not feel confident.
- Reflecting on the processes that are in place at your school, would you feel confident in knowing how to manage a suspected concussion?
Summary
This year’s Safety in Sport Perception Survey focused on coaches and first aid training, with findings that the public are in favour of coaches being trained to support young people who cannot participate in sport due to injury. However, the survey also highlights a greater awareness and focus on the importance of young people’s physical and mental health and safety across all settings. When young people are injured, they can become anxious and isolated.[2]
Think about when an injury has occurred in your own experience, and how physical activity and sport looks for that young person during that period of time. Our interactions and conversations can greatly impact that experience and often there could be more done to avoid the often-fateful consequence of continued disengagement due to injury. [3]
About Podium
Podium Analytics is an NGO, registered as a charity (England, Wales and Scotland) with a vision to create a world with more sport and less injury. Their initiatives focus on reducing the risks of injury and increasing participation and engagement in youth and grassroots sport.
By addressing barriers to participation such as injury, Podium are helping more people experience the joy of sport, and the numerous health benefits that come with an active lifestyle, for longer.
Podium Analytics are currently in the early stages of partnering with the Association for Physical Education and PE Scholar to create a tool which amplifies the safe practice principles and supports the reduction of injuries in schools. Watch this space for more announcements on this soon.
If you would like to know more or become a pilot school or teacher of this tool, please contact us via kat.jones@podiumanalytics.org, Schools and Clubs Research Lead.
*Names have been changed
[1] Persson, M., Espedalen, L. E., Stefansen, K., & Strandbu, Å. (2020). Opting out of youth sports: How can we understand the social processes involved?. Sport, Education and Society, 25(7), 842-854.
[2] Dr Huong Le, Centre for Mental Health, and Dr Catherine Wheatley, Podium Analytics. Injuries, Insults and Applause. https://podiumanalytics.org/research/injuries-insults-and-applause/
[3] Persson, M., Espedalen, L. E., Stefansen, K., & Strandbu, Å. (2020). Opting out of youth sports: How can we understand the social processes involved?. Sport, Education and Society, 25(7), 842-854.
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