This toolkit helps clubs understand welcome, belonging, barriers, retention and progression. It is a question bank and governance model — not a live form yet.
Participant feedback is not testimonial consent, marketing consent or a safeguarding reporting system. If a safeguarding concern is received through feedback anyway, staff must still follow the approved safeguarding process.
Tool A — Participant Experience Pulse
- How welcome did you feel?
- How safe and comfortable did you feel?
- Did the information before the session tell you what you needed to know?
- Did the coaching/support suit your level and goals?
- Did you feel able to ask questions or request an adjustment?
- Was anything about cost, travel, timing, caring, the venue or culture difficult?
- What worked particularly well?
- What is one thing we should improve?
- Would you like to take part again?
- Is there an opportunity you would like next?
Tool B — Stay & Progress Review
- What keeps you involved?
- Do you feel you belong here?
- Do you feel safe and respected?
- Do you understand the opportunities available to you?
- Have you ever nearly stopped attending? If you want to say, what contributed?
- What helped you continue?
- What sporting goal would you like to work towards next?
- Is anything currently making participation harder?
Tool C — Leaving / Taking a Break
Use neutral wording that does not imply failure or guilt.
- Which best describes your decision: temporary break / stopped this activity / moved club / moved sport / other / prefer not to say?
- Was the decision mainly about life circumstances, practical barriers, the sporting opportunity, club culture, safety, or personal choice? Select any that apply.
- Was there anything the organisation could reasonably have changed?
- What did we do well?
- What should we improve?
- Would you consider returning in future?
Keep four routes separate
- Participant experience feedback — ideally anonymous where practical.
- Contact me — optional contact information, kept separately from anonymous feedback.
- Share my story — separate publication consent and editorial process.
- Safeguarding / complaint — dedicated route with appropriate escalation.
Equality monitoring
If equality-monitoring questions are needed, collect only what has a defined purpose. Some equality information may be special-category personal data. It should not be added casually to every form, and analysis should consider whether small groups could make somebody identifiable.
Girls and young people
Use shorter, age-appropriate questions. Ordinary sport-feedback forms should not broadly solicit detailed information about sexual activity, pregnancy, eating disorders, abuse, self-harm, major mental-health conditions or diagnoses. Make the safeguarding route clear and separate.
Data flow
RAW RESPONSES → RESTRICTED ACCESS → CLEAN THEMES → AGGREGATE ANALYSIS → DISCLOSURE CHECK → APPROVED REPORTING.
Pseudonymised data remains personal data where re-identification information exists. Do not describe it as anonymous unless the legal threshold for anonymisation has actually been met.
Turn feedback into action
| Theme/barrier | Evidence | Action | Owner | Review date | What we tell participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| _____ | _____ | _____ | _____ | _____ | You said — we did / exploring / cannot change because… |
ASK → LISTEN → ACT → REPORT BACK.
Suggested measures
- Welcome/belonging rating.
- Safety and respect.
- Clarity of information.
- Barrier reports and response rate.
- Return intention / repeat participation.
- Progression clarity.
- Number and type of barrier actions completed.
Always publish context such as response numbers and, where meaningful, response rate. Do not disguise a small convenience sample as representative research.