Our Impact 2022-23

This report outlines the impact we have had in the financial year 2022/23 as we have continued in our mission to find out what works to improve wellbeing and partner to put that evidence into action, creating conditions for us all to thrive.

Highlights are summarised below. For the full report, including a detailed deep-dive into our achievements, download the PDF.

Between April 2022 and March 2023 we continued to focus on priority areas where we could make the biggest difference:

1. National wellbeing methods and measures
2. Place and community
3. Loneliness and connection
4. Working age

To support our priorities and achieve our aims we operated a multidisciplinary, cross-sector core team that brought together expertise across five distinct functions:

1. Leadership and collaboration
2. Communication and engagement
3. Evidence and analysis
4. Implementation and learning
5. Knowledge-sharing
6. Governance and operations

Overall we have:

Continued to establish an extensive body of insights and resources, bringing together the global knowledge base in an accessible, impactful and relevant way, using existing collective knowledge.

Used our expertise in wellbeing and evidence methodologies to proactively contribute to and grow knowledge of the fields of wellbeing, evidence, knowledge use and practise

Brought life to our rigorous evidence by translating and sharing findings in impact-focused inclusive language and formats, and sharing evidence with policy makers and practitioners so that it has meaning where it counts.

Enhanced our offer to workplace and VCSE practitioners through more practical tools, measures, methodologies and resources, as well as continuous capacity and capability building, training and support.

Convened and mobilised our strong, active cross-sector network of experts and practitioners to identify where evidence can have the greatest impact including COVID-19, levelling-up and reducing inequalities, and thinking beyond GDP.

Built new partnerships and strengthened existing relationships to learn more where there are evidence
gaps, working out what those in policy and practice need to know to seed evidence-informed action to improve
wellbeing.

Our global network of associates and supporters is second-to-none in the wellbeing evidence space, and includes top wellbeing evidence and policy research teams, leading practitioners and policymakers, and wellbeing experts.

Our position as knowledge brokers and conveners has enabled us to bring together people and organisations from across all sectors, and get valuable wellbeing evidence and resources to those who can put it into action.

From April 2022 to March 2023 we developed and shared knowledge with:

Government – national, local, and the wider public sector including DCMS, DfE, HMT, and local authorities of Portsmouth and Lancashire.

Research – individuals and research organisations across the UK and globally, such as Universities of Birmingham, Durham, Leeds Beckett, Liverpool, Warwick, and UCL.

Businesses – large, small and multinational, and professional bodies such as Sky, PwC, Money and Pension Service, Transpennine Express, and Brown Brothers Harriman.

Civil society – charities, social enterprises and community groups, as well as funders and commissioners, including The Health Foundation, Centre for Thriving Places, Marie Curie, Disability Rights UK, Historic England, Pro Bono Economics, and Spirit of 2012, and we collaborated with new partners for the first time, including New Local and People’s Health Trust.

Across the year we continued our work with the Campaign to End Loneliness, which we have formally hosted since 2021.

By working in partnership, we have contributed to the sustainability and resilience of the field of wellbeing.

Our diverse, international team is crucial to the organisation’s success. The experience and effectiveness of colleagues has enabled us to consistently deliver a high level of impact, working creatively within the constraints of limited resources. This is supported with a remote-first, flexible policy.

This financial year, the Centre welcomed five new staff across three functions to support the delivery of our goals. We also brought in additional freelance and contracted expertise where necessary – in the form of analysts and designers – to augment and compliment our in-house capacity and provide specific skills.

The Centre is led by a board of voluntary Directors. The Board is the ultimate decision maker, as outlined in the Articles of Association.

The Board is responsible for working closely with the Executive Director and the senior management team to develop and agree strategic direction for the organisation, and ensure that any activities and executive decisions:

• are made in the best interest of the organisation, its stakeholders and the wider public;
• contribute to achieving the organisational purpose and aims;
• are delivered effectively and sustainably.

The Centre also has an advisory panel that, along with a wider consultation group for each project, ensures quality assurance and suitability of the products and research outputs that are being produced. The advisory panel is composed of voluntary members who represent the key sectors and audiences the Centre engages with. The main purpose of this panel is to ensure high quality, transparency, relevance and accessibility of all the Centre’s products and research strategies.

Our planned programme of activity for April 2023 to March 2024 builds on our previous work to refine concepts, identify gaps in the evidence base, and develop tools to improve the measurement and evaluation of interventions and the implementation of insights in practice.

Specific activity includes:

1) National measures and methods

• Exploratory analysis of the ONS Health Index.
• Conducting a review of the life satisfaction literature.
• Sharing practice examples from charities of using wellbeing measures in real-life contexts.
• Delivering training on the HMT Green Book Supplementary guidance on Wellbeing and Wellbeing and Policy.

2) Working age

• Analysing student wellbeing data in collaboration with TASO and Kings College London.
• Exploring wellbeing-informed workspace design.
  Producing new guidance for improving staff wellbeing in schools and colleges in England, supported by the Department for Education.
• Running workshops with a cohort of businesses to support the development of work and terminal illness policies.

3) Places and community

• Leading a rapid review exploring the impact of community agency and control on community wellbeing.
• Researching what community wellbeing means to the staff and students of Northumbria University.
• Informing Nottingham Trent University and Pro Bono Economics’ VCSE Barometer Survey (Wave 4) which focuses upon wellbeing.

4) Loneliness and connection

• Reviewing the evidence on the effectiveness of loneliness alleviation and mapping current practices in the field, together with the Campaign to End Loneliness, and funded by DCMS Tackling Loneliness Team.
• Renewing the Tackling Loneliness Hub for 2023-24, led by Campaign to End Loneliness.
• Hosting the 2024 International Loneliness Conference, delivered by the Campaign to End Loneliness.