About us
Improving people’s wellbeing is the ultimate goal of effective policy and community action.
From 2014-2024, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing built a reputation as the leading UK authority on wellbeing, working to understand what governments, businesses and communities can do to improve wellbeing.
Our vision was to significantly contribute to a future where the wellbeing of people and communities in the UK improves year-on-year and wellbeing inequalities are reduced.
Our purpose was to find out what works to improve wellbeing and partner to put that evidence into action and create conditions for us all to thrive, now and in the future.
Our mission was to:
- Find global wellbeing evidence, synthesising insights and accelerating access to robust research so that it is easy to find, understand and compare.
- Share the knowledge as a public good, democratising access through translation, ensuring robust and relevant evidence reaches the right audiences in the most accessible way.
- Grow the evidence base by identifying gaps and working together to fill them through more trials and studies, creating a learning system for wellbeing.
- Convene people from across research, policy and practice, and amplify voices of those with low wellbeing, to share knowledge, create opportunities, and nurture new collaborations.
- Guide people to use evidence of ‘what works’ to shape policy making and practice, and support them to generate meaningful evidence of their wellbeing impact.
- Mobilise people to take evidence-informed action to improve lives and reduce wellbeing inequalities, and establish cultures where improvements in wellbeing are valued, meaningful and ambitious.
Our approach was to be trusted, independent, evidence-based, collaborative, practical, iterative and open.
Our focus was on where we can make the biggest difference:
- National wellbeing methods and measures
- Working age
- Place and community
- Loneliness and connection
Our audiences and collaborators were:
- Government – national and local leaders, departments, and wider public sector bodies, commissioners and funders.
- Research – individuals and research organisations across the UK and globally.
- Business – large, small and multinational, and professional bodies.
- Civil society – charities, social enterprises and community groups, as well as funders and commissioners.
We were part of the What Works Network and The Evidence Quarter. This network improves the way government and other organisations create, share and use high-quality, robust evidence for decision-making.
As a registered Community Interest Company, we were a non-profit organisation that relied on funding grants. View former funders and partners.