At the What Works Centre for Wellbeing we believe that improving people’s wellbeing is the ultimate goal of effective policy and community action.
At the What Works Centre for Wellbeing we believe that improving wellbeing is the ultimate goal of policy and community action.
We are an independent collaborating centre that develops and shares robust and accessible wellbeing evidence to improve decision making that is used by:
Our team works closely with partners to answer key questions on what works to improve wellbeing and identify the gaps in the research to be filled.
Our vision is of a future where the wellbeing of people and communities improves year on year and wellbeing inequalities are reduced.
We believe that improving wellbeing is the ultimate objective of policy and community action.
Our mission is to develop and share robust, accessible and useful evidence that governments, businesses, communities and people use to improve wellbeing across the UK.
Our approach is:
What is a What Works Centre?
The Centre is a registered Community Interest Company.
You can view all our current and former funders and partners.
We are 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 evidence for decision-making.
Other members of the What Works Network are:
| What Works Centre | Policy area |
|---|---|
| National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) | Health and social care |
| Education Endowment Foundation | Educational achievement |
| College of Policing What Works Centre for Crime Reduction | Crime reduction |
| Early Intervention Foundation | Early intervention |
| What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (hosted by LSE, Arup, Centre for Cities) | Local economic growth |
| Centre for Ageing Better | Improved quality of life for older people |
| Centre for Homelessness Impact | Homelessness |
| What Works for Children’s Social Care | Children’s social care |
blog
Director’s perspective on joint decision making from Nancy Hey The effort and investment can be very high for participatory processes and there can easily be negative impacts, especially for those with the lowest wellbeing. So it is important to: 1….
resources
We are holding a series of lunchtime conversations on wellbeing at the end of life. This is the final of three events, which have been captured by a live illustrator.
During the event we heard from Deborah Hardoon and Sam Royston.
events
We see improving wellbeing as the ultimate goal of policy and community action. On 23 June the Centre’s Director Nancy Hey, and Gallup Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Younis will share valuable insights during the second installment of the Global Wellbeing Initiative speaker series.
practice
Whilst lots of wellbeing initiatives can have a good impact on their own, the evidence is clear that where they are integrated into wider systems and are part of a strategy they can be most effective. We developed a model based on our work with businesses to help address workplace wellbeing.
