All Categories
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[name] => Building Connections Fund: Evaluation and Learning
[slug] => building-connections
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[description] => Understanding the impact and sharing learning to tackle loneliness The £11.5m Fund which is a partnership between Government, The National Lottery Community Fund and the Co-op Foundation is providing grants to 126 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations between 2019 and 2021. To evaluate and share learning from the Fund, we are working with New Philanthropy Capital, Centre for Youth Impact, Brunel University London, Bryson Purdon Social Research, and expert David Pritchard. The work will be carried out with groups of all ages and backgrounds across England.
Reducing or preventing loneliness , by enabling projects tackling loneliness to be more effective and evaluate their impact. Build on our existing knowledge to better understand the most effective approaches to measure, reduce and prevent loneliness. Once complete in 2021, findings from the project will be used to improve the evidence base on loneliness. This will inform longer-term policy and funding decisions.
The resources and findings on this page are created and maintained by our partners New Philanthropy Capital.
If you are a Building Connections Fund grant-holder and have any enquiries, please email: BCFevaluation@thinknpc.org For grant-holders You can find resources to support your work in the tabs below, including our guidance on measuring loneliness. Building Connections grant-holders will also be able to register for upcoming events, sign up for workshops or webinars and receive the latest learning from the programme.
You can also sign up to the Centre’s weekly evidence alerts below to read the latest wellbeing evidence and insight. It’s not just for Fund grant-holders; anyone can subscribe!
10 tips to help your project reduce loneliness
Download
This paper brings together emerging findings from the existing evidence to offer practical help to Building Connections Fund grant holders and other projects working on reducing loneliness.
These tips focus on how services are delivered, rather than what they deliver. The aim is to help you plan and implement projects so that they work more effectively to reduce loneliness.
As many of your activities are already underway, these tips focus on opportunities to incorporate best practice. The diversity of types of loneliness, types of interventions, target beneficiaries and locations are such that there will never be a one-size-fits-all approach to fighting loneliness. Here, we draw out promising factors, mechanisms and approaches that make existing interventions more likely to be effective. As some tips emphasise, approaches should be personalised and localised to tackle loneliness.
Therefore, these tips should be taken as ideas to explore, rather than as a prescriptive checklist.
Guidance on evaluation for grant holders
Download
This guide brings together NPC’s pioneering impact practice resources to offer practical guidance to Building Connections Fund Grant Holders and others working on reducing loneliness. It is designed to complement the What Works Centre for Wellbeing’s guidance A Brief Guide to measuring loneliness. We need to understand more about the factors associated with loneliness, what the effects of loneliness are for different people and how we can prevent or alleviate it. Currently, there is limited evidence on loneliness. We have some data on loneliness in older people, but less for other age groups including children and young people. This guidance is designed to help you evaluate your activities tackling loneliness and improve the sector’s understanding of what works. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of impact measurement or evaluation.
Evaluation is about asking and answering some of the most fundamental questions: Are we making a difference? How can we improve? Are we reaching the right people? How does our programme lead to change? It is about developing an approach to learning about what changes occur, how change happens, and what causes change.
Please note that though this guide will help you collect data for your project, Building Connections Grant Holders who are chosen to take part in our smaller evaluation cohorts will be given extra support by NPC.
This document has been produced for Building Connections Fund grant-holders but can be applied to any activities aimed at reducing loneliness.
This guidance consists of three sections:
Section 1 outlines the national measures of loneliness. All organisations working on tackling loneliness should consider if they can use these to evaluate their work.
Section 2 takes you through five steps for developing and implementing a measurement framework for evaluating your work.
Section 3 offers practical advice for using different approaches and methods for data collection and analysis. It also outlines key evaluation considerations relating to research ethics and data protection.
Guidance on co-design and community spaces Download
This document offers practical guidance on co-design, evaluation of co-design and evaluation of community spaces. It includes an introduction to co-design and why it matters, top tips and tools for creating and monitoring a co-design process, and advice on how to evaluate it.
We need to understand more about loneliness: the factors associated with it, the effects it has on different people, and how we can prevent or alleviate it. Currently, the evidence base is very limited – we have some data on loneliness in older people, but less for other age groups (including children and young people).
This document offers guidance on co-design, evaluation of co-design and evaluation of community spaces. It includes three main sections:
A brief introduction to co-design and why it matters Top tips and tools for creating and monitoring a co-design process Advice on how to evaluate co-design by reflecting on: the benefits of co-design for staff and young people; the quality of the co-design process; and insights into addressing loneliness and social isolation.
This guidance was developed for the Building Connections Fund grant-holders who are working specifically on co-design and community spaces, but can be used by any organisation looking to design or improve its co-design process. It builds on the Guidance on Evaluation for Building Connections Fund Grant-holders, which offers practical guidance for understanding evaluation and evaluating your activities.
Co-design and community spaces - Final Report NPC has conducted a qualitative evaluation of these projects to better understand the role of co-design and community spaces in reducing loneliness for young people.
Visit their website to download the report Tips to help your remote project tackle loneliness Read the blog
Continually testing, gathering feedback, and implementing changes is the best way to adapt during extreme circumstances.
The pandemic has taught us that continuous learning is key to adapting services to prevent or reduce loneliness during times of change. It’s likely that charities will continue to offer a hybrid of remote and in-person services for many years to come, so it’s vital that the lessons learnt from Covid-19 are not forgotten.
Our tips to help your remote project tackle loneliness draws upon a developmental evaluation of the Building Connections Fund, the first ever cross government fund dedicated to reducing loneliness in England, delivered in partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund and the Co-op Foundation. NPC supported grant holders by sharing emerging good practice for addressing changing needs and rules throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The big lessons learnt by grant holders through the Covid-19 pandemic were to:
Help service users increase their engagement with online activities and offer choice to meet different service users’ needs.
Ensure support is consistent and reliable, with healthy relationships between staff and users and regular support to create trust and reassurance.
Work together with local organisations to avoid duplication.
Put appropriate safeguarding and privacy measures in place.
Respond to changing user needs during different lockdowns or social distancing restrictions.
Covid-19 has forced charities to innovate faster than ever before. We hope that by publishing these tips for running a remote project to tackle loneliness we can help the many charities tackling similar challenges to build on these lessons, both now and in the future.
Visit their website to download the tips
Reflections from the Building Connections Fund developmental evaluation Visit their website to download the report
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[name] => Business Leaders' Council
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[description] => Contact Business Lead Eileen Donnelly at eileen.donnelly@whatworkswellbeing.org to find out more about becoming a member of the Business Leaders' Council.
The Centre's Business Leaders' Council brings together a small and carefully selected number of non-competing stakeholders from the business sector who are not only demonstrating an ongoing commitment to wellbeing within their own workplace, but who are considering wellbeing in their supply chains, of their consumers and within society more broadly.
The Council, aided by a group of leading academics and with access to direct relationships across several government departments, will help to define the problems, scope the offer and implementation needs of private sector partners and support the development of the Centre’s expertise and delivery in this area of work.
We also seek to identify opportunities to pool resources and expertise to find solutions you can individually and/or collectively implement, applying evidence-based methods at scale.
The Centre’s team and its work are evolving and expanding. We are developing ambitious plans and programmes for next year that we would like you and your business to be a part of. It is an exciting time to contribute to and be a part of the Centre’s future.
Watch the Business Leaders' Council webinars
Business Leader benefits
Engage with other leaders in non-competitive sectors , research academics and government on the subject of wellbeing.Help shape the agenda for research and policy on wellbeing , addressing all key drivers of wellbeing, not only of employees but also of customers and the communities in which businesses operate.Attend and contribute to the development of content for the All Party Parliamentary Group Wellbeing Economics .
Attend, contribute and be named supporters of the Centre’s new evidence briefings (at no extra cost).Gain insight from academia into emerging workplace research and its relevance and have access to pre-publication findings from Centre projects.Access further sponsorship opportunities of new Centre publications and thereby benefit from enhanced reputation, corporate branding, associated position of thought leadership and input into any subsequent events related to the reports.Be profiled as practice examples and feature in guest blogs on the Centre’s website through blogs.Discuss the development of new and bespoke projects tailored to your business needs that also align with the Centre’s mission and further businesses’ and society’s understanding of wellbeing.Take advantage of pilot schemes to test implementation of wellbeing interventions to gain evidence and new insight into what works.Access support from the Centre to advise on evaluation methods for wellbeing interventions in your business.Receive briefings on developments in wellbeing public policyOffer potential for collaboration with academics , other companies and funders.Meet regularly through the year with information exchanged electronically between meetings.
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[name] => Carers' Music Fund
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[description] => The Centre is the learning evaluation partner for the Spirit of 2012 Carers' Music Fund . Our role is to support grantees in measuring the impact of their interventions. We will also research how the Fund impacts carers’ wellbeing and feelings of loneliness.
The final evaluation report will be published by Spirit of 2012 on 23 June 2021 , alongside their Carers' Music Fund summit (register here ).
Our final reflections document looks at some of the key insights from our partnership working and findings from the programme-level evaluation.
More about the Fund
The Carers’ Music Fund targets women and girls who are isolated because of their caring responsibilities. The 10 projects will engage them in music activities with the aim of reducing loneliness, improving their mental health and wellbeing.
The ten projects – seven of which are in England, with one each in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – vary hugely in their approaches to engaging female carers. In Birmingham, Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), through partnerships with Midland Mencap and Quench Arts, will engage with a range of existing groups who focus on areas such as mental health, disability and specific cultural communities, while also trying to reach those who may not consider themselves to be carers.
Loneliness among carers is extremely high: 8 in 10 say they are socially isolated because of their caring responsibilities, and according to ONS figures carers are 22% more likely to experience mental ill health than the general population.
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[name] => Covid-19
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[description] => Covid-19, wellbeing and inequalities - what the evidence tells us
Although the whole of the UK has been affected by Covid-19 and its social and economic consequences, the impact has been different for different people.
In order to support a wellbeing-centred recovery, we need to understand how impacts have been felt across the population, including how the key factors that drive wellbeing have been affected.
We need to make use of academic research, surveys and evidence from across sectors to build a picture of who has been affected by the pandemic and in what ways.
Build your own briefing for your context:
Read our briefings:
Read our analysis:
Analysis of ONS Annual Population Survey before and during the pandemic:
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[description] => Covid:WIRED - The Covid Wellbeing Inequalities Research Evidence Dashboard Covid:WIRED * is a database of studies that identifies what aspects of life have been affected by the pandemic, as well as which individuals have been most impacted by these changes. Our new and unique online dashboard brings together emerging research on the impact of the pandemic on different populations and on different outcomes - starting with subjective wellbeing and its six drivers:
Health What we do Relationships Money Where we live Education
The dashboard is a collection of over 400 findings from research that have been organised with wellbeing domains on the vertical axis and dimension of inequality along the horizontal axis.
You can search by domain, inequality dimension, or filter the results by study design and whether the evidence suggests the wellbeing change was positive or negative, or widened or narrowed existing wellbeing inequalities.
Covid:WIRED - Explore the data step by step guide to get the most out of the dashboard.
here , and submit your research for future versions of the tool by filling out this form .
*Developed by Deborah Hardoon, Ingrid Abreu-Scherer, Rosie Maguire, Saamah Abdallah, Sam Wren-Lewis, Liz Zeidler, Lisa Muller, Melissa Cairns, Joanne Smithson and Nancy Hey - in partnership with Centre for Thriving Places.
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[description] => Spending our leisure time doing things we enjoy may be good for our wellbeing. But when it comes to carrying out projects and programmes to improve wellbeing, what works to make the biggest wellbeing impact? Do all interventions work for everyone, and under what conditions?
The Centre has carried out evidence reviews on the wellbeing impact of :
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[description] => Where to find and create wellbeing data? How to create and use your own wellbeing data What analysis has been done? Analysis of ONS4 Culture and sport Analysis in these topics are often most usefully use experiential measures of wellbeing. Time Use surveys are also useful for this area. Using this approach is helpful for improving time use for better wellbeing, and understanding how you improve positive mood or purpose
See more in Prof Paul Dolan's Definitions and measures discussion paper .
It takes a similar approach to Mappiness data and papers or this Happy Place practice example.
Work and learning Life course analysis and cost effectiveness With LSE Centre for Economic Performance.
Community Happy people wear seatbelts - even if you’re more interested in outcomes such as, say, reducing deaths in road traffic accidents, wellbeing findings have something to offer and sometimes they’re not so obvious.
What the hidden happiness gap tells us about wellbeing inequalities in the UK - wellbeing data tells us how people actually feel about their lives, whether they are thriving or struggling. Using existing data about health, employment, education, crime and relationships – our wellbeing – in new ways, could help us explain everything from why we voted to leave the EU to what makes us trust our neighbours.
What do we know about the drivers of wellbeing inequality? Looking at inequality of wellbeing is a new and emerging approach to understanding how people and communities are thriving or struggling. But while it’s harder to find and understand what differences exist within and between populations, and what might drive such otherwise hidden variations, we think it could lead to some insightful findings.
All the Centre's blogs and guest blogs on the UK wellbeing data using the Office for National Statistics data. You will also find related data, indices, and analyses from other organisations.
How is the UK, as a whole, doing? This blog from Deborah Hardoon, our Head of Evidence , looks at the UK's performance in relation to other countries in the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). How did a major event like Brexit impact wellbeing? In 2017, we shared how personal wellbeing fared in the year following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union (EU).
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[name] => Early evidence of Covid-19 inequalities
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[description] => Covid-19: how can Local Authorities use emerging evidence to address wellbeing inequalities?
In Autumn 2020 we brought together emerging evidence about wellbeing inequalities in a series of 8 email briefings for Local Authority policy makers. This evidence was collected through a crowdsourcing exercise, and presented the early findings about the effects of the pandemic in its first 6 months.
You can find the Autumn 2020 evidence briefings below, or you can search the updated evidence in our Covid-WIRED dashboard.
Early evidence of wellbeing inequalities:
Different relationships Different ethnicities Mental health Men and women Children and young people Financial wellbeing Work-related wellbeing Bringing all the data together There are 1.9 million adults enrolled in further education colleges, and 2.34 million students studying at UK higher education institutions, according to Association of Colleges HESA . And thousands of employees in the UK participate in work-based training and development courses each year.
Our evidence reviews, practice maps, and data analysis have focussed on:
We have also created specific guidance for measuring and improving staff wellbeing within schools and colleges .
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[name] => Employee wellbeing snapshot survey
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[description] => What gets measured, gets managed.
So that you can support your workforce in the ways that are the most useful to them at this time, we recommend that you regularly ask your employees how they are doing.
We have developed this suggested set of questions in collaboration with The Department for Work and Pensions, to give a quick snapshot of how people are doing with respect to different aspects of wellbeing.
Collecting this data at regular intervals will help you to identify individuals and groups who are at risk of low wellbeing, as well as specific aspects of work (physical hazards) or aspects of wellbeing (mental health) which could be improved with well-designed interventions.
Find out how your survey results compare to these benchmarks .
Download the methodology paper for the questionnaire
The recommended questions and scales
We have created a google form template that you can use to conduct your own survey.
Alternatively, a word version of the questionnaire is available to download and use.
For each of these questions I’d like you to give an answer on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all” and 10 is “completely”...
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
Recommended response scale
0 (Not at all) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (completely)
On a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 means 'Completely dissatisfied' and 7 means 'Completely satisfied', how dissatisfied or satisfied are you with your present job overall?
Recommended response scale
1 - Completely dissatisfied
2 - Mostly dissatisfied
3 - Somewhat dissatisfied
4 - Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
5 - Somewhat satisfied
6 - Mostly satisfied
7 - Completely satisfied
I would recommend my organisation as a great place to work
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - Neither agree nor disagree
4 - Agree
5 - Strongly agree
How would you rate your overall physical health now?
1 - Very good
2 - Good
3 - Fair
4 - Bad
5 - Very bad
How would you rate your overall mental health now?
1 - Very good
2 - Good
3 - Fair
4 - Bad
5 - Very bad
I feel safe from threats and physical hazards in my work environment
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - Neither agree nor disagree
4 - Agree
5 - Strongly agree
I am satisfied with my physical working environment
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - Neither agree nor disagree
4 - Agree
5 - Strongly agree
For each of the following statements, please select the response which best describes your work situation...
‘Your manager helps and supports you’
‘Your colleagues help and support you’
‘Your job gives you the feeling of work well done’
Recommended response scale
1 - Always
2 - Most of the time
3 - Sometimes
4 - Rarely
5 - Never
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[description] => Our report Drivers of wellbeing inequalities showed that the lower your wellbeing, the bigger the impact access to green and blue ( blue is rivers, canals, seaside) spaces, waterscapes, and heritage makes. Greater engagement in heritage activities and the use of green space for health, exercise or recreation is associated with lower inequality in life satisfaction in local areas. There are practice examples of interventions that work with different communities to improve wellbeing through natural environments on land and water.
Recent surveys in England have found that 95% of adults think it is important to look after heritage buildings; 73% had visited a heritage site over twelve months; over 315,000 people were heritage volunteers; and 80% of people thought that local heritage makes their area a better place to live (DCMS, 2015; Historic England, 2017).
This section looks at the evidence on the broader wellbeing impacts of the environment and heritage on wellbeing.
You can learn more on the Place and community page to learn more about wellbeing impacts on heritage and environment in local communities.
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[description] => Our evidence reviews, analysis, and guidance focus on:
Good governance for wellbeing looks likely to be governments and organisations that are competent, fair and caring. Our relationship with our government affects, and is affected by, our wellbeing. When people are satisfied with the way they are governed, wellbeing is higher and more equal. Using the World Bank indicators , analysis shows that what ranks highest in importance for people are ‘effectiveness of government services and efficiency of government and policy delivery’. How we do government matters too.
This is particularly important at lower GDP levels, but still holds true in richer countries. The European Social Survey suggests that once a country reaches a good level of GDP, other governance factors become important, particularly ‘voice and accountability’, ‘political stability’ and ‘absence of violence and terrorism’. The latter highlights the importance of feeling safe.
There is also evidence suggesting that people who participate in their communities are also active in political life .
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[description] => Our online guidance builds on the existing evidence of what works to improve wellbeing in the workplace .
When it comes to improving wellbeing in the workplace, context matters. The guidance sets out three questions to ask yourself when thinking about how you can improve wellbeing. It then outlines five principles for action that can underpin any activities, policies, or approaches to make them more likely to be sustainable.
We have also created guidance for improving staff wellbeing that is specific to educational settings .
Making wellbeing improvement cost-effective We have developed a cost-effectiveness calculator for anyone carrying out, or planning to carry out, activities or projects to improve workplace wellbeing.
Download the cost-effectiveness calculator
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[name] => Higher education: student and staff wellbeing and mental health
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[description] => There is a lot of interest in what can be done to improve student mental health and wellbeing in higher and further education. We have been working with Universities UK, Student Minds, Student Mental Health Research Network (SMaRteN ) Office for Students and Universities of East Anglia and Liverpool and Brunel University London to support learning from what's being done so well-intentioned action doesn't do harm and we build on what's already know. From our work on adult learning with University of East Anglia we identified an evidence gap on student mental health and wellbeing interventions.
We worked with University of Liverpool to do a Review of Reviews on Student Mental Health and Wellbeing interventions.
Here is an overview of other evidence relevant for Higher and Further Education in partnership with Universities UK.
Mental health matters to overall wellbeing at all stages of life and its impact is relatively big. There is growing interest in taking action to improve mental health, and promote wellbeing, in a wide range of organisations including in Higher and Further Education.
Through research and clinical education universities and colleges play an important role in improving mental health and wellbeing in the UK. How universities and colleges create the conditions for those studying and working there, like in schools, workplaces and communities, is now getting greater
attention and funding.
Making sure that what is done is effective, cost-effective and, even if well-intentioned, doesn’t cause harm, is now a priority. This research aims to establish the global evidence base for all sectors to build on.
The biggest drivers of adult wellbeing (16 years and up) are:
Emotional and physical health
Partner relationship
Employment
Find out more about the
Centre’s work on lifelong wellbeing
From the Centre
From other sources:
From the Centre:
From other sources:
Evidence from the Centre:
Evidence from other sources:
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Even though your department has specific objectives, your overarching aim in central or local government is to improve people’s lives.
Good advice for decision-making should consider all the important impacts on people’s lives. There is a large research literature that has identified the statistical predictors of human wellbeing, which we can use to develop and deliver better policies.
What do you do differently when you include wellbeing?
Considering the wellbeing evidence changes decisions at three levels:
Strategic level
Define the objective: a focus on improving people’s lives, improving wellbeing
Policy or project level
Design in wellbeing when developing options
Design options which improve wellbeing, based on the evidence
Use the wellbeing evidence to better achieve outcomes, since wellbeing in turn improves productivity, health and pro-social behaviours
Appraising options
Understand and compare the wellbeing impacts in appraisal. Support the estimates in social cost benefit analysis by:
Consider the full potential impacts
Quantify wellbeing impacts and monetising where possible
Reflect the impacts on different groups
In some cases, wellbeing will fully capture all the outcomes affected by a proposal. For example, improving social relations or improving wellbeing in a classroom.
In this case, we can consistently compare options using wellbeing as the unit of benefit, rather than translating via monetary benefits. This means that subjective wellbeing can be used as the outcome variable for Social Cost Effectiveness Analysis.
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[description] => In our role as an independent collaborating centre and thought leader, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing brings together the disparate theoretical threads to draw out what this means, practically, for decision makers. The Centre recognises wellbeing as a multi-dimensional concept, where a range of definitions and measures may apply and are useful for different purposes.
We don’t have just one measure of health or illness; we have many different tools designed to help us understand each in different situations. We’d like to encourage discussion of how different approaches to understanding and measuring wellbeing might be applied as ‘the best tool for the job’ in different situations as well.
This series of discussion papers, 'how-to guides', and sector perspectives include inputs from leaders in the field. It draws together views of how we could define and measure wellbeing and use this in decision-making in different sectors across UK.
Our Measuring Wellbeing series includes
Related content and discussion
Using measures in practice
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[description] => All things being equal, economic growth is good for wellbeing. But this is not automatic and can miss other things that matter. GDP is the fifth biggest driver of difference between high and low wellbeing countries. Growth gives us choices but is no guarantee of wellbeing. It is clear that:
The higher our income the less influence an increase has on our wellbeing and we get used to increases (we adapt). For example, £10 makes a much bigger difference to someone on minimum wage compared to someone already earning £35,000 a year. This means we need to balance with other sources of wellbeing.
We feel loses more than gains - You lose more wellbeing from a fall in income than you gain in wellbeing from an equal rise in income.
Our perception of other people’s wealth, relative to our own, makes a difference to how we rate our wellbeing.
Expenditure has a greater impact than level of income alone.
There is no clear relation between average rate of economic growth and average employment rate. It is clear that unemployment has surprisingly big impacts on wellbeing, similar to that of bereavement and larger than can be explained by loss of income alone; and that we do not adapt, or get used to, being unemployed.
Community levels of deprivation matter for our individual wellbeing , over and above our own personal situation.
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[description] => Wellbeing in practice can be:
A goal for society or progress like the HMT Green Book describes wellbeing as 'social welfare'.
A framework, often based ongoing conversation about what matters , using outcomes and indicators .
Personal agency, power, responsibility and control are a part of our wellbeing: freedom to choose what we do in our life is second biggest driver of wellbeing. How organisations work with people to feel control and agency over their lives and communities can make a difference.
Joint decision-making encompasses or overlaps with concepts like democracy, devolution, open policy making,
community empowerment , co-creation,
co-production , inclusion and diversity, voice and accountability, rights, power and responsibilities, agency and control.
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[name] => Knowledge use & implementation
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[description] => Knowledge use and implementation - why is it important?
What is the use of research evidence if it is then not used?
Whilst knowing ‘What Works’ is important, it is only part of the journey. It is important to know ‘How it works’ and most importantly ‘how to use and implement what we know works’.
We are building a learning system for wellbeing.
We are aiming for there to be effective, do-able, affordable wellbeing improving projects, programmes and approaches. These can be done by everyone, or offer learning for those trying them.
This means that people who can and need to use evidence
know about it, and can find it
find it useful, and can use it
can contribute to what is known.
Decisions are made all the time . They will be made with or without evidence. Better decisions can be made if they are informed by good evidence. Evidence helps us learn, and can take a wide range of forms, some are more useful than others.
How do we improve how evidence informs decision-making in governments, businesses, communities and for individual people?
Successful knowledge brokers need to be trusted, robust, relevant and communicate well. This is based on research by Dr Lenihan “Institutionalising evidence-based policy: international insights into knowledge brokerage .” and is embodied in our governance, processes and approach: independent, evidence-based, collaborative, practical, iterative and open
Using the Science of knowledge mobilisation at the Centre
Setting up the Centre we did four things to ensure that what we did is evidence informed, relevant and useful:
Evidence review of What Works for Research Use Public dialogues Stakeholder engagement
Delphi approach to culture & sport programme led by Brunel University LondonMethods Guide for our reviews
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[name] => Loneliness
[slug] => loneliness
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[description] => Our relationships and positive social connections are essential for us to thrive.
Having someone to rely on in times of trouble is the top driver of difference between high and low wellbeing countries. Our partner relationship is the second biggest driver of overall life satisfaction.
The quality of our relationships and friendships at home, at work and in our communities matter.
Loneliness and wellbeing
If we feel lonely most or all of the time, it can have a serious impact on our wellbeing, and our ability to function in society. As loneliness has been linked to poor physical health, mental health, and poor personal wellbeing - with potentially adverse effects on communities - it is an issue of increasing interest to national and local government, as well as internationally.
Loneliness and social isolation
Loneliness is different to social isolation, in that we can have any number of connections with family, friends, or other people, and still feel lonely. Loneliness can also be usefully distinguished from solitude - which has positive associations for the person experiencing it.
We have been building the evidence base on the different types of loneliness, and what works to reduce it across the lifecourse.
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[name] => Maximise your local area wellbeing
[slug] => local-authorities-support
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[description] => Knowing ‘What Works’ to maximise wellbeing is important; but it is only part of the journey. It is important to know ‘how it works’ and most importantly ‘how to use and implement what we know works’. We are on a mission to build a learning system for wellbeing .
We have partnered with a small group of Local Authorities to explore how to prepare local government policy in a way that maximises local wellbeing. These are:
Supported by our dedicated Local Authority lead, Joanne Smithson, our six-month programme provides tailored support to place wellbeing evidence at the heart of policy.
Working together, we are building a learning community, providing a safe space for policy makers to reflect, share ideas, experiences and collectively improve.
Over a six month period, from April to September 2021, we are testing a range of tools and techniques to:
Define what wellbeing means in local areas Gather wellbeing data and assess wellbeing need Source evidence of what works to improve wellbeing and review how this applies in each area Select measures to understanding wellbeing impact Effectively review and evaluate policy
Webinars
10.03.2021 Working out what works in wellbeing - NHS Employers conference (download the visual summary )
16.03.2021 Strategic space and policy skills (download the slide deck )
18.03.2021 Wellbeing 101 (download the slide decks - part A and part B )
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[name] => Measuring children's subjective wellbeing
[slug] => measuring-childrens-subjective-wellbeing
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[description] => Wellbeing is ‘how we’re doing’ and how sustainable that is for the future. We are aiming to improve wellbeing for the whole population in the UK, including for children and young people - who are our future. This means we need to be looking regularly at how our young people are doing. While we have very good national data on the wellbeing of adults , the national statistics on children and young people's wellbeing in the UK, although robust and collected over a long period of time, is a small sample provided by Children’s Society and more recently the Big Ask survey from the Children's Commissioner.
In partnership with The Children’s Society , we are publishing a comprehensive bank of measures of children's wellbeing. This will help schools, colleges, universities and other settings measure the wellbeing of the children in their care.
It is supported by the Health Foundation , an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK.
Resources in this project:
A conceptual report explaining the differences between three core domains of subjective wellbeing – cognitive, affective and eudemonic - and other related concepts commonly used in the children’s wellbeing literature (e.g. mental health, resilience).>Download the conceptual framework here. A searchable bank of measures , a resource for policy makers and practitioners to identify appropriate measures for children's wellbeing for use in their specific context. This bank of measures is being developed through a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) methodology to identify, collate and appraise the quality of existing measures.
>Download the measures bank here.
A user guide to help navigate the measures bank and make informed decisions when choosing different measures, taking into account ethical and practical considerations.>Download the user guide here. blog on this topic .
#BeeWell
These measures are used by an increasing number of settings and the #BeeWell project will be trialling them across Greater Manchester secondary schools over the next three years.
#BeeWell is a good example of measuring young peoples' wellbeing at large scale, using validated measures. Its methodology - driven by young people and refined by a panel of expert academics - is a great platform towards achieving this broader objective.
Existing research
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[name] => Measuring wellbeing
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[name] => Mental and physical health
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[description] => Our experience and perception of our mental and physical health is the biggest single factor that explains , on average, how we rate our wellbeing. Good health is associated with higher life satisfaction. When it comes to poor health, r ecent acute health problems affect wellbeing the most. But longer-term chronic ill health also has an effect on wellbeing.
Yet it is still possible to experience poor mental and physical health and rate our wellbeing highly, or vice versa. This is because health and wellbeing are different, but clearly linked. The effect of wellbeing on health is substantial - but variable - and comparable to other risk factors more traditionally targeted by public health, such as a healthy diet.
Our evidence, guidance, and analysis on mental and physical health focuses on:
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[name] => National wellbeing measures and methods
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[name] => ONS data analysis
[slug] => ons-data-analysis
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[description] =>
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[name] => Places and community
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[description] => The places where we live, work and spend time clearly have an impact on our wellbeing. So do the people we know - and encounter - in these places. For example, we know that there are spillover community effects of crime - and knock-on effects of social fragmentation, and deprivation - on our individual wellbeing regardless of whether these things affect us directly.
But what works when it comes to effective policy and practice to improve both individual and community wellbeing? And how do we measure things like community wellbeing: why can't we just add up all the reported individual wellbeing scores in an area?
Our evidence, analysis and guidance looks at how community wellbeing can be understood and improved. Our research looks at:
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[name] => Policy tools
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[description] => Wellbeing policy tools for decision-makers
Policy tools to help you think through how to improve the outcomes that matter to people’s lives.
How can this help you?
This draft set of tools and frameworks supports you to think through impact on people’s lives at different stages of public policy development and delivery. They have been developed in workshops with a wide range of types of teams in public, private and civil society sectors.
>>Go to the Policy Tools website What is social prescribing?
Social prescribing is a way of linking people with sources of support within the community to improve their health and wellbeing.
Social prescribing enables local organisations, including GP practices, to refer people to a link worker. Link workers give people time and focus on what matters to the person through shared decision making, personalised care and support planning.
Link workers can draw on a range of evidence informed models to guide conversations on personal wellbeing.
Evidence-informed models
PERMA Plus
Developed by the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, this model identifies factors that allow individuals, communities and societies to flourish.
Download the PDF P ositive emotion
E ngagement
R elationships
M eaning
A chievement
Plus
Sleep
Nutrition (five vegetables and two fruits a day)
Physical activity
Optimism
Five Ways to Wellbeing
Five Ways to Wellbeing was developed by the New Economics Foundation as part of the Government’s Foresight project on Mental Capacity and Wellbeing.
Read our blogs on Five Ways to Wellbeing and the evidence gaps .
The model identifies five evidence-based actions to improve wellbeing
Connect
Be active
Take notice
Keep learning
Give
10 Keys to Happier Living
Ten Keys to Happier Living identifies actions that consistently tend to have a positive impact on people's happiness and wellbeing. The first five keys (GREAT) are about how we interact with the outside world in our daily activities. They are based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing . The second five keys (DREAM) come from inside us and depend on our attitude to life.
Other useful resources for social prescribing
The Health Foundation – What makes us healthy
The Health Foundation has prepared a series of infographics, accompanying blogs and commentaries to describe and explain the social determinants of health in an accessible and engaging way.
C3 Collaborating for Health
Based in London, this global NGO builds multi-sector collaborations to address non-communicable diseases’ leading risk factors by promoting three behaviour changes:
improving what we eat and drink
stopping smoking
increasing physical activity
Wellbeing outcome measurement
Local areas are using a range of wellbeing outcome measurement tools, such as the ONS wellbeing scale and the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) to measure the impact of their social prescribing activity.
The What Works Centre for Wellbeing has online guidance to help organisations understand, measure, evaluation and analyse their wellbeing impact.
If you’ve carried out an evaluation of an intervention that used a wellbeing framework, or are planning to, please let us know so we can begin building an evidence base. You can email us at info@whatworkswellbeing.org .
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[name] => Teens and young adults: loneliness and wellbeing
[slug] => loneliness-teens-young-adults
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[description] => Loneliness is increasingly recognised as a serious public health concern within the UK, with robust links to physical health, use of health care services, and early mortality.
Though loneliness has historically been viewed as an issue amongst older adults, recent research has shown elevated levels of loneliness among young people, with effects accumulating across the lifespan.
This project focuses exclusively on young people, and leverages data from three large UK data resources to identify individual and community factors associated with loneliness, differentiate loneliness from related aspects of social wellbeing, and investigate the impact of loneliness on personal wellbeing and mental health.
Findings from the project will allow for early identification of risk and protective factors for loneliness that subsequently inform the design of public policy aimed at alleviating loneliness, and improving personal wellbeing and mental health.
You can sign up to our evidence alerts to find out more as this research progresses throughout 2020.
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[name] => Understanding social isolation and loneliness at different ages
[slug] => social-isolation-lifecourse
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[description] => The research project, led by Dr Praveetha Patalay, aims to examine the links between social isolation, loneliness and wellbeing.
Using data from five British longitudinal cohort studies – following children born in 1946, 1958, 1970, 1989-90 and 2000-01 - her team will look at whether levels of social connectedness and loneliness, and their relationship to subjective wellbeing, change over people’s lives. They will then investigate whether these patterns vary between generations.
Despite an increase in policy interest, there is little evidence documenting the associations between social isolation, loneliness and subjective wellbeing across our lives and between generations. This research project aims to address this gap, while also generating a range of comparable ‘harmonised’ measures of social isolation for future research.
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[name] => Volunteering
[slug] => volunteering-wellbeing-places
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[description] => The Institute for Volunteering Research, Spirit of 2012, and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing today publish new research revealing how volunteering can increase wellbeing, and how charities can avoid volunteer burnout as they plan their response to the knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most people in Great Britain - around seven in ten - formally volunteer through a group, club or organisation at some point in their lives. They offer invaluable support to improve the lives of other people.
The main findings of the comprehensive review that looked at over 17,000 published reports, and included evidence from 158 studies from the UK and internationally, are:
Volunteering is associated with enhanced wellbeing, including improved life satisfaction, increased happiness and decreases in symptoms of depression. Volunteering fits into the wellbeing cycle of communities. Either because volunteering leads to improved wellbeing for volunteers, or because when people feel well they are more likely to get involved. Older people, the unemployed and those who already have chronic ill health and low wellbeing gain more from volunteering than others. Volunteering also has a buffering role for those going through life transitions, such as retirement or bereavement. Groups with the most to gain from volunteering face barriers to getting involved because of lack of opportunity. Ill-health and disability are particular barriers for low income groups. The intensity and demands of some volunteer roles may have a negative effect. The way volunteers are involved and engaged can enhance or hinder the positive wellbeing effects of volunteering.
The report highlights four key areas - and gives guidance - on how organisations improve the wellbeing of their volunteers.
Being more inclusive. Increasing connectedness. Creating a more balanced volunteering experience. Making volunteering meaningful.
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[name] => Wellbeing economics and analysis
[slug] => wellbeing-economics-and-analysis
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[description] => Traditionally, economics is a social science primarily concerned with production, consumption, and transfer of wealth .
More pluralist approaches to economics draw on diverse voices, perspectives and approaches to understand how to organise society to achieve broader goals, such as ensuring sustainable, resilient and inclusive economies.
Wellbeing economics is about using science and evidence to organise society in a way that optimises wellbeing outcomes .
Our work in this area aims to support you to:
use and understand the wellbeing data and measures that now exist develop the methodology for using wellbeing data and evidence in decision-making, including the field of wellbeing economics. increase the use of comparable measures across sectors and disciplines.
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[name] => Work
[slug] => work
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[description] => Whether we have a job or not is the third biggest factor associated with our wellbeing, after our mental and physical health and our personal relationships. Being out of work damages wellbeing for everyone , regardless of age, gender, location, ethnicity, and level of education. The effect is as big as bereavement. We do not adapt to unemployment and the effects can worsen with time.But beyond employment, the quality of our jobs matters for our wellbeing . Life satisfaction peaks at 23 and 68 and is at its lowest during working life. Improving wellbeing at work looks to be possible both by direct and indirect approaches. By quality, we’re not talking about any specific type of job, but the conditions that help us thrive in the workplace . So, what does a good job look like?
Here is a list of resources we have developed in this area across a range of topics:
Explore all our work-related resources .
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[name] => Work and Covid-19
[slug] => workplace-wellbeing-during-and-after-covid-19
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[description] => Sign up to receive a special focus 12-email series on employee wellbeing How can work affect our sense of purpose?
How are your colleagues getting on?
How happy are your employees?
Do your employees feel safe?
Are you developing your existing talent?
Is work-life conflict affecting your employee wellbeing?
Are you or your staff worried about money?
Want to improve employee wellbeing, but don't know where to start?
Do your employees feel they are treated fairly?
How do you know which wellbeing activities are effective for your employees?
Together we will:
Make the case for putting wellbeing at the heart of palliative and end of life care and services, especially in Advance Care Planning conversations
Provide a space for practitioners show their experience and insights of putting wellbeing the heart of hospice and palliative care
Showcase research that can help policy makers and practitioners design better, wellbeing-focused services
Bring together a collaborative network of interested practitioners, policy makers and researchers to share learning and ideas
To join the Dying Well network email joanne.smithson@whatworkswellbeing.org sign up to our evidence alerts .
Dying Well is a collaborative programme of work in partnership with Clair Fisher . Read Clair's blog on how wellbeing evidence can improve the lives of people with terminal illness.
Dying Well Conversations
This is a series of conversations about wellbeing and terminal illness which took place in April and May 2021. We are bringing together practitioners, academics and individuals to talk about what really matters to people with life-limiting or terminal illness, and how to develop support which puts their wellbeing - and that of their families - at the heart.
27.04.2021 - Conversations at the end of life
We'll be publishing a series of blogs from research, policy and practice on wellbeing and terminal illness. If you have a study, story, or project to share please get in touch!
Watch this space for a podcast too.
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Building Connections Fund: Evaluation and Learning
Business Leaders' Council
Carers' Music Fund
Covid-19
Covid:WIRED
Culture, arts and sport
Data and analysis
Early evidence of Covid-19 inequalities
Education and learning
Employee wellbeing snapshot survey
Environment
Government and public policy
Guidance for better workplace wellbeing
Higher education: student and staff wellbeing and mental health
HMT Green Book Appraisal Guidance
Improving use of wellbeing in research and practice - Methods Series
Income and economy
Joint decision making, co-production and democracy
Knowledge use & implementation
Loneliness
Maximise your local area wellbeing
Measuring children's subjective wellbeing
Measuring wellbeing
Mental and physical health
National wellbeing measures and methods
ONS data analysis
Places and community
Policy tools
Social prescribing models and resources
Teens and young adults: loneliness and wellbeing
Understanding social isolation and loneliness at different ages
Volunteering
Wellbeing economics and analysis
Work
Work and Covid-19
Work and terminal illness
