All Categories
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[name] => Business Leaders' Council
[slug] => 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.
Next meeting
tbc
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 analysis:
Analysis of ONS Annual Population Survey before and during the pandemic:
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[name] => Covid:WIRED
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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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[name] => Culture, arts and sport
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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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[name] => Data and analysis
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[description] => The following blogs are a useful starting point
Happy people wear seatbelts 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 What do we know about the drivers of wellbeing inequality? All the Centre's blogs and guest blogs on the UK wellbeing data How is the UK, as a whole, doing? 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? 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 has focussed on:
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[name] => Emotional 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, recent 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 focusses on:
Delivering National Public Mental Health
Visual arts and mental heath
Wellbeing training in healthcare settings
Finding and keeping work
Sport and dance for young people
Teen mental health and educational attainment
Student mental health
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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 .
The recommended questions and scales
Download the survey as a Word document.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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[name] => Environment
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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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[name] => Government and public policy
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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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[name] => Guidance for better workplace wellbeing
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[description] => This 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.
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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[name] => HMT Green Book Appraisal Guidance
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[description] =>
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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[name] => Improving use of wellbeing in research and practice - Methods Series
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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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[name] => Joint decision making, co-production and democracy
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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
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[description] => Our loneliness and connection work focuses on understanding how wellbeing impacts loneliness and social isolation, and what works to alleviate it.
We help to develop rigorous evidence around what really helps to create and strengthen meaningful social connections, and work with governments and communities to put these findings into action and improve people's lives.
We also help organisations to understand how their activities can improve the overall wellbeing of the people they work with.
Why is this important?
The quality of our relationships and friendships at home, at work and in our communities matter, and positive social connections are essential for us to thrive. It’s been proven that:
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.
Loneliness has been linked to poor physical health, mental health, and poor personal wellbeing – with potentially adverse effects on communities.
Campaign to End Loneliness
In January 2021, we formally began working with the Campaign to End Loneliness Projects and resources
(These will be pulled in automatically as visual tiles)
Loneliness Conceptual review
Brief guide to measuring loneliness
Tackling loneliness review of reviews
Who is at risk of the lowest wellbeing and loneliness?
Building Connections Fund
SDAIs:
Teens and young adults - loneliness and wellbeing
Understanding social isolation and loneliness at different ages
Social relations and wellbeing
Dying Well
Covid-19 - loneliness and mental health
Student mental health
Adolescent mental health and educational outcomes
Children’s mental illness and wellbeing at age 11
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[name] => Maximise your local area wellbeing: tailored support for local authorities
[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 wellbeing
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[description] =>
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[name] => Methods, measures and wellbeing economics
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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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[description] => What we do Our evidence, analysis and guidance looks at what works when it comes to effective policy and practice to improve individual and community wellbeing, how we measure community wellbeing and how it can be understood and improved. We do this by looking at:
How we relate to, and are interrelated with, other people in our community.
Do people feel they have the power to participate in local decision-making?
Does the place they live in have spaces, events or neighbourhoods to mix with other members of their community?
Why is this important? 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. Community wellbeing can be defined as ‘being well together.’ It is about the strength of networks and support between people in a community and is impacted by:
The physical conditions of the community The opportunity to participate and have a say in the local area.
For example we know that there are spill over effects of crime, social fragmentation, and deprivation on our individual wellbeing regardless of whether these things affect us directly.
Projects and resources What do we know?
There is strong theoretical literature on why community engagement is crucial to how we survive and thrive and emerging data shows the benefits for wellbeing.
But there remains a paucity of high-quality, large-scale, and longitudinal research on which community activities affect our wellbeing, whether they be arts engagement, volunteering or sport and who is most likely to benefit.
What will we do?
Our project will analyse what the benefits of community engagement are for wellbeing, who benefits most, and how to encourage community engagement amongst different populations. By the end of the project, our objective is to have published new rigorous high impact research which will be of immediate relevance to policy makers, commissioners, investors and organisations.
The programme is funded by the Economic Social and Research Council (ESRC).
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[name] => Social prescribing models and resources
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[description] => 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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[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] => Work and Covid-19
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[description] => Following the success of our 12-week email series of evidence-informed action to protect staff wellbeing.
Offering the best available evidence on what works to maintain wellbeing, and support adaptation to the new realities of working. Even better, the insights will still be relevant after the pandemic.
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?
What we do Our focus is on wellbeing in the workplace, job quality, work through the life course, and continued learning. Why is this important? Very few things impact wellbeing as much as work, and 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. We know that:
Being out of work damages wellbeing for everyone, regardless of age, gender, location, ethnicity, level of education, the effect is as big as bereavement. We do not adapt to unemployment and the effects can worsen with time. Beyond employment, the quality of our job matters for our wellbeing. Life satisfaction peaks at 23 and 68 and is at its lowest during working life. A supportive and effective workplace appears to be key for employee wellbeing.
Projects and resources 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
Emotional and physical health
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
Joint decision making, co-production and democracy
Knowledge use & implementation
Loneliness
Maximise your local area wellbeing: tailored support for local authorities
Measuring wellbeing
Methods, measures and wellbeing economics
Places and community
Social prescribing data analysis: WELLCOMM
Social prescribing models and resources
Volunteering
Work and Covid-19
Working age and business
