Children's wellbeing

The UK is facing a crisis in children’s wellbeing. The life satisfaction of our children has been declining since 2011/12 and an international survey from the OECD ranked the wellbeing of the UK’s children  71st out of the 74 participating countries. Charities, policymakers, businesses and funders need to work together to find solutions that can help to tackle and reverse this trend, and improve outcomes for young people.

Yet the causes of this cascade of low wellbeing are complex and contested, and the solutions are necessarily complex too. Various and variable evidence shows that girls, displaced children and young people, disabled children and young people, LGBT+ children and young people, and black boys are all disproportionately impacted by low wellbeing. Poverty, the family environment, adverse experiences, caring responsibilities, bullying, and the school environment can all affect how hopeful and happy children feel.

But the systems set up to support children’s wellbeing are under real strain. Recent PBE research has shown that over the past 12 years, combined spending on early intervention services, such as Sure Start children’s centres, family support services and services for young people, has fallen by more than 45%, while total expenditure on late interventions, like youth justice, safeguarding and child protection, and children in care, has risen by almost half (47%). More children are falling into situations where they are likely to be deeply unhappy now and into adulthood.

PBE works with a range of charities dedicated to improving children’s wellbeing, from providing trusted adults to providing counselling, from arts interventions in the most disadvantaged schools to intensive support in Pupil Referral Units. We help charities, funders and policymakers alike understand more about what affects children’s wellbeing and what can improve it.

But one of the big barriers to improving children’s wellbeing is the lack of data. While some parts of the country do measure at least some children’s wellbeing in detail, with PBE’s partners #BeeWell leading the way, most of the country does not. That means teachers, healthcare practitioners, policymakers and parents lack a good understanding of how happy the country’s children are, and it limits their understanding of how to improve that happiness. PBE is encouraging policymakers to commit to measuring all children’s wellbeing regularly and routinely, as a first step towards evidence-based solutions to the children’s wellbeing crisis.