A proposed amendment to the government’s schools bill presents a timely opportunity to ensure we finally develop a system to measure young people’s wellbeing. I will be supporting it in the House of Lords, and here’s why you should support it too.
New YouGov polling shows that 66 per cent of parents consider pupil wellbeing an important factor when choosing a secondary school, more so than school location (62 per cent), facilities (61 per cent), school culture and ethos (56 per cent), or Ofsted rating (52 per cent). Notably, only 43 per cent cited exam results.
They’re right to prioritise this, because the facts are alarming. In the latest PISA survey, our pupils ranked 70th out of 73 for life satisfaction. One in five reports low wellbeing, with serious implications for learning, mental health, and our economy.
An annual survey co-developed with young people, schools, local government, the voluntary sector and public health teams is an essential first step. Indeed, 75 per cent of parents agree that measuring young people’s wellbeing is essential if we want to improve it.
We don’t need to start from scratch. England has already taken steps in this direction.
The Office for National Statistics regularly gathers headline data and has developed indicators to explain why children and young people feel the way they feel. And a government-led attempt to create a Child Wellbeing Index in 2013, while short-lived, provided valuable insights.
But these efforts remain partial. They don’t offer the breadth, consistency or local granularity needed to inform action.
Meanwhile, examples from The Children’s Society, #BeeWell and Coram Voice’s work with care-experienced young people show what’s possible when data is gathered with care and purpose. But these efforts cannot gather all the data, and many fall through the cracks.
What we need is a national wellbeing measurement programme that is consistent and inclusive.
This isn’t about adding more burden onto schools
This isn’t about adding more burden onto schools. It’s about equipping them, communities and policymakers with the insight they need to improve children and young people’s lives: a tool for support, not a stick for accountability.
Schools are already responsible for many aspects of children and young people’s wellbeing: safeguarding, mental health and a rich curriculum. But each school context is different, and the current system rightly allows leaders to make their own decisions about how to meet these responsibilities.
That’s why a national wellbeing measurement programme must be voluntary for children and young people, for parents and for school leaders. This approach respects local autonomy and builds mutual trust.
It also works. In Wales, the School Health Research Network survey is voluntary, yet more than 90 per cent of secondary schools and 75 per cent of pupils take part.
That’s because the data are useful. Schools can see value in the insight they receive and use it to guide their practice.
Confidentiality and data protection are vital, of course, not just for their own sake but to encourage honest responses and high engagement. They also mean that wellbeing data should not – and cannot – be used as an accountability tool.
Instead, the focus should be on the actions schools and others take in response to what they learn. A national programme would enable cross-sector collaboration – from health to youth services to education – around the needs of children and young people.
Because wellbeing isn’t just built in schools. It’s shaped at home, in youth clubs, playgrounds, and online.
And because better data leads to better decisions, but incomplete or inconsistent data risks doing harm. As Baroness Louise Casey warned recently when reflecting on the failure to collect ethnicity data on grooming gangs: “Don’t half collect it. That’s a bloody disaster, frankly.”
When it comes to wellbeing, the stakes are just as high. If we want to shift from firefighting crises to offering earlier, more effective support, we need better information to guide schools, inform local services and shape national policy.
With careful design, we can ensure the programme supports schools, empowers young people and delivers better outcomes.
If we treasure children and young people’s wellbeing as parents do, we must start to measure it.
Not to judge, but to improve.
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