State of Life

What really makes our life happier and healthier or perhaps more importantly just less miserable? Here it is - years of work in one big picture. Where’s WELLBY? This poster is a guide to a happier and healthier life. It’s not an exhaustive list but an attempt to capture in one place those things that really matter and how they compare in value and importance. It's a uniquely useful guide to help individuals, organisations and even nations prioritise their investment of time, energy and funding. Working in wellbeing for nearly 10 years we were waiting for someone to do this. No-one did. So we made a start and got it illustrated with suitable skill and humour by the superb Simon Ecob (of Viz comic fame). Alongside the poster is our set of tools and guidance that can help you make a start on understanding and measuring social value and wellbeing. We use the new HM Treasury recommended measure of economic value for wellbeing - the WELLBY. Alongside the poster is a technical report on how we arrive at the figures using some of the best data sets and analysis techniques available. And it's ON SALE NOW. £6 download or £20 for a glorious A2 poster for the wall of your office, bedroom or loo. https://lnkd.in/e_4ebfEE #wellbeing #economics #investment

What Wes Wants. Strong evidence of the effectiveness of community-based healthcare. Some of State Of Life's best work to date with a brave and smart bunch at GM Active CIC https://lnkd.in/e-Bpm9du

🚨 Big news, folks! 🚨 We’re working with Sizewell C to develop a robust social value framework – setting out a shared strategy, a clear approach to measurement and valuation, and a practical scope for ongoing evaluation. As the first majority British-owned nuclear energy project for over 30 years, this major infrastructure project has got a big opportunity to deliver not just energy, but to deliver for people, the local environment, and the wider economy, too. The project is led by our Chief Economist, Dr. Allan Little, who co-authored the HM Treasury Green Book guidance on wellbeing for appraisal, and previously headed the Carbon Centre of Excellence at the Department for Transport. He knows his stuff – and, frankly, prefers a well-structured spreadsheet to small talk. We’re drawing on our experience producing the Tideway London Social Value Report for the Tideway Legacy Programme, and aiming to bring the same clarity and rigour to this partnership.

Last month, HM Treasury published its review of the Green Book - part of an effort to improve how public investment decisions serve all parts of the UK. It's a welcome step, with emphasis on regional fairness, simplified guidance, and less reliance on narrow cost-benefit ratios. But one big opportunity remains largely hidden - and it's already written into the Green Book itself - Wellbeing. 👉 Read our latest blog by our Chief Economist, Dr. Allan Little, on why the overhaul of the Green Book guidance next year might be the real moment for change: https://lnkd.in/e9ep2nV6

🌍 The WELLBY World Tour: 8 Countries, 486 communities, 15,000+ participants Between 2022 and 2024, we partnered with Tearfund to evaluate the social impact of their Church and Community Transformation (CCT) programmes across eight countries in Africa and Asia, using a new method to apply WELLBY valuation in low-income contexts. What we found: - Life satisfaction is 0.857 points higher in CCT communities (0-10 scale). - CCT supports 26 out of 28 additional measures of wellbeing, including food security, hope, and financial wellbeing. - For every $1 invested, $13–$29 of social value may be generated. We extend a huge thanks to the incredible team at Tearfund, especially Rebecca Middleton and Rachel Paton, and to the field teams whose work made this possible. Also thanks to our Read more about our lead analyst Rose Fawcett's experience leading this major project from start to finish here: https://lnkd.in/grGvaRse And access the full technical report here: https://lnkd.in/gDhycJ6S

Power to the People! Helen Griffiths FRSA, Tim Hollingsworth OBE have highlighted the risks to parks and playing fields. Swimming pools and Leisure centres are run down, closing or changing hands year after year. Covid revealed the true value of all these community assets but the cash strapped council see the costs. We need a revolution in social value reporting. Credible, affordable reports in the hands of concerned citizens and groups who can and do make life better for us all. Join the Social Value People's Front of State of Life today.... https://lnkd.in/eNkK5Z89

State of Life in the back pages of the match day programme for the Essex FA Cup Final. Worth more than all the peer reviewed academic journals you could possibly wish for. Useful, practical tools for grass roots clubs....power to the people! https://lnkd.in/eVTCvvkw

The word of GOD is... ‘do the NHS out of business’. GOD (Lord Gus O’Donnell), when in government, was to ‘do the NHS out of business’ and the new Health Secretary’s 10 year plan for the NHS has a core principle for health to be delivered in the community. Churches set up the first hospitals hundreds of years ago. Today, they are still at the frontline of health and social care. Churches have set up, hosted and run almost all the foodbanks in the UK (and we have more foodbanks than MacDonald’s outlets). Churches host drug and alchol support groups, childcare, mental health support groups and much, much more. Churches have a massive social and economic value of £55bn (twice the UK social care budget). And now, working with the marvellous client the National Churches Trust (big thanks Eddie Tulasiewicz and Karl Newton) all the Treasury consistent methods, adjustments and big numbers have been put into a simple tool. Now any church, Mosque, or Gurdwara can commnicate their massive social value to their congregation,community and council in a way that is clear, concise and credible. https://lnkd.in/exdivgBF

C Wellby... Let's get technical, technical - I wanna get technical. Let's get into technical. Let me see your body of work talk.... Out today, the work from LSE that we've been involved in around what measures for children's wellbeing. Couldn't be more bleeding edge....what with Pro Bono Economics, #BeeWell on wellbeing in schools. And our work with Ofcom on children's wellbeing and the online harms act. And the new Children's Wellbeing Bill going through the Lords. And the work on value of free PE in schools with Youth Sport Trust. And our work with Sport England on children, wellbeing and levels of activity. The genesis was the brainiacs Allan Little and Christian Krekel with Isaac Parkes crunching the numbers with aplomb. Clever buggers. So - if you are concerned about children's wellbeing and want to know what makes a difference, here's how you can start to measure it and apply the HM Treasury measure of economic value - the WELLBY. Next up - should children's wellbeing be weighted as more valuable than adults, given they have a longer life ahead of them? As any parent knows, you are only has happy as your unhappiest child.... This is perhaps next up for us, LSE. Watch this space. BUT read this first.... https://lnkd.in/em3ASJAv

SHOUTING AT THE RADIO. Here we go again... it's getting alarmingly common. The Today Programme this morning had a story from Dan Roan on how the £400m that went out to sport in the Covid Bail may not be paid back. https://lnkd.in/gDpE-BQy I mean come on. No sh*t. This was blindingly obvious at the time. And we did send Dan Roan our paper attached to call it out. Half the hundreds of millions went to one sport, Rugby Union. Public money to a (very small) sport mainly played and supported by privileged adults and kids - and all the time Basketball, Boxing, Swimming got nothing. Blaming Department for Culture, Media and Sport or Sport England is likely unfair. It was the 'higher ups' who helped their mates from the right schools to get this money. They were likely given no option but to distribute this way by the senior govt. officials at the time. This was the 'VIP Lane' for sport.... Further to 'You cannot be Serious' we also published 'Levelling Up the Playing Field' on how to fix this gross example that typified decades of bias.