The Gap Between Wellbeing Research And What’s Delivered In Schools

I was at a conference for schools recently and part of my frustration was that it feels as though we are going round and round in circles, with the same conversations with little change. ‘What do you do to support student wellbeing’, ‘how can be better support staff wellbeing’, ‘how do you priortise your own wellbeing’ and the list goes on. Meanwhile the data shows that year on year, the mental health and wellbeing of young people is not improving. Why is this the case? 

I have the upmost empathy for schools, having spent a decade working in the education system, I was able to see some of the challenges they face in terms of shoehorning many different mandated requirements into an already crowded schedule. I think that one thing all schools would ask for is time. This certainly gets in the way for some schools as they ask where they are supposed to fit the time in.  

However, what I have also noticed, is the way in which wellbeing is still treated like a bolt on. You will so often see any job related to wellbeing being attached to another position, the worst offender for this in my opinion is a ‘head of safeguarding and wellbeing’. Taking the position as head of safeguarding is an enormous responsibility, whilst it is of course everyone’s responsibility, taking accountability for it is no small ask. It would be impossible to find the time in any 40-hour week to devote enough time to both. It is refreshing to see some school add the title of Head of Wellbeing to their SLT, a move that I very much endorse. The position for Head of Wellbeing needs to be taken by an individual that has a qualification in that field, not someone that has a passion for it, this is where I feel we get stuck and why we aren’t seeing the changes we desire generally. 

Mckinsey estimates the global wellness market at more than $1.5 trillion, with annual growth of 5 to 10 percent. In their 2021 paper, Kamalulil and Errna Nadhirah highlighted the rise in research in the field of wellbeing as illustrated in figure 1. As you can see, the sheer volume of research has dramatically increased recently and continues to rise, which on the one hand is fantastic as we gauge what’s effective and what can be taught, however on the other hand, it’s totally overwhelming. Keeping up with research is exhausting and it’s moving too fast to maintain best practice.