The National Lottery Community Fund and #BeeWell join forces to champion young people’s wellbeing in new areas across England

Thousands more young people across England could soon have a stronger voice in shaping their wellbeing support thanks to a £5.5 million grant from The National Lottery Community Fund to #BeeWell. Since 2021, #BeeWell has already listened to the voices of almost 200,000 young people across Greater Manchester and Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, working with over 320 secondary schools.   

The partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund will last until spring 2030, enabling #BeeWell to expand into up to five new locations across England. The grant will also support #BeeWell to continue its work supporting young people in its current locations and build on its ground-breaking research to understand more about essential topics such as how social media use, school attendance and discipline, teenage substance use, loneliness, and the positive impact of arts, culture, entertainment and sport are related to young people’s wellbeing and its drivers.  

The youth-centred programme was developed in response to a growing concern for the wellbeing of young people in England and was founded by The University of Manchester, The Gregson Family Foundation, and Anna Freud, who together with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) launched the programme in 2019. Using a co-created survey, #BeeWell listens to the voices of as many young people as possible; publishes the results privately to schools and publicly by neighbourhood; and aims to drive action across society to improve young people’s wellbeing.   

For the last five years, #BeeWell has provided a platform for young people to voice how they are feeling and what affects their wellbeing and worked with partners to act on what young people say. During this time, in #BeeWell’s two locations, there has been a modest but consistent upward trend in the proportion of young people reporting good levels of psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction, while the number reporting elevated symptoms of emotional difficulties has declined.  

Meera, A young person who has been involved with #BeeWell over several years highlighted the value of #BeeWell’s approach and the impact of feeling that someone is listening.