Make improving children's wellbeing explicit aim of all work

Wellbeing isn’t a fluffy concept, it affects every aspect of a child’s life. Children and young people are telling us that school, their friendships and worries over their appearance are making them feel unhappy with their lives. Alarmingly, this year we have found that those children who are unhappy with their lives at age 14 are more likely by the age of 17 to have symptoms of mental-ill health, to have self-harmed, or even made an attempt on their own life.

There is often much – important – focus on the early years for children. But our research shows that the teen years are a vitally important time too to change the story for young people. Working with young people who are unhappy during adolescence, tackling those factors that are making them unhappy, giving them time, tools and support to build supportive relationships and address bullying might result in drastically different outcomes for these children by 17.