Schools could track pupils’ happiness in push to improve wellbeing

The happiness of all schoolchildren would be measured under proposals to tackle the mental health epidemic.

In an attempt to understand the causes of the increase in depression and anxiety among young people, ministers are being advised to introduce a nationwide programme to assess the wellbeing of children school by school.

The plan is being championed by senior figures including the former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell and Lord Blunkett, the former education minister. O’Donnell hopes to amend the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is going through the House of Lords, to include provisions that would require ministers to make the change.

It has also been submitted to the forthcoming spending review, with senior figures in government said to be interested.

If enacted, parents and Ofsted inspectors would be able to see how well each school performed in terms of prioritising the wellbeing of pupils in areas such as bullying, social media and sleep deprivation. It would also allow head teachers to identify problems in the school early — and track the wellbeing of pupils as they grow older.

Studies suggest that the UK is one of the least happy countries for children and young people to grow up in. The latest international Pisa survey of education performance among industrialised nations found that the UK ranked 70th out of 73 countries for wellbeing.

It found just 64 per cent of children felt that they belonged at school compared to an OECD average of 75 per cent.

One in four pupils in the UK reported that they were not satisfied with their lives compared with an average of one in 18 among all countries surveyed.

The findings tally with wellbeing studies in schools in Manchester by the BeeWell research programme which found only 55 per cent of 14 to 15-year-olds had good levels of wellbeing, compared with 64 per cent of 11-year-olds.

Experts believe that low rates of wellbeing among children are driving the increase in the number of young people failing to make the transition into the workplace. The number of young people not in education, training or a job has risen to almost a million — the highest level in a decade.

Young people are also the fastest growing group of sickness benefit claimants. Mental health problems thought to be the leading cause. Anxiety and depression are also the most costly category of disability payments, having overtaken arthritis and costing the taxpayer £3.4 billion last year.

O’Donnell said a national programme to assess the mental health of children in schools would cost no more than £20 million a year and would be a “vital” tool to help develop tailored policies to improve outcomes.

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He said: “The impact of mental health on welfare and NHS budgets is huge but our data on young people’s wellbeing is patchy and inconsistent. It’s no coincidence that countries with higher child wellbeing tend to perform better on long-term indicators of productivity, cohesion and resilience. Wellbeing isn’t a distraction from economic progress; it’s a prerequisite for it.”

Blunkett said: “[School] absences are up, exclusions are up and one million children are leaving school and not in education, training or work. In the Pisa survey of life satisfaction we are second from the bottom. There is so much to do.”

He added that he hoped to be able to persuade ministers to back a “light touch” approach that did not put too much pressure on schools but provided meaningful data to help address the problems. “You need to be able to measure it in order to deal with the issues that we’re facing,” he said.

James Robertson, a former Treasury official who is national director of the BeeWell programme, said data from a nationwide survey could influence government missions, including expanding the economy, cutting crime and increasing opportunity.

“If you are looking at preventative measures that will save the government money in the long term, you need to understand what you are dealing with,” Robertson said. “This would help schools, local authorities and central government to utilise the data to change what they do.”