#BeeWell Wednesday: May Newsletter

Welcome to the latest edition of our #BeeWell newsletter!
In this month’s newsletter:

• A great week for our campaign for national wellbeing measurement!
• New Headline Findings report: the wellbeing of young people with SEN
• HIPS and GM Headline Findings events
• Student wellbeing: how #BeeWell schools are using their data
• Join the next in-person Plan UK community of practice
• Spotlight on Success: platforming young people’s perspectives

Members of the House of Lords demonstrated strong cross-party support for children and young people’s wellbeing measurement during the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Second Reading last week. 10 peers mentioned our proposal during their interventions, including esteemed thinkers on education policy, economics and wellbeing, including Lord Blunkett, Lord Layard and Baroness Longfield. Lord Gus O’Donnell gave an impassioned speech to the House, emphasising that measurement is the missing piece of the Bill and the one key policy that would unlock progress on children’s wellbeing.

Read more and watch members’ speeches from the House of Lords here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].

Share the news story on LinkedIn [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com]
–

The Times covers the call for a national wellbeing measurement programme: 

The campaign was also featured in The Times last week, with former Cabinet Secretary Lord O’Donnell and ex-education minister Lord Blunkett quoted, as well as our National Director James Robertson. As Lord O’Donnell said, “wellbeing isn’t a distraction from economic progress; it’s a prerequisite for it.”

Read the full article [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com]

Share the news story on LinkedIn [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com]

Our newly published Headline Findings report highlights the experiences of pupils in mainstream schools with Special Educational Needs (SEN). The #BeeWell survey has now listened to the voices of more than 130,000 young people since 2021. Of those young people, over 20,000 are recorded as having SEN. In autumn 2024, 9,000 young people receiving SEN support or who have an Education, Health and Care plan completed our survey.

Read our report to find out more about the wellbeing and experiences of young people with SEN. In particular, we looked at where they report better wellbeing than their peers, as well as highlighting some of the challenges facing this group of young people.

Find the full report here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].

In March and April 2025, we held three events to introduce our recently published Greater Manchester and Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton Headline Findings reports to over 100 #BeeWell partners!

A big thank you to all who came along, listened to young people and got involved in our co-production sessions.

Read more about our GM event here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].

“The #BeeWell project has been really useful in providing us with a good understanding of pupil wellbeing within our school and has given staff a lot of good starting points for discussions that will improve the mental health and wellbeing of our pupils” said Abby Cunliffe, Pastoral Coordinator at the school.

Read more here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].
–

Oldham Chronicle feature on #BeeWell School, Crompton House 

Crompton House in Oldham has recently celebrated achieving a gold standard School Mental Health Award from Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. They highlighted how they have used #BeeWell as part of their wellbeing work. The feature piece about the school said:

“A focal point of the school’s mental health and wellbeing provision is to develop a marked improvement in the emotional and psychological wellbeing of our students, as evidenced by the results of Crompton House’s recent #BeeWell survey.”  

Read more here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].

Join the next in-person Plan UK community of practice

The next Plan-UK and #BeeWell community of practice session – for those working with young people in Greater Manchester – is taking place on Wednesday 14th May, 12.30 until 3pm at a Manchester city-centre location. With training and networking opportunities, the session will include short presentations from Plan UK and #BeeWell, followed by training from YMCA on the Human Givens Approach.

Find out more here [gregsonfoundation.us8.list-manage.com].

Over the next two months, we’re celebrating young people’s ideas about ‘Success’. #BeeWell believes that young people’s wellbeing is as important as their educational attainment. Look out for a brand new wellbeing podcast created by young people in HIPS! And, over coming weeks, we’ll share a new project from the GM Youth Steering Group exploring what everyday kinds of success can look like, and showcasing stories from young people and partner organisations in GM. This will look at meaningful markers of everyday success as defined by young people, such as feeling good about oneself, having trusted spaces to talk, and giving back through volunteering. If you’d like to share a story on what everyday success looks like and how it can positively impact wellbeing, we would love to hear from you – please don’t hesitate to get in touch!