INTERVIEW WILL WATT
These questions provide a national dataset on wellbeing, allowing researchers to see how life satisfaction and emotional wellbeing vary across different groups, lifestyles and circumstances. WELLBY harnesses this ONS data to create a common unit to measure improvements in wellbeing scores that result from activities such as physical activity programmes. In simple terms, one WELLBY represents a one-point increase in a person’s life satisfaction (on the – scale), sustained for one year. In practice, this allows governments and organisations to evaluate whether an initiative – whether a healthcare treatment or a physical activity programme delivered through a gym or leisure centre – is genuinely improving people’s lives, and by how much. One WELLBY is currently valued at approximately £ , –£ , , allowing policy makers to compare social value of an intervention beyond GDP. The approach is broadly analogous to Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) used in healthcare, but with a wider focus: rather than measuring health alone, WELLBYs capture overall life satisfaction, including factors such as social connection, purpose and mental wellbeing. “The combination of purpose, people and regularity is where the value lies,” he con rms. We must also work collaboratively as a sector. “There are brilliant people out there, but there are also organisations who feel they need to own the evidence, control the narrative and protect their position. That’s why progress has been slow,” observes Watt. Fortunately, some organisations in the physical activity sector are already moving in the right direction. Leaders in leisure Watt highlights the work of Life Leisure in Stockport, which operates the borough’s leisure centres and has invested in a structured approach to measuring outcomes: treatment and control groups, consistent measurement and openly shared data. Its work also feeds into Greater Manchester’s GM Active partnership, bringing together data from across the city’s eight boroughs: “Asking the same questions of people and comparing them with similar people in other areas,” explains Watt.
Measuring wellbeing impact More leaders in the physical activity sector should read HM Treasury’s The Green Book, Watt urges, with its framework for the appraisal and evaluation of public projects, programmes and policies. “It’s all in there: what wellbeing is, how to measure it and how to incorporate it into economic decision- making. We need far more people in the physical activity sector to understand that language,” he explains. One key metric from The Green Book is the WELLBY (Wellbeing-Adjusted Life Year) – a way of measuring how much an intervention improves people’s lives by looking at changes in their self-reported wellbeing. The concept builds on work by the Of ce for National Statistics (ONS), which began measuring subjective wellbeing across the UK population in . As part of its national surveys, the ONS asks hundreds of thousands of people four standard questions, each scored on a – scale: ● How satis ed are you with your life nowadays? ● To what extent do you feel the things
you do in your life are worthwhile? ● How happy did you feel yesterday? ● How anxious did you feel yesterday?
118
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2026
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online