HE2
Improved Mental Health
Health
- Mental Health
Improved Mental Health
We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health. Our mental health is how we are feeling inside, our emotions, and informs how we respond to our life experiences. Improving mental health is often the intention of interventions. There are existing values relating to different shifts in mental well-being, and there are validated (tried and tested) ways to most accurately ask about mental well-being.
Key Value
A monetised social value of £30,700
This is the monetised value of 1 person having ‘good’ mental health as opposed to ‘poor’ over a year.
The values are guided by government policy (The Green Book) and sophisticated research into the relationship between mental health and wellbeing (measured by life satisfaction.)
The Green Book recommends that life satisfaction can be expressed as £ monetised wellbeing, using the value of £13,000 for 1 WELLBY, over one year (see section on life satisfaction.) Research using national datasets can estimate the isolated impact of a change in mental health on life satisfaction, after accounting for important controls such as age, health, socio-economics and other demographics.
This research has been done by State of Life (The WELLBY Value Guide), which found that even after accounting for all these other factors, a change from ‘poor’ mental health to ‘good’ mental health is associated with an increase in life satisfaction of 2.01 (Table 1 in the above link). Therefore this change in mental health is worth 2.01 WELLBYs, or 2.01*£13,000 = £26,186 (rounded to £26,000).
Adjusted for inflation to 2023 prices is £30,668. Our approach to inflation adjustments is explained on our Methodology page HERE
An overall rounded value of £30,700.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
To assess local needs related to the value HE2 ‘Improved mental health’, a mix of wellbeing and risk indicators can provide insight into population mental health and emotional wellbeing. Key sources include:
Anxiety rating and Feeling life is worthwhile – Both indicators are from the Office for National Statistics – Local Statistics Explorer, reflecting subjective wellbeing and mental health. These are updated annually and available at local authority, combined authority, region, and country levels. You can filter data by country, region, combined authority, or local authority, depending on the indicator.
Suicide rate – A critical indicator of severe mental health outcomes, published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Data is available at the local authority, regional, and national levels and updated every few years.
These measures can be used together to understand the mental health landscape in a local area, supporting the design of preventative strategies and mental health support services.
How to measure Improving Mental Health
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver and Gold give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Multiply the proportion of your participants you expect to report substantially improved mental health by £30,700
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider what categories of mental health you might shift people from and to. Therefore you can calculate an estimate of the overall shift, by applying the appropriate WELLBY values.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Measure actual improved mental health, and measure actual amounts of difference that improved mental health makes to people’s lives
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
| Value Type: | Master outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value. |
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| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
