WWD4
Engaging in Youth Activities
Community
What we do
Engaging in Youth Activities
Update- 9 May 2025: We have updated the wellbeing value WWD4 Engaging in Youth Activities. As part of this update, we have introduced a new value: ES3 Young Persons Wellbeing Programme, which has been developed as a refinement of WWD4. While WWD4 continues to capture the general wellbeing impact for young people (aged 12–18) who regularly participate in youth activities over the course of a year, ES3 provides a more focused estimate of the wellbeing benefits specifically associated with a wellbeing focused curriculum for young people.
The National Youth Agency, UK, say that youth activities are those that allow young people to:
- Explore their values, beliefs, ideas and issues
- Enable them to develop their voice, influence and place in society
- Facilitate learning practical and life skills that will help them to realise their full potential
These activities are usually administered through youth work projects or organisations. The National Youth Work Curriculum defines youth work as a “distinct education process adapted across a variety of settings to support a young person’s personal, social and educational development” (National Youth Agency, 2020). These activities will likely be complementary to formal education, and can cover a wide range of activities such as:
- open access youth clubs
- outdoor learning
- creative activities
- civic, charitable and social support activities
Understanding Society data suggests that around a third of young people in the UK access youth work regularly (Understanding Society, 2018/19).
Key Value
A monetised wellbeing and economic value of £1550
The headline value is an estimate of the wellbeing value of a young person (high school age 12-18) engaging in youth activities over a regular period during a year.
There is also an estimated increase in economic value over the course of the person’s life based on their ability to achieve greater educational attainment.
The estimated wellbeing gain is £1500 per person per full time equivalent week of engaging in youth activities across a year.
The economic gain per person per full time equivalent week of engaging in youth activities is estimated as £50 per year.
The wellbeing values are estimated from National Citizen Service programme evaluations that show that the programme has a statistically significant positive impact on all four ONS wellbeing measures. NCS consists of a range of activities including outdoor residential teamwork and confidence building, learning life skills, community based social action. Equivalent of approximately 4 weeks F/T, including 2 week residential, and 60 hrs non-residential.
The report based on the NCS 2015 programme by Jump and Simetrica (2017)’ shows that the programme creates an increase in life satisfaction of young people a range of 0.3 and 0.51 and an average of 0.4 points.
The National Citizen Service 2018 Evaluation shows that the summer 2018 NCS programme has a positive impact on life satisfaction (+0.4) meaning that after the summer program life satisfaction of young person increases 0.4 points.
This is then converted to monetised value by using the WELLBY method: 0.4x£13,000 = £5,200 in 2019 prices for 4 weeks programme.
For one week it is £5200/4 = £1300.
Inflation adjusted value is £1526 which is rounded to £1500 per week of engagement throughout the year in 2023 prices.
Our approach to inflation adjustments is explained on our Methodology page HERE
The report based on NCS 2015 programme by Jump and Simetrica (2017)’ also shows that NCS impacts on social mobility by increasing the chances and opportunities of those normally less likely to go to university to go on to higher education. The higher average entry rate for NCS participants is associated with an average net present value of £6,861 per participant in increased lifetime earnings (assuming that they graduate aged 21 and retire aged 68).
The NCS programme reports potential for improved economic gain over the person’s lifetime of approximately £6900 in 2015 figures, approx £9000 adjusted to 2023 figures. Based on the assumption that they graduate aged 21 and retire aged 68, across working years of 47 this works out as approximately £200 per year for 4 weeks programme. For one-week programme economic value is rounded to £50
The total wellbeing and economic value is £1500 + £50= £1550 for a one week programme per person per year.
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, Gold 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:
Multiply number of young people engaging in youth activities per 1 week FTE over a year by the headline figure £1,550
At Bronze level estimate the number of young people engaging in youth activities up to approximately a full time equivalent week.
Multiply this by the headline figure, e.g.
10 young people will engage in the youth programme 10 x £1550 = £15,500
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Multiply the number of weeks completed by each young person up to a total of 4 weeks FT equivalent by the wellbeing value, add the economic value
At silver level record actual amounts of engagement in the youth activities and adjust the wellbeing estimate based on this more accurate data.
If the young people are undertaking more weeks of engagement than 1 over the year, the additional wellbeing lift can be added on (but no more than 4x, based on the data source cases).
Here’s an example:
8 young people complete 3 weeks of FT equivalent youth activities = 8 x £1550 x 3 = £37,200
Economic value = £1200
Social (wellbeing) value = £36,000
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At Gold level you are looking to build on your silver estimations by engaging with the person or people affected, and using direct evidence to estimate the value created.
You could also consider other data gathering activities, including direct observation, or focus groups.
Some other areas you may want to explore with the young people could include how they feel about their:
- Social mobility – such as confidence in being a leader, speaking in public, or feeling confident or positive about the future and their skills
- Social engagement – such as their ability to have an impact on the world, a sense of responsibility to their community, extra curricular activities, or volunteering, or engaging in public affairs
- Social cohesion – trust in others, mixing with people from different schools/colleges/communities, or from different races, ethnicities, or religions
For more information please visit Gold: Surveys and measurements of actual results.
Support in developing your Gold survey approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
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’.
To do this you should identify a control group suitable to assess in line with your intervention, in order to more accurately attribute any changes to your intervention.
You could also consider any other discount or causality elements linked to your youth activities.
Support in developing your Gold+ counterfactual, causality and discount approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Activity |
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 which may come from different outcomes. |
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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. |
| PN06/20 Categories: |
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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. |
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, consultancy, and strategic support to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
