WELLbeing & COMMunity Engagement (WELLCOMM): evidence from observational studies & impact for social prescribing

There is strong theoretical literature on why community engagement is crucial to the survival and thrival of our species, and emerging data from intervention studies on the benefits specifically for wellbeing. But there remains a paucity of high-quality, large-scale, and longitudinal research on which community activities can affect which aspects of wellbeing and who is most likely to benefit. Consequently, this project will analyse WHAT the benefits of community engagement are for wellbeing, WHO benefits most, and HOW to encourage community engagement amongst different populations.

We will consider six types of community engagement:
> Arts engagement e.g. engagement in performing arts (music/dance/theatre) and visual arts and crafts (drawing/woodwork/painting/photography/ceramics/sculpture/textiles)
> Culture and heritage e.g. going to museums, galleries or exhibitions, the theatre, or concerts, the cinema, festivals, fairs and events, stately homes or buildings, historical sites, and landscapes of significance
> Libraries and literature e.g. going to libraries, visiting archives, and being a member of book clubs or writing groups
> Sports and nature activities e.g. going to parks or gardens, gardening or engagement with allotments, joining nature walks or rambling groups, participation in exercise classes, membership of sports clubs, or attending sporting events
> Volunteering e.g. charitable volunteering, conservation volunteering or school or community volunteering
> Community groups e.g. engaging with education or evening classes, political party, trade union or environmental group, tenant groups, resident groups or neighbourhood watch groups, and social clubs.

We will consider three sorts of individual subjective wellbeing:
> Hedonic wellbeing including both affective aspects (such as happiness and pleasure in daily life and being free from negative affect) as well as cognitive-evaluative aspects (such as life satisfaction)
> Eudemonic wellbeing including flourishing, self-acceptance, trust, environmental mastery, autonomy, purpose, and growth.
> Social wellbeing including social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualisation, and social coherence

In exploring WHAT the benefits are and WHO benefits, we will use causal inference methods to explore longitudinal associations between community engagement and wellbeing using the four leading UK Birth Cohort Studies. Between them these data sets include 300 questions on community engagement and over a dozen different validated scales on wellbeing:
i. The National Survey of Health and Development (NCDS; aka the 1946 Birth Cohort Study)
ii. The National Child Development Survey (NCDS; aka the 1958 Birth Cohort Study)
iii. The 1970 Birth Cohort Study (BCS70)
iv. The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)

In considering HOW to encourage engagement, we will use cross-sectional statistical methods to identify what the barriers or motivators to engagement are in different populations using two datasets. Between them these data sets include over 30 questions on community engagement and 18 questions on capabilities, opportunities and motivations to engage:
1. The BBC Get Creative data, gathered by Fancourt over the past 2 years, is a dataset of 89,749 adults in the UK collected as part of a Citizen Science experiment across 2018-2019.
2. The Taking Part Survey Longitudinal data, involving 10,182 adults interviewed from 2011-2018.

This research work will be complemented by a rich portfolio of impact, engagement and training activities (see 'Impact Summary'). Overall, this project addresses a core research gap and aims to transform our understanding of the relationship between community engagement and wellbeing at a population level. Our planned analyses will provide information about which activities are likely to benefit which individuals, and how these individuals can be motivated to take part.

The research outlined in our Case for Support is timely in relation to current policy developments in the UK relating to social prescribing, whereby individuals can be referred by healthcare professionals, social workers, schools or by themselves to community activities. These developments are being complemented by a widespread energy amongst community and third sector organisations delivering community programmes. However, despite this activity and enthusiasm, there is limited large-scale evidence as to whether investment in such activities will support aspects of wellbeing. Therefore, the proposed research could provide strategic data to support current developments in policy and practice.

Consequently, we are proposing a rich impact and engagement programme with five core purposes: engaging policy makers and funders to encourage the support of community activities where we find strong evidence, supporting social prescribing link workers in referring individuals to community activities for their wellbeing, enabling community organisations to deliver programmes that reach new audiences, enhancing public awareness of the importance of community activities for wellbeing, and highlighting future research questions.

To disseminate findings to researchers and policy makers, we will use the WWCW website as the outward facing profile for the project, and disseminate findings through existing networks and newsletters (including those relating to the WWCW, Social Prescribing Network, and UKRI MARCH Mental Health Network). In the final year of the project we will host a policy round table to discuss implications of findings for ongoing policy work, and we will work with WHO on a Health 2020 global policy report.

To support specific developments within social prescribing, we will prepare briefings, reports and advice documents for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for NHS England's evidence unit, NICE and for local governments. We will present at the Social Prescribing Network Annual Conference and prepare materials for inclusion in social prescribing link worker training. We will also work with the Social Prescribing Network to develop an interactive tool for link workers which will allow them to input data about an individual to receive recommended community activities and information on how to motivate community engagement.

To support the work of community organisations, we will develop infographics and briefing documents that provide summaries of our evidence and recommendations for engaging different audiences based on our findings. Further, we will organise a day-long workshop in partnership with our consultation group to bring together community organisations and support the design of new programmes and interventions through exploring how to overcome the barriers identified using behaviour change techniques.

To encourage broader public engagement with community assets and raise public awareness of the benefits of community activities for wellbeing, we will work with the BBC Get Creative Festival to develop media content (e.g. radio programmes and short films) and launch a new Citizen Science project for 2020 building on the citizen science data we will be analysing in this project.

To support future research, we will publish our findings, present at conferences, publish research blogs with WWCW, and report back to the cohort study teams on future opportunities for data collection.

Overall, this impact plan will aim to translate the research findings into enhanced knowledge amongst different stakeholders, more supportive policies, new resources for social prescribing link workers, new community engagement programmes, greater public awareness of the importance of engagement, and new research opportunities.