Wellbeing Investments in Schools and Employers (WISE) study

WISE team

The WISE Research Team are studying how schools and workplaces invest resources in mental health and wellbeing. We use in-depth case study methods to better understand how schools and workplaces use their financial, human and space resources for mental health and wellbeing activities. We aim to discover the best ways to support mental health and wellbeing investments in these domains. The WISE project will run from 2021 to 2025. It is funded by a Wellcome Trust investigator award in Social Science and Humanities.

The WISE Project overview video
 

Introduction

The WISE project will provide a comprehensive understanding of the processes by which schools and workplaces invest in mental health and wellbeing promotion. This is urgently needed, as these organisations, though not traditionally designed for this function, are increasingly required to support individuals’ mental health across the life-course. To date, economics has contributed valuable information on the cost-effectiveness of specific interventions. However, this only goes part of the way to informing how resources could be best allocated. A better understanding of processes, needs, and values, within these organisations is required to establish how they can be best supported and connect evidence to practice. 

The WISE programme of work seeks to establish how schools and workplaces invest resources in mental wellbeing. This includes how money, time, and space are allocated to wellbeing interventions, staffing, culture, and infrastructure. The study will generate models of decision-making processes, establish how schools and workplaces can be best supported to make equitable and efficient decisions, and develop new research methods for studying investment decisions in organisations.

Meet the Team

Professor of Health Economics, Project Lead

Tel: 0121 415 8483

Email: h.aljanabi@bham.ac.uk

Hareth

Research Fellow

Email: y.qu@bham.ac.uk

Yibei Qu
  • Luke Henstock

PhD Student

Email: lxh168@student.bham.ac.uk

Luke
  • Yusuf Ozdemir

PhD Student

Email: mxo143@student.bham.ac.uk 

Yusef
  • Sally O'Loughlin

Research Project Administrator

Email: s.r.oloughlin@bham.ac.uk

Sally-O'Loughlin-230x230

Project collaborators

  • Rachel Baker, Professor of Health Economics, Glasgow Caledonian University
  • Sarah Byford, Professor of Health Economics, Kings College London
  • Derek Beach, Professor of Political Science, University of Aahus, Denmark
  • Sarah-Jane Fenton, Lecturer in Mental Health Policy, University of Birmingham
  • Amanda Owen-Smith, Senior Lecturer, Bristol Medical School 
  • Collette Soan, Senior Specialist Educational and Child Psychologist, Telford & Wrekin Council
  • Dan Wheatley, Director of Undergraduate Programmes, University of Birmingham

Previous team members

Aims of the Project

The project aims to establish:

1. Causal processes involved in allocating resources to mental wellbeing in schools and workplaces;

2. How decision-makers in schools and workplaces use evidence in allocating resources;

3. The diversity of viewpoints on investing in mental wellbeing in schools and workplaces.

We are using a range of qualitative and mixed-methods to investigate these issues.

Overview of Study

There are four work packages in the WISE project.

SCHOOLS: In this work package we will conduct in-depth case studies with schools to investigate how they invest in mental wellbeing. We will apply ‘process-tracing’ (a method primarily used in political science) to understand the sequence of events and who is involved, synthesise diverse sources of data, and ‘get inside the black box’ of decision-making.

Schools case study information sheet [PDF, 192 KB]

WORKPLACES: In this work package, we will study decision-making in large workplaces.  As with SCHOOLS we will be using process tracing methods to investigate how workplaces invest in mental wellbeing, with the aim of understanding how they can be best supported in their resource allocation decisions.

Wise Workplace Individual Information Sheet [PDF, 86KB]

EVIDENCE: In this work package we will study how schools and workplaces use evidence, particularly economic evidence, in allocating resources for mental wellbeing promotion. The emphasis will be on understanding both current uses of evidence and future needs for evidence. We will also be using cognitive interviews to study how ‘decision-makers’ respond to different sources of evidence.

Think Aloud Interview Information Sheet [PDF, 113KB]

PERSPECTIVES: This work package will focus on the different viewpoints individuals (including workers, policy-makers, and the public) hold about mental wellbeing investment in schools and workplaces.  We will identify and analyse these perspectives using qualitative research and Q-methodology.

Perspectives on Wellbeing Investments in Schools and Employers Study Interview Information Sheet [PDF, 113KB]

Latest Update

September 2024: Recent months have seen us make further progress on data collection, analysis, and dissemination, with both schools and workplaces, and welcome new staff to work on the WISE project. 

Dr Igor Shagalov has joined the study as a research fellow, from the LSE, to work on the schools study, using process tracing to study mental health investment in schools. He is recruiting further school case studies and using interviews, documents, and survey data to analyse the ways in which different schools have approached investment decisions.

Dr Sedighe Hosseini-Jebeli has joined the study as a research fellow, from University of Newcastle, to undertake survey work on school priority setting approaches. She will soon be leading a major piece of work to collect data from a wide range of schools in the West Midlands and beyond to understand their decision-making processes.

Yibei Qu has joined the study as a part-time research fellow as she completes her PhD at the University of Birmingham. She is analysing ‘think aloud’ interviews to understand how evidence is used in setting priorities and designing a similar study with workplace decision-makers.

Luke Henstock (PhD student) has been conducting interviews with the second and third workplace case studies to understand how large workplaces invest in wellbeing for their employees.  Over the next few months Luke will be doing survey work to understand the priority setting approaches in a larger set of workplaces in the West Midlands.   

Yusuf Ozdemir (PhD student) has been collecting data on attitudes and beliefs about mental health investment in schools using Q-methodology. In the coming months he will be doing a similar study with workplaces

The WISE project team have also been involved in analysing the data collected in the first stage of the research and activities to disseminate the research, notably submitting the work for scientific publication.  Further information can be found in the ‘Dissemination and Impact’ section of our website.

Previous updates

October 2023: This spring and summer have shown some exciting developments for the WISE study with fieldwork continuing in schools and the first workplaces case study being recruited with initial interviews taking place. 

Rebecca Johnson has been working with a set of primary and secondary schools to develop a process theory to help explain school investment decisions. Rebecca will be finalising this theory and then moving to working with school case studies to test this theory.  This will particularly focus on engaging with schools with characteristics which are different from the theory building group.

Luke Henstock (PhD student) has been conducting interviews with the first workplace case study to understand how large workplaces invest in wellbeing for their employees.  Over the next few months Luke will also be developing a process theory and looking to recruit follow-on case studies.   

Camille Allard has been working alongside the schools and workplaces work packages and conducting exploratory interviews to build a framework to explain evidence use for resource allocation within these settings.  Camille is now moving on to the design of think-aloud tasks to explore evidence use in priority setting with school decision makers.   

Yusuf Ozdemir (PhD student) has been building a ‘concourse’ of viewpoints about investing in mental health in schools and workplaces.  The ethics approval has now been received, and the Q-sort task is ready to be piloted over the coming months.

The WISE project team have also been involved in early activities to disseminate the research.  Further information can be found in the ‘Dissemination and Impact’ section of our website. 

March 2023: We are pleased to say that we now have ethics approval for the WISE study fieldwork with workplaces.

In the coming months we will work with our first case study workplace to understand how large workplaces invest in mental wellbeing and the role of evidence in these decisions.

If you are a large workplace that is either currently investing in staff mental health and wellbeing, or thinking of doing so, and interested in participating in our research, please contact Camille Allard.

We have also been working with a set of schools over the last year, to understand how and why they allocate resources to mental health and wellbeing. The findings from this work is being used to develop a process theory to explain school investment decisions and a framework for thinking about how different forms of evidence are used or not used by schools.

Finally we are starting to build a ‘concourse’ of viewpoints about investing in mental health in schools and workplaces. This will be refined and tested over the coming months.

These emerging findings will be presented and written up over the next year and will also inform the 2nd phase of the WISE project – testing and refining the theories in different school and workplace contexts, exploring decision-makers’ values and how they make use of evidence, and ultimately identifying how organisations (schools and workplaces) can be best supported in allocating resources to mental health and wellbeing.

April 2022: We are pleased to say that we now have ethics approval for the WISE study fieldwork in schools. In the coming months we will work with schools to understand more about their processes for investing in mental wellbeing. Currently, we are at the stage of sampling schools and identifying potential case study sites in the West Midlands.

Alongside this we have started to conduct focused reviews of the literature to inform each of the four work packages. The reviews will identify what we can learn about:

  1. How process tracing methods have been applied in the health field;
  2. How different sources of evidence are used by schools and workplaces to guide their health investments;
  3. How workplaces allocate resources to mental wellbeing services;
  4. Individuals’ attitudes to mental health investment in schools and workplaces;

The findings from these reviews will provide important insights in their own rights, as well as helping to inform the design and interpretation of the fieldwork.

We continue to work closely with our collaborators on the project, meeting every six weeks to steer progress, as well as providing insight into our review work

If you work in a school in the West Midlands and are interested in participating in the WISE study, please contact Rebecca Johnson.

November 2021: The WISE study team has been steadily growing over the summer and autumn and, with the recent addition of PhD students Luke and Yusuf, we are now at full strength. Over these first six months, we are focusing on laying the groundwork for the project. This will include:

  • Reviewing the literature in this new field, including that on process tracing, organisational theory and mental wellbeing support in schools and workplaces
  • Understanding the policy and practice context for this work
  • Developing study research plans
  • Developing research and professional networks
  • Training in health economics

We are looking forward to our first external advisory group meeting in mid-November and starting to identify our case study sites.

Dissemination and Impact

January 2025 - Health Economics Study Group (HESG)

Yibei, Igor and Hareth attended the HESG conference in Bristol which aims to support and promote the work of health economists through biannual meetings that foster academic discussion and collaboration.  Yibei’s paper on how school decision-makers use economic and non-economic evidence to allocate mental health resources was discussed by Joanna Thorn from the University of Bristol.  Igor’s paper on investment decision-making in students' mental health and wellbeing in English schools was discussed by Joanna Coast from the University of Bristol. The presentations sparked valuable and thought-provoking comments and recommendations from fellow experts, highlighting the significance and impact of their research. HESG was an excellent opportunity to engage with experts, exchange ideas, and explore potential collaborations. The feedback and connections made at the conference are expected to drive further advancements in the field of health economics and contribute to the improvement of student mental health and wellbeing.

October 2024 - Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health Seminar

Yusuf presented his work on "perspectives on mental health investments in schools" at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health seminar at the Glasgow Caledonian University, in Glasgow. This seminar was part of a day of events with the WISE project lead Prof Hareth Al-Janabi, including successive presentations about the WISE Project, a Q&A session, and a separate discussion session on the Q-methodology and Yusuf's ongoing work with the Q-method experts in Yunus Centre. The seminar attendees were staff members, researchers and students from the Yunus Centre and their wider network. This opportunity to engage with an external audience helped Yusuf to consider his studies from different aspects. The discussion with Q experts further allowed him to broaden his understanding of Q-methodology techniques and its applications in wellbeing research. The visit also provided a platform for networking and collaboration.

August 2024 - European Group of Process Tracing Studies Conference

Luke presented his work on workplace wellbeing decision-making at the European Group of Process Tracing Studies conference at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, in Berlin. The conference hones in on the use of Process Tracing in a variety of settings, but generally focuses on psychology, decision-making and cognitive science. This opportunity to engage with experts from different fields allowed Luke to broaden his understanding of process tracing techniques and consider new ways to apply these methods to workplace wellbeing. The experience also provided a platform for networking and collaboration, potentially leading to interdisciplinary projects that could deepen the impact of his work.

 

July 2024 - European Health Economics Association and European Group for Organizational Studies

On July 4th, Dr. Camille Allard presented some early findings from her work package on evidence use for schools in the UK, at the European Health Economics Association, in Vienna. Findings indicated that the use of evidence by school stakeholders was strongly influenced by the environment and needs of their schools, and that a better access to health economics information could enable an easier and wider use of evidence in education settings. The presentation was also an occasion for reflecting on the current accessibility of health economics evidence in real world situations. A few days after, Dr Allard presented findings related to her research with workplaces and evidence use at the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS)  in Milan. Findings indicated that the use of evidence about health and wellbeing was not always systematic either in workplaces, as it could also be influenced by power relations and hierarchies. Discussions around the construction of health and wellbeing in workplaces were very fruitful during the presentation sessions.

January 2024 - Health Economics Study Group

In January Luke Henstock (PhD student) and Prof Hareth Al-Janabi (Project Lead and supervisor) attended the Health Economics Study Group winter conference in Exeter. The conference is centred on work in progress and Luke had a paper accepted which combined two chapters from his PhD: 1) a systematic review on barriers to workplace mental health and wellbeing investments, and 2) the early findings from his first case study (drawing on interviews and document analysis).

HESG is designed to give researchers feedback that can be incorporated into the final version of their work. The paper was presented by a researcher from the University of Exeter who raised some interesting points for discussion and also reflected on the areas the authors wanted feedback on. The conference presented opportunities for Luke to network with other people in the discipline, get feedback on how process tracing is received/can be used by health economists, and to chair the discussion of a paper.

November 2023 - Process Tracing Workshop

In October, Luke Henstock, a 3rd year PhD student leading the workplaces work package, visited Aarhus University in Denmark for a Process Tracing methods workshop.  The three-day course was led by project collaborator Derek Beach. The sessions were designed to foster an in-depth understanding of how processual theories are formulated and refined. The overarching goal was to equip participants with the skills to capture intricate activities and their underlying causal linkages. Derek focused on the methodological tools used in process tracing, in addition to developing an understanding of the historical underpinnings of the qualitative technique. Seminars explored how processual theories can be developed and improved, focusing on how to capture the activities and their underlying causal linkages to understand how a process works and evidence it empirically.

Given the small size of the group, Luke was able to present the different aspects of his data from the first case study. Derek and the workshop participants provided invaluable insights, challenging various aspects of Luke's work, and contributing significantly to the development of his process theory.

May 2023 - West Midlands Combined Authority Joint Masterclass

Professor Hareth Al-Janabi and Dr Rebecca Johnson presented emerging findings from the WISE study at the Joint Masterclass series with West Midlands Combined Authority on Wednesday 24th May. They drew on the hard work of the wider WISE TeamDr Camille Allard, PhD Students Luke Henstock and Yusuf Ozdemir, and Research Administrator Sally O’Loughlin. Staff and students from the Health Economics Unit also participated in The Centre for Urban Wellbeing event.  Stakeholders from Community, Academic and Policy perspectives joined together to discuss investing in mental health and wellbeing. A priority setting exercise was undertaken by all attendees, tasked with allocating resources for supporting mental health and wellbeing in an imagined local authority, with different groups focusing on two different priority themes – ‘Crisis’ and ‘Prevention’. It was a unique opportunity to forge connections and gain insights into different priorities and perspectives on investing in mental health and wellbeing and facilitate wider opportunities through the Centre for Urban Wellbeing. 

Contact

Email:

Hareth Al-Janabi - Project Lead

Sally O'Loughlin - Research Project Administrator

 

Funded by:

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