Jon Franklin
jonfranklin.bsky.social
Jon Franklin
@jonfranklin.bsky.social
Chief Economist at Pro Bono Economics
LGBTQ+ young people are a group that disproportionately live with lower wellbeing. We now have great new evidence that the right support can make a difference for them.

Many thanks to Karol Rodriguez-Cabrera as well as @neilhumphrey.bsky.social and his team at @beewelluk.bsky.social
pbe.co.uk PBE @pbe.co.uk · Aug 27
LGBTQ+ young people in the UK face a severe, unequal mental health crisis.

Services like Free2Talk offer life-changing, cost-effective help, but they need greater support. 1/7

pbe.co.uk/publications...
August 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Great new evidence from Rachel Gomez on the longterm impacts of children’s mental health.

For the geeks among us…it goes beyond looking at correlations and shows that improvements in mental health as a child lead to better outcomes, even after controlling for a host of other factors.
pbe.co.uk PBE @pbe.co.uk · Aug 19
📢 The £51bn case for improving children’s mental health

1 in 5 UK children aged 8–16 likely have a probable mental health condition (NHS Digital, 2023). Yet only 36% referred to NHS services are seen within 4 weeks. Thousands wait over 2 years. 1/5

New report: pbe.co.uk/publications...
August 19, 2025 at 9:52 PM
UK is still recovering from the "wellbeing recession". Latest data from the ONS shows that average Life Satisfaction in the first quarter of 2025 remained 1.3% down on pre-pandemic levels.
August 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Jon Franklin
Great to see @guardianheather.bsky.social make the case for better measures of social progress, pointing to research by our friends @pbe.co.uk www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Why Labour should target happiness alongside economic growth | Heather Stewart
With the UK still shaking off the psychological side-effects of Covid, Rachel Reeves might want to broaden her aims
www.theguardian.com
July 15, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Great article from @guardianheather.bsky.social - "a more direct focus on making the UK a happier place might help to improve decision-making"

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Why Labour should target happiness alongside economic growth | Heather Stewart
With the UK still shaking off the psychological side-effects of Covid, Rachel Reeves might want to broaden her aims
www.theguardian.com
July 14, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Why has the nation’s wellbeing not bounced back following the pandemic?

Deteriorations in our physical health, mental health and loneliness explain much of the increase in ‘wellbeing poverty’.

We won’t see a recovery in the nation’s wellbeing outlook until we see improvements in these key drivers.
July 2, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Great piece from @sarahdavidson.bsky.social.

Highlights that “overall, our governments have yet to convince us that they are using the available wellbeing data”

There’s more that can be done to tackle key drivers of low wellbeing as discussed in our new report coming out next week!
pbe.co.uk PBE @pbe.co.uk · Jun 24
“The main purpose of government should be to improve the wellbeing of the people.”

In a new blog, @sarahdavidson.bsky.social makes the case that UK government has the data on wellbeing - but isn't using it to drive action.

Read why she believes that must change 👇
pbe.co.uk/insights/why...
Why wellbeing must drive government decisions | PBE
Sarah Davidson, CEO at Carnegie UK “The main purpose of Government should be to improve the wellbeing of the people”.  This is the shared rallying cry of the wellbeing movement in the UK. Uniting arou...
pbe.co.uk
June 24, 2025 at 8:14 PM