Hope and optimism on the rise among young people

Latest #BeeWell data presents a much-needed good news story for young people's mental health and wellbeing. Young people in Greater Manchester are reporting an improvement in hope and optimism for their future, marking what many will consider a welcome return to pre-pandemic levels. However, the results from the latest #BeeWell survey, which heard from over 38,000 young people aged 12-15 years in more than 250 schools across Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, also revealed noteworthy and consistent inequalities in wellbeing across gender and sexuality. Focusing on time trends in the Greater Manchester survey data, 83% of young people felt hopeful and optimistic about their future in 2023, compared to just 72% of young people during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The #BeeWell programme, co-founded by The University of Manchester, The Gregson Family Foundation and Anna Freud, and developed in partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has been listening to the voices of young people since 2021, and seeks to make the wellbeing of young people everybody's business. To date, the #BeeWell survey has been completed by more than 85,000 young people. The founders behind the survey results hail young people's improvements in optimism in Greater Manchester.