This report from UK think tank the Sutton Trust explores the relationship between social mobility and happiness. Is social mobility just about jobs and income? Does being upwardly mobile make you happy? Does socio-economic background determine who gets to live good, healthy and happy lives? This report examines the connection between happiness, wellbeing, life satisfaction,...

This report from UK think tank Nesta provides a comprehensive analysis of public spending on early years support in Wales. Early years spending in Wales spans both devolved and reserved policy, and hence comes from a combination of UK government and Welsh Government or Welsh local authority budgets. Healthcare, funded childcare, and children’s services and...

This report from UK think tank Nesta provides a comprehensive analysis of public spending on early years support in Scotland. Early years spending in Scotland spans both devolved and reserved policy, and hence comes from a combination of UK government and Scottish Government or Scottish local authority budgets. Healthcare, early education and childcare, and children’s services...

This report from UK think tank Re-State calls for a new Later Life Care Fund to replace England's failing model for funding for older people's social care. New research from Re:State sets out the case for a fundamental overhaul of how later-life social care is funded in England, arguing that the current model is unfair,...

This report from UK think tank the Education Policy Institute provides the first comprehensive national assessment of the EP workforce since the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Educational psychologists in England' provides the first comprehensive national assessment of the EP workforce since the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on eight years of administrative data and case studies from six local...

This report from UK think tank IPPR explores how to make social media good again. How social media has changed over the last 20 years to make us more isolated from each other online, and what needs to change. Social media inarguably poses threats to democracy: disinformation and misinformation, polarisation, echo chambers, bots and rage-inducing...

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation assesses Britain’s falling birth rate since the early 2010s. This briefing explores Britain’s recent baby bust and whether it should be a cause for concern for policymakers. Most developed countries are grappling with a falling birth rate, and the UK is no different. There have always...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation examines the costs of Scotland’s drug crisis. Scotland has a drug problem. The issue is likely to be a key one in the upcoming Scottish elections. Questions of the costs of potential interventions, and how worthwhile they are, will be central to decisions made on...

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund examines the results from the British Social Attitudes survey. This report presents findings from the 2025 British Social Attitudes survey on public satisfaction with the NHS and social care, jointly sponsored by The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust. After several years of decline, overall satisfaction...

This report from UK think tank the Sutton Trust examines the interplay of SEND and disadvantage in school admissions. There is widespread acceptance that the SEND (Special Education Needs and Disability) system is in crisis but fierce debate surrounding ways forward. Greater demand is being placed on a system that is complex, notoriously difficult to...

This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK explores what a maturity model for embedding wellbeing approaches in public policy might look like. In recent years there has been a global shift in public policy, moving from traditional economic and output-based measures of government performance towards a more holistic focus on measures of wellbeing. Governments...

This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK reflects on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act since it was enshrined in law just over ten years ago. In January 2026, the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) together with Carnegie UK, the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society/WISERD, and the Co-production Network for Wales convened...

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation examines the potential pension shock facing Gen X. Britain’s middle-aged workers stand on the cusp of a social crisis. Gen X – born between 1965 and 1980 – are next in line for retirement. Born too late to benefit from relatively robust Defined Benefit (DB)...

This report from UK think tank the Policy Institute examines the findings of a randomised controlled trial into cash transfers for care leavers. Young people leaving care who were given a one-off £2,000 cash lump sum, with no strings attached, were more likely to be in stable housing and less likely to be “sofa-surfing” than...

This report from UK think tank RUSI examines how hostile states exploit far-right gender and identity narratives to polarise societies and weaken democracies. This paper highlights the critical intersection between hostile state actors and transnational far-right movements, revealing how gender and identity-based narratives are weaponised to polarise societies, weaken democratic institutions and disrupt international alliances....