The Quality of Life Foundation
The Quality of Life Foundation is an independent, charitable organisation that aims to raise people’s quality of life by making wellbeing central to the way we create and care for our homes and communities. We developed our evidence-based Quality of Life Framework, in collaboration with URBED, to demonstrate how improvements to our homes and communities can improve our quality of life. The framework consists of six themes that relate to people’s experiences of the built environment: nature, wonder, homes, movement, belonging and control. Each of these themes are broken down further into sub-themes and offer practical actions for communities, businesses and local authorities to improve both new developments and existing assets to optimise health and wellbeing.
Over the course of the last 2 years, we have developed a programme of activities to help developers, local authorities and housing associations adopt the Quality of Life Framework in a bid to create long-term social and economic value. Through digital and face-to-face community engagement, we are using this framework to help people participate in the way their homes are created and cared for. We have carried out resident reviews in West Gorton (Manchester City Council/The Guinness Partnership), Beaulieu (Countryside Properties/L&Q), Alma Road (Enfield Council/Countryside Properties) and Barton Park (Grosvenor Britain & Ireland). In addition, pilots are currently underway at three sites for master developers Urban and Civic.
Role of research
We would like to strengthen the Quality of Life Framework by establishing the evidence base (with a focus on quantitative data) on the impact of each of the six themes in the framework on quality of life. Thus far, the framework is strongly substantiated by qualitative data on how the built environment affects people’s health, wellbeing and quality of life. To make the framework more robust, it is important to aggregate authoritative statistics and quantitative metrics that illustrate the role of nature, wonder, homes, movement, belonging and control in quality of life and social value.
For example, the movement theme is broken down into three sub-themes: walking and cycling, public transport and cars. The current stats available for walking and cycling are:
- Just over 1 in 5 trips are made on foot in the UK, consistent with other European countries.
- 2% of trips in the UK are by bike compared with 18% in Denmark and 26% in the Netherlands.
- In the UK, 80% of trips of less than a mile are on foot, but this drops for trips between 1-2 miles, with 60% being in a private motor vehicle and rising to over 80% for longer trips.
Examples of ways in which we envision this data could be complemented include quantifying:
- The health benefits of active travel (e.g. preventable early deaths)
- The environmental and economic benefits of cycling (e.g. CO2 emissions savings)
- Health/economic benefits of active travel infrastructure investments (e.g. impact of active travel infrastructure on physical activity targets and workplace absenteeism)
We are aware of increasing research and policy work around the impact of housing, land use planning and the built environment on health and wellbeing, particularly in light of Covid-19. As such, this research also presents an opportunity to review and refine the framework by fleshing out certain themes and/or adding elements that may currently be missing (e.g. digital connectivity, maintenance).
Since we aim to do more policy work, this research should also synthesise relevant policy developments around housing, land use planning, the built environment and health and wellbeing, as well as suggest opportunities for influencing in this arena. Ultimately, this research will be used to support our thought leadership and growing policy work in the built environment, wellbeing and quality of life by ensuring that we have up-to-date and authoritative statistics and figures to underpin the framework.
Research objectives
- To review the Quality of Life Framework, identify areas that need further development and fill those gaps.
- To synthesise key quantitative data that substantiate the importance of the six themes in the Quality of Life Framework on people’s health, wellbeing and quality of life.
- To review recent policy reports and developments related to the built environment, health and wellbeing and outline opportunities for influencing policy in this area.
- To create a visually engaging and publicly-facing report that highlights key statistics and figures relevant to the Quality of Life Framework.
Reporting
We want a topline report comprising an executive summary, an overview of the policy landscape, a brief discussion of refinements to the Quality of Life Framework, plus no more than 12 supporting sheets (two pages per framework theme) that presents key figures in a visually accessible and appealing way (e.g. clear infographics and data visualisation). The report should be written in a way that is easily understandable by people from outside the built environment and public health sectors.
Schedule
We would like the report by the end of February 2022. Interim findings should be presented at w/c 24th January 2022.
Budget
Option 1: £5,000 – Research + design and data visualisation for the report
The first option is available to those who are able to conduct the research and design the report (including all infographics and other types of data visualisation).
Option 2: £3,500 – Research only
The second option is available to those who are able to conduct the research but cannot design the report, including all infographics and other types of data visualisation.
Your experience
Given the tight schedule, we are looking for someone with a genuine interest and expertise in the subject, as well as experience conducting literature reviews and collating quantitative data.
If you are interested in the role
Please send an email to Tiffany Lam, our Research Manager at tiffany@qolf.org detailing your experience, with references of your previous work, by 10th December. We will hold interviews Tuesday 14th December, with the aim of appointing a successful candidate before Christmas.
